Piped water on way to Dhaka slum dwellers
June 15, 2013 at 4:42 AM by AHN · Leave a Comment
“By 2015, all slum dwellers will have access to piped water,” Taqsem A Khan, the managing director of the Dhaka Water Supply & Sewerage Authority (WASA) , told IRIN, citing the issue of water-borne diseases and their prevalence in slums. Under the current law, WASA is not allowed to provide water to homes without a holding number. However, that law will be amended making it no longer...
Read More...Intellectual property reprieve in medical technologies for poor countries
June 13, 2013 at 10:29 AM by AHN · Leave a Comment
“This is important and positive, though it is regrettable that the exemption will expire in 2021, instead of being indefinite, that is, until a county no longer is `least-developed’,” said Catherina Timmermans, an intellectual property expert for international health financing mechanism UNITAID . “The benefit of this is that LDCs are not under an obligation to comply with...
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Cocoa May Help Fight Obesity-related Inflammation
June 13, 2013 at 6:00 AM by Gant Team · Leave a Comment
(Provided photo) UNIVERSITY PARK – A few cups of hot cocoa may not only fight off the chill of a winter’s day, but they could also help obese people better control inflammation-related diseases, such as diabetes, according to Penn State researchers. Mice that were fed cocoa with a high-fat diet experienced less obesity-related inflammation than mice fed the same high-fat diet without the...
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AHA Rallies for Transportation Funding to Support Active Communities
June 12, 2013 at 10:00 AM by Gant Team · Leave a Comment
Jen Ebersole, Pennsylvania government relations director for the American Heart Association, speaks at the Walk and Ride PA rally for comprehensive transportation funding. (Provided photo) HARRISBURG – The American Heart Association joined with walking and bicycling enthusiasts, local planning officers and other key partners at the state capitol in support of comprehensive transportation funding...
Read More...Sierra Leone braces for cholera season
June 12, 2013 at 8:27 AM by AHN · Leave a Comment
“Awareness creation is ongoing,” he told IRIN. “People know about it now. They’re talking about it.” Following the 2012 epidemic, donors, aid workers and health officials agreed that West African countries must do more to prepare for cholera, given it recurs each year . They called, in particular, for targeted investment in at-risk zones, such as in Kambia district,...
Read More...Uganda running out of ARVs, HIV test kits
June 12, 2013 at 8:16 AM by AHN · Leave a Comment
The report noted that the antifungal drug Fluconazole, used to fight opportunistic infections in people living with HIV, was out of stock at all three warehouses, while laboratory commodities for haematology, clinical chemistry and assessing CD4 counts – a measure of immune strength – were also running dangerously low. In addition, stocks of “nearly all first-line TB [tuberculosis]...
Read More...Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital Again Ranked as One of Nation’s Best
June 12, 2013 at 6:00 AM by Gant Team · Leave a Comment
Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital has been ranked in five specialties in U.S. News & World Report’s 2013-14 Best Children’s Hospitals rankings. Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital ranked in cancer, urology, orthopedics, neurology and neurosurgery, and cardiology and heart surgery — two more specialties than last year. Children’s Hospital first made the Best Children’s...
Read More...Record dengue season predicted in Thailand
June 12, 2013 at 5:30 AM by AHN · Leave a Comment
“About 25 years ago we had a dengue outbreak of around 170,000 cases,” Pornthep Siriwanarangsun, the director of Thailand’s Department of Disease Control, told IRIN. “This year, we expect 150,000 to 200,000 cases.” Up to 200 people could die in a worst-case scenario, he said. Even if dengue cases surpass the’87 record, the death toll that year of more than 1,000...
Read More...Military’s shutdown of NE Nigeria telecoms disrupts trade
June 11, 2013 at 9:02 AM by AHN · Leave a Comment
Maiduguri trader Simon Bulus told IRIN his supply of tinned food, juice, flour, rice, pasta, sugar, seasonings, milk and soap has run out as he could not reach his normal supplier by phone. “I ordered 50 cartons of various items [from another supplier] but I only got 20 because of high demand from other traders,” he told IRIN. The vast majority of Nigerians rely on mobile telecommunications...
Read More...Thousands still missing HIV treatment following CAR coup
June 11, 2013 at 8:58 AM by AHN · Leave a Comment
“The medical care in CAR, including ART [antiretroviral therapy] and cotrimoxazole [an antibiotic used to prevent infection in HIV-positive patients] prophylaxis, have been interrupted and the patients have been without drugs for last three months,” Ellen Van Der Velden, head of mission for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in CAR, told IRIN by telephone. “There...
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