Skye Wheeler
JUBA, Sudan, Aug 14 2009 (IPS) – In the war-devastated South Sudan, a region with a population of over eight million people, Yeneneh Mulugeta is the only permanent ophthalmologist.
Dozens visit the eye clinic in the semi-autonomous region s capital every day from across the South trying to have their sight restored, mostly old and silent, waiting their turn with a helper. The Ethiopian doctor has performed hundreds of cataract operations removing the protein build-up that covers the eye that miraculously bring back sight.
Reversible cataract is probably responsible for half the cases of blindness in the South, but Mulugeta and government officials in the health sector know there are thousands who have no access to treatment. They also know although no com…
Adrianne Appel
BOSTON, Sep 18 2009 (IPS) – As all factions of the U.S. Congress continue a bruising debate about how to change the U.S. health system, one state, Massachusetts, seems to point the way clear, but activists say the Massachusetts plan is already troubled and doomed by skyrocketing costs.
All the major plans in Congress are mirrored after the reforms in Massachusetts, including the requirement that everyone purchase insurance at market rates which grow yearly or face a hefty fine. The fine is up to 1,000 dollars in Massachusetts.
Once failure to buy health insurance is a federal offence, what s next? Steffie Woolhandler, a Harvard physician and member of Physicians for a National Health Programme, recently told a Congressional committee.
The Massa…
Helen Clark
HANOI, Nov 4 2009 (IPS) – Think of a world where rich nations did not fund what was popular but instead collaborated to solve the developing world s most pressing health needs.
Lawrence Gostin, an Associate Dean and Professor of Global Health at the Georgetown University Law Center, dreams of such a world. He wants to see developed countries, for instance, make available to the rest of the world life-saving vaccines and technologies at affordable prices instead of hoarding them to the detriment of the world s poor.
Speaking at the first International Conference on Realising the Rights to Health and Development for All, held in Hanoi from October 26 to 29, Professor Gostin argued for a new approach to meeting the world s health needs, calling it a Global Pl…
LUSAKA, Nov 30 2009 (IPS) – Sixteen-year-old Andela Milambo* wants a husband. She is not looking for love, but for someone to share the burden of living with HIV. She wants to be able to take her medicine without having to hide, to discuss the recurring herpes with someone who understands.
A hand woven tag bearing the HIV symbol on sale at the Sokoni Market in Nairobi, Kenya. Credit: Allan Gichigi/IRIN
Living with HIV since the age of six, she wa…
Kristin Palitza
LOUWVILLE, South Africa, Jan 6 2010 (IPS) – HIV-related stigma and discrimination remain a key concern in South Africa, despite the multitude of HIV awareness campaigns that have been launched by government and civil society organisations throughout the years, health experts say.
Stigma continues to be a seriously neglected issue , particularly in sub-Saharan countries, including South Africa, regardless of the fact that it has detrimental effects on public health and human rights, according to a 2007 UNAIDS report.
Fifty-year-old Gertrude* from Hopefield, a small village on South Africa s West Coast, experiences the effects of stigma and discrimination every day: A lot of people in my community shun me. They swear at me and call me names because I m H…