By Jaya Ramachandran GENEVA (IDN) — Some five million children died before their fifth birthday and another 2.1 million children and youth aged between 5–24 years lost their lives in 2021, according to the latest estimates released by the United Nations Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME).
Trouble in Senegal Over Alleged Mishandling of Covid Funds
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | DAKAR (IDN) — Hundreds of Senegalese gathered at the Place de la Nation in Dakar to denounce irregularities reported by auditors researching a Covid-19 fund. It was the second protest over reported problems with the funds to be called in less than a month. The review […]
Advocating for Gender Equality in Universal Health Coverage
By Roopa Dhatt & Samiratou Ouedraogo Roopa Dhatt is Executive Director and Co-Founder of Women in Global Health. Samiratou Ouedraogo is the Coordinator and Co-Founder of Women in Global Health, Francophone West Africa, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. WASHINGTON DC (IDN) — If there was a Harvey Weinstein in health, we probably wouldn’t know about it. Not […]
COVID-19 Enables Rise in OECD Development Aid
By Robert Johnson PARIS (IDN) — Though ODA-official development assistance from members of the OECD’s DAC-Development Assistance Committee rose to a new high last year, it amounted to the equivalent of only 0.33 per cent of their combined GNI-gross national income, thus falling short of a United Nations goal to reach an ODA/GNI ratio of […]
Health Workers Protect Us, but Who Protects Them?
By Dr Roopa Dhatt and Dr Becky Cox* WASHINGTON DC | OXFORD (IDN) — The pandemic generated waves of applause for frontline health workers, 90 per cent of whom are women, but some others continued to behave in a more sinister way. Our two organisations received reports of increased issues around protection and safety and […]
Climate Change Threatens the Health of Refugees in Camps
By Jaya Ramachandran GENEVA | LONDON (IDN) — Climate uncertainty is creating health threats for thousands of migrants as overcrowding and pollution place huge stresses on humanitarian organisations’ ability to provide sanctuary in refugee camps, a new study reveals. Locating camps in disaster-prone or climate hotspot areas increases their vulnerability and, coupled with stress from […]
World Aids Day Addresses Inequalities Between Global South and North
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Every year, on December 1, World AIDS Day is commemorated. People worldwide unite to show support for those living with HIV and remember those who have passed on from AIDS-related illnesses. Ten years ago, HIV had infected at least 10 per cent of the population […]
The 34th World AIDS Day: “Achieving Equity to End HIV”
By Somar Wijayadasa* Last year, every two minutes one person got infected with HIV, and every minute one person died of AIDS-related causes. NEW YORK (IDN) — Every year on December 1, people throughout the world commemorate World AIDS Day to raise awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection. The […]
Thailand: Secularism Hinders Buddhists to Address Mental Health Crisis
By Kalinga Seneviratne BANGKOK (IDN) — Wile the massacre of 37 people that included 26 preschool children in a remote north-eastern township of Thailand on October 7 has shocked the nation and exposed the inadequacy of the public mental health system, it is yet to trigger a debate about whether Buddhism could step in to […]
Effective Ebola Vaccines Discovered in Pennsylvania Drug Company’s Freezer
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Thousands of doses of a vaccine effective against the Ebola pathogen now circulating in Uganda have been discovered in freezers of the Merck pharmaceutical company in Pennsylvania. The drugs were discovered after repeated inquiries by Science magazine, a peer-reviewed academic journal of the American Association […]