Health & Well Being

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 day is earmarked to educate people about the disease’s causes and early symptoms, to eliminate the stigma associated with it, to support those who are HIV positive, and pay tribute to those who lost their lives to the disease.

: Somar Wijayadasa; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 27 November 2022

Photo: In advance of COP27, public development banks meeting in Abidjan agreed on action points to tackle Africa’s climate finance gap. Source: The African Development Bank Group

Africa Needs A Massive Aid Programme

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Surely a massive infusion of aid into Africa would be to pour money down a rat hole? Isn't this the mistake that was made in the past—enormous generosity by the rich countries only to see it wasted on misconceived projects, bad economic management and, at its worst, siphoned away into war and corruption, as is so evident in, say Zimbabwe, Congo and Somalia right now?

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 08 November 2022

Thailand: Education at Fingertips for the Disabled

By Pattama Vilailert

BANGKOK (IDN) — Quality Education and Reduced Inequalities are two Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With 3.3 per cent of Thailand’s population categorized as “disabled”, Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (STOU) has come up with an innovative program to provide a new lease of life to people who would otherwise be left behind in the sphere of higher education.

: Asia Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Quality Education; 05 November 2022

Photo: A common morning "merit making" ritual across Thailand where people give food to monks. Credit: Kalinga Seneviratne.

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 help solve a major social crisis in the majority Buddhist country.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 04 November 2022

Photo: A health worker vaccinates a man against the Ebola virus in Beni, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. (file photo)

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 for the Advancement of Science and one of the world's top academic journals.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 31 October 2022

Photo: Members of the LGBTQI community attend the annual Gay Pride march in Johannesburg, South Africa, 29 October 2022. Source: Daily Maverick, South Africa.

Thousands Turn Out for Pride Parade in South Africa

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | JOHANNESBURG (IDN) — With the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, over three thousand people turned out for a joyous gay Pride Parade in Johannesburg despite a warning by the U.S. embassy of a potential terrorist attack.

LGBTQ activists cheered the resumption of the event after two years, dismissing the U.S. advisory.

Organizers said the march would not be derailed by any form of threat.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 31 October 2022

Developing Nations Risk Missing Development Goals Long Before 2030

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The late Everett McKinley Dirksen, an American politician. once famously said: "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money".

Perhaps that remark may be applicable to the funding of the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), where developing nations continue their relentless search for billions of dollars—now rising to trillions—to help achieve these targets by the year 2030.

: Thalif Deen; UN INSIDER; 24 October 2022

Image: Cancer. Source: Vanguard, Nigeria

In Nigeria, 72,000 Cancer Deaths Annually and Rising

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Nigeria has one of the highest cancer mortality rates in the world, with an estimated 72,000 cancer deaths occurring annually and 102,000 new cases diagnosed from its population of 200 million people, according to a report in Frontiers in Oncology.

Breast cancer accounted for the highest mortality, followed by prostate cancer. “(But) there is no efficient public policy on cancer issues,” says Chioma Obinna, writer of Good Health Weekly for Nigeria’s Vanguard newspaper. “And cancer mortality among Nigerians continues to rise despite improvement in cancer care across the world.”

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 24 October 2022

Photo: Zoleka Mandela who has again been diagnosed with breast cancer. Source: news24

South Africa Cancer Cases Will Double Without Major Spending on Prevention

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — At the World Cancer Congress meeting this month in Geneva, Switzerland, it was predicted that all cancers in South Africa would almost certainly double by 2030 without major spending increases for screening and prevention.

This comes as new cancer therapies have boosted survival odds from six months to five or six years for even late-stage cancer patients. But expensive pharmaceuticals—the ‘financial toxicity' of the new precision medicine drugs and scanning machines—benefit just 2% of the top tier medical aid plan beneficiaries.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 24 October 2022

Photo: This is a game-changing technology," said Professor Mirela Delibegovic, project lead from the University of Aberdeen. Credit: University of Aberdeen.

Scientists Fight the COVID-19 Pandemic with Artificial Intelligence

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) — A group of scientists from the University of Aberdeen, a United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) member institution in Britain, together with Vertebrate Antibodies Ltd and the National Health Service (NHS) Grampian have developed a "game-changing technology". This technology has "tremendous potential to change the trajectory of global recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic," project lead from the Aberdeen university, Professor Mirela Delibegovic, emphasized.