María Cecilia Espinosa

SANTIAGO, Mar 7 2006 (IPS) – The first annual report by the Chilean Observatory of Gender Equity in Health calls for legislation on sexual and reproductive rights for women, making therapeutic abortion legal once again, and making emergency contraception available to all women.
The lengthy report, which is prefaced by a health profile of Chile from a gender viewpoint, reflects progress on previously existing inequality and invisibility of health differences between men and women, researcher Margarita Iglesias, of the Centre for Studies on Gender and Culture in Latin America, told IPS.

With the aim of improving health policies, programmes and plans in Chile, the Observatory analysed questions like social participation, unremunerated health care,…

Mithre J. Sandrasagra

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 7 2006 (IPS) – The current crisis of skilled healthcare workers could deal a fatal blow to the global anti- poverty campaign agreed to by world leaders six years ago, U.N. experts warned on World Health Day.
The global population is growing, but the number of health workers in many of the poorest countries is falling, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan noted Friday.

Access to services is limited by inequity and poverty, Arletty Pinel, chief of the Reproductive Health Branch of the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), told IPS.

According to U.N. estimates, Africa alone will require a million new health workers to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a global plan of action aimed at reducing poverty by half and rad…

Julio Godoy* – Tierramérica

BERLIN, Jun 7 2006 (IPS) – With its Green Goal programme, the organisers of the 2006 Football World Cup aim to reduce the environmental impact of the international sports tournament that is expected to draw more than three million spectators in Germany beginning Jun. 9. But environmental groups say the efforts will come up short.
Water conservation, garbage recycling and reduction of contaminating emissions into the atmosphere through wider use of public transport and clean energy sources, are some aims of Green Goal, implemented by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the German government.

In the 12 stadiums where 32 national teams from around the world will t…

Aoun Sahi

FAISALABAD, Jul 21 2006 (IPS) – Pakistan has an ambitious plan to provide drinking water to all its citizens by the end of 2006, but recent outbreaks of gastroenteritis in several major cities of this South Asian country have raised question marks on its viability.
In May and June more than 40 people most of them living in the major urban areas of Hyderabad, Faisalabad, Deri Gazi Khan, Gujranwala and Sheikhupura died of dehydration and other complications arising from gastroenteritis.

Worst hit was this city, Pakistan s third most populous and located in the north-east of the country, where at least 16 people were killed during a gastroenteritis outbreak in about a week.

The families of the dead said the infection was spread through water supplied by…

Haider Rizvi

NEW YORK, Aug 25 2006 (IPS) – If the U.S.-backed aerial spraying of chemicals does not stop immediately, Colombia will pay a heavy price for environmental destruction and lost livelihoods in its indigenous communities, warns a new study by a U.S.-based environmental research group.
The 23-page study documents numerous cases of damage to human health, destruction of food crops and contamination of water that have occurred as a result of the six years of aerial spraying of chemicals.

The aerial spraying of coca crops is part of the U.S. government s 1.2-billion-dollar Plan Colombia, which aims to target the supply side in order to deal with the problem of narcotic consumption at home.

Titled Alternative development strategies: the need to move beyon…

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José Adán Silva

MANAGUA, Oct 27 2006 (IPS) – Latin America is not the most liberal region in the world when it comes to abortion. But the decision by Nicaraguan legislators to hand down eight-year prison sentences to those who terminate a pregnancy to save a mother s life has astounded doctors, feminists, activists, diplomats and government officials alike.
Even Nicaraguan minister of Health, Margarita Gurdián, came out against the criminalisation of therapeutic abortion, despite President Enrique Bolaños having asked this month for up to 30 years in prison for women and doctors who terminated risky pregnancies.

The legislature approved Thursday a bill to repeal Article 165 of the 1893 Criminal Code, which made therapeutic abortions legal. So now, anyone procuring…

Emad Mekay

CAIRO, Nov 29 2006 (IPS) – Om Samar didn t believe the news. Muslim scholars banning (female) circumcision? This must be a joke, she said.
Samar, a mother of four who works as a maid cleaning apartments and houses for a daily rate, was planning to circumcise her five-year-old daughter, Shaimaa, when she turns eight or nine.

But an international conference on female circumcision funded by the German government and sponsored by top Islamic scholars here last week brought tidings she didn t expect.

Eliminating the Violation of Women s Bodies , as the conference was publicised in Arabic, was attended by some of Islam s most senior and influential scholars. Most of them spoke against the common practice.

The main message was that female genital …

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Jan 11 2007 (IPS) – Vietnam s glory as star performer in fighting avian influenza in 2006 is being stripped as the deadly virus reappears in the southern Mekong Delta region. February may see the epidemic sweeping through the entire country, officials warn.
The grim prognosis this week by Vietnam s deputy agriculture and rural development minister Bui Ba Bong comes ahead of an expected surge in transporting poultry as this South-east Asian nation marks the annual Tet Festival, which falls in mid-February.

Since colder weather began sweeping through Vietnam early December, it has seen new outbreaks of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in four provinces in the delta, resulting in the killing or culling of over 40,000 poultry, according to the sta…