Global policy on drug control is unrealistic, and has taken a harsh toll on millions of the world’s poorest people
Drug control efforts across the world are a threat to human dignity and the right to life.
In 2017, more than 70,000 people died from a drug overdose in the US. Among the reasons for these deaths are the lack of access to health and harm-reduction services, as well as the fear of legal repression, which often dissuades people who use drugs from asking for help.
Continue reading...Senior doctors go on strike as president is warned that lack of medicine could lead to collapse of emergency services
A doctors’ strike in Zimbabwe entered its second day on Wednesday with health workers claiming patients in the biggest state hospital are dying due to a lack of drugs and medical supplies.
Dozens of doctors picketed outside Parirenyatwa hospital demanding improvements and claiming government promises to improve the health service had come to nothing.
Continue reading...Printer ink, paint and arsenic found in some drugs sold to treat life-threatening illnesses
Doctors have called for an urgent international effort to combat a “pandemic of bad drugs” that is thought to kill hundreds of thousands of people globally every year.
A surge in counterfeit and poor quality medicines means that 250,000 children a year are thought to die after receiving shoddy or outright fake drugs intended to treat malaria and pneumonia alone, the doctors warned.
Continue reading...Sweeping health reforms, which also include free provision for pregnant women, heralded as national ‘turning point’
After decades of suffering some of the highest maternal and child mortality rates in the world, Mali has vowed to provide free healthcare for pregnant women and children under five in a “brave and bold” move to revamp its dismal healthcare system.
Following a raft of reforms announced by President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, free contraceptives will also be provided across the country as tens of thousands of community health workers are introduced in a bid to provide more localised healthcare to Mali’s population of 18 million people.
Continue reading...Unicef calls for improved vaccination as study shows Ukraine, Brazil and the Philippines among 10 worst affected countries
Cases of childhood measles are surging to shocking levels around the globe, led by 10 countries that account for three-quarters of the rise.
Amid warnings of “disastrous consequences” for children if the disease continues to spread unchecked, a worldwide survey by the UN children’s agency, Unicef, said 98 countries around the globe reported a rise in measles cases in 2018 compared with 2017.
Continue reading...Health agencies re-evaluate approach after attacks on treatment centres in North Kivu
A second clinic serving patients affected by the escalating Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been set alight, as concerns mount over widespread distrust of health agencies.
Seven months since the start of the outbreak, which has claimed 548 lives, experts warned that the virus is still not under control and said suspicion of agencies is severely undermining Ebola services.
Continue reading...Collapse of Venezuela’s healthcare system could fuel spread of malaria and other diseases across region
Experts have warned of an epidemic of diseases such as malaria and dengue on an unprecedented scale in Latin America following the collapse of the healthcare system in Venezuela.
Continent-wide public health gains of the last 18 years could be undone if Venezuela does not accept help to control the spreading outbreaks of malaria, Zika, dengue and other illnesses that are afflicting its people, experts have warned in a report published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Continue reading...Darwin Zerpa is among those who have fled to Peru to get the antiretrovirals he needs. Now he counsels others with the virus
By day it is one of Lima’s grandest squares. By night the Plaza San Martín becomes a magnet for nightclubbers and bag-snatchers, as well as a haunt for male sex workers and their clients.
It is here just before midnight that 29-year-old Darwin Zerpa and other volunteers set up shop. Pulling up in an out-of-service ambulance and folding out a table on the pavement, they mark out a spot where passersby can get HIV finger-prick test results in less than 10 minutes.
Continue reading...Campaigners say resurgence of deadly virus threatens despite huge successes of vaccination drive
The unmonitored movement of people across the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan threatens efforts to eradicate polio from the two countries, as the year’s first cases of the virus are recorded in the volatile region.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative said people travelling through unchecked crossings is believed to be one of the main causes of the spread of the disease in the area.
Continue reading...More than 200 million women and girls have undergone female genital mutilation and about 3 million more are at risk every year. Africa has the highest numbers, but its young people are fighting back
Photographs by the Girl Generation
Continue reading...A clinic making artificial limbs in CAR – the country’s only centre of its kind – is changing lives devastated by conflict
Exaucé Bagaza can’t keep his eyes off his feet. A moment ago the five-year-old boy had one foot and now he has two: they are tucked into a pair of white tennis shoes adorned with flecks of green glitter.
Wobbling a little, the child presses his right hip on to his new leg, a prosthesis made of polypropylene. His physiotherapist leans forward, reaching for his hands: “Come here,” he says.
Continue reading...Analysis of community where 73% of residents contracted Zika in 2015 offers new clues about epidemic
Scientists studying the 2015 Zika outbreak in Brazil have discovered that people previously exposed to dengue may have been protected from the virus.
Three-quarters of the inhabitants of a favela in the country’s north-east caught the mosquito-borne Zika virus during the epidemic. The outbreak left more than 3,000 babies across Brazil with microcephaly, a birth defect caused by mothers catching the virus during pregnancy.
Continue reading...As experts urge global warning over outbreak, women and girls in Beni report alleged exploitation
An unparalleled Ebola vaccination programme in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has become engulfed in allegations of impropriety, amid claims that women are being asked for sexual favours in exchange for treatment.
Research by several NGOs has revealed that a deep mistrust of health workers is rife in DRC and gender-based violence is believed to have increased since the start of the Ebola outbreak in August.
Continue reading...More than 750 people have died of Ebola in recent months in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with efforts to contain the outbreak hampered by conflict – and fear of treatment centres
Photographs by Kate Holt
Continue reading...Health officials battle to stop disease spreading in Kampala slums with lack of toilets and poor sanitation made worse by heavy rains
Two people have died in a new cholera outbreak in the overcrowded slums of Uganda’s capital, Kampala.
The ministry of health confirmed at the weekend that there were 43 suspected cases of cholera in the city and that two people had died. It said an emergency isolation unit had been set up.
Continue reading...Royal College of Paediatrics urged to rethink conference funding amid claims deal contravenes World Health Organization code
The Royal College of Paediatrics has been accused of breaching World Health Organization guidance after it accepted sponsorship funding from baby formula companies.
More than 100 medics and 13 health groups have written to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), urging it to drop Nestlé, Nutricia and Danone from the list of sponsors for its first international conference, to be held in Cairo on 29 January.
Continue reading...Teen pregnancies are soaring and HIV care has stalled in rural communities hit by ‘global gag’ funding cuts
It is under-fives week at Zambia’s Nyangwena health centre and, outside in the morning sunshine, women are taking turns to weigh their babies. A noisy toddler wriggles as his mum places him into the harness of a set of scales. Measurements are taken and, afterwards, ice lollies handed out to children.
Reaching families in the surrounding rural communities is a major challenge for staff at the centre, and, after outreach services were stripped back, things are getting worse.
Continue reading...World Health Organization launches inquiry after claims of ‘legendary’ corruption, including racism and sexism
Claims that a senior employee at the World Health Organization misused Ebola funds to fly his girlfriend to west Africa are among a tide of allegations under investigation by the agency.
An internal inquiry has been launched by the WHO following a series of anonymous whistleblower emails that alleged widespread racism, sexism and misspending.
Continue reading...With health system at breaking point, uncertainty over how virus is being transmitted prompt fears it could range beyond DRC
The number of Ebola cases recorded each day in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is expected to more than double, with concern mounting that uncertainty over how the virus is being transmitted could result in it spreading to neighbouring countries.
On Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) reiterated its warning that there is a very high risk of the outbreak spreading not only across DRC but also to Uganda, Rwanda and even South Sudan. The heightened danger of transmission is due to extensive travel between the affected areas.
Continue reading...As mayor of Amman, I am committed to driving down tobacco use, in a country where more than half of all men are smokers
The growth of Amman, the capital of Jordan, is visible everywhere. It is now an international business and financial hub, an arts and culture destination, and a tourism hotspot with thriving nightlife. But what we want it to be known as most of all is a model for how to clear the air of tobacco smoke.
Tobacco in Jordan starts with cigarettes. Smoking rates among men with low incomes are soaring. About 57% of men earning 100-250 Jordanian dinars a month (£110-£275) smoke regularly, and these men spend up to half of their income on cigarettes. Overall, more than half of all men in Jordan smoke cigarettes habitually, the worst rate in the Middle East.
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