WORLD AIDS DAY: Racism, Gov&#39t Apathy Fuel U.S. Epidemic

Adrianne Appel

BOSTON, Nov 29 2007 (IPS) – The United States has slashed the AIDS death rate among white and wealthy U.S. citizens, but the disease continues to ravage the black community at full force, leaders say.
HIV/AIDS protesters march in New York in 2006. Credit: Kaitlyn Tikkun

HIV/AIDS protesters march in New York in 2006. Credit: Kaitlyn Tikkun

African Americans are 13 percent of the U.S. population but are 50 percent of those diagnosed with HIV each year and 50 percent of those who die of AIDS annually, according to the U.S. Centres for Disease Control (CDC).

We are in a publi…

CHINA: Deaths Rise With Smoke

Mitch Moxley

BEIJING, Feb 16 2011 (IPS) – Five years ago China pledged to ban smoking in all indoor public places by January of this year. That promise remains unfulfilled and is today symbolic of the lack of progress made in the fight against tobacco use in China, where up to a million people die of smoking-related complications each year.
Smoking is becoming a serious killer in China. Credit: Mitch Moxley

Smoking is becoming a serious killer in China. Credit: Mitch Moxley

More than half of Chinese men smoke, and a total of 301 million adults currently use tobacco, according to a study by China s Cen…

U.N. Officials Warn of Dengue Outbreak in War-Torn Yemen

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 1 2015 (IPS) – An outbreak of dengue fever in Yemen’s most populated governorate has prompted urgent calls from the World Health Organisation (WHO) for a “humanitarian corridor” to facilitate the flow of medicines to over three million civilians trapped in the war-torn area.

Taiz, located on the country’s southern tip, has been on the frontline of fighting between Houthi rebels and a Saudi Arabia-backed coalition of Arab states supporting fighters loyal to deposed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi since March 2015.

Three of Taiz’s major hospitals have either been destroyed or are inaccessible, leaving 3.2 million people – many of them sick or injured – without access to basic healthcare.

An estimated 832 people in the governorate…

UN Special Session on COVID-19 Must Recognize Right to Health & Access to Vaccines

Riccardo Petrella, an Italian national living in Belgium is Emeritus Professor, Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium), with Honorary Degrees (Honoris Causa) from eight universities in Sweden, Denmark, France, Canada, Argentina and Belgium. His research and teaching fields have been regional development, poverty, science and technology policy and globalisation.

 
The UN General Assembly is holding a Special Session on the Covid-19 pandemic at the level of Heads of State and Government on 3 and 4 December.. It took more than a year of discussions to overcome the opposition of certain states, notably the United States and President Donald Trump.

A healthcare…

Zero Hunger Campaign in Vietnam Targets Remote Areas and Cities

After several years of research and the identification of issues and socio-demographic factors, Zero Hunger is set to continue its pilot stage and prepare its implementation stage. Expectations are high for a transition to healthier diets and better nutrition destined to tackle both under- and over-nutrition.

A Dao family sharing a meal in Sa Pa, Lao Cai province, Vietnam. The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) support the Vietnam government’s Zero Hunger challenge. Credit: Alliance of Bioversity Inter…