Infant mortality rates in Africa will increase by 30,000-50,000 – Girls will fare worse May 19, 2010

 

 The impact of the global financial crisis on infant mortality is a topic of great policy importance. However, estimates of the likely impacts of the crisis, cited by international institutions and in the popular press, differ wildly.

This blogpost summarizes the main conclusions from some of my own recent research on this topic, jointly with various colleagues.

Du poisson empoisonné sur le marché May 15, 2010

 La gamaline, produit utilisé par des pêcheurs sans scrupule pendant les périodes mortes est à l’origine de multiples problèmes de santé des consommateurs. 

L’affaire a créé un tollé à la digue il y a quelques semaines. Ce lieu de prédilection de la vente de poisson à Douala. Les revendeuses irritées ont crié leur ras-le-bol et ont saisi le vétérinaire. Les pêcheurs sont au centre de l’affaire. Leur crime : ils sont accusés de pêcher avec « les remèdes ». Autrement dit, au moyen de la gamaline, un produit chimique, toxique que les mis en cause verseraient dans le fleuve. «Au bon endroit afin d’attirer les poissons ». Mais le hic c’est que ce produit n’est pas sans effet néfaste. «Il est toxique et nocif pour la santé. Ce produit est la cause de nombreuses indigestions dans les familles», affirme Lisette A, vendeuse de poisson à la digue. 

Measles attacks 3,026, kills 8 in Malawi May 10, 2010

Outbreak of measles in Malawi had taken ill over 3,000 people and killed eight in Blantyre alone. Twenty-six cases have been recorded by Monday in Mwanza and Neno districts. Health officials had last week announced it would require $4.1 million to vaccinate over six million children countrywide.

LIBREVILLE (Reuters) – The crowd of African women are tired and angry after hours waiting in the hot sun, but the officials will not vaccinate their children until the president inaugurates the campaign on state television.

When he finally does so, half a day has been lost from the five-day vaccination scheme. It is a small reminder that, for health care in Africa, politics can be as decisive as poverty.

Grasping her son by the hand, Marie Issa is determined despite the long wait to get him a measles vaccination and a free mosquito net which could save the two-year-old's life.

The situation has forced the government to jump the gun and implement its three year interval measles civic education and vaccination campaign to kick start immediately. Four districts in Malawi's Southern region, including Blantyre, are now on the crash programme.

Last week campaigns were rolled out in Blantyre, Chiradzulu and Mzimba districts.

Mrs HIV: Contradictory Policies in the Fight Against HIV in Africa May 3, 2010

Kampala — Unlike many films that have been done on HIV, Miss HIV takes you behind the curtains on what is really happening in the battle against a virus that is now the leading killer of people under 60 worldwide.
The docu-drama Miss HIV unearths the international conflict of HIV/Aids policies while following the journey of two simple HIV- positive women who enter the contest.
The documentary highlights the international controversies over the prioritisation of abstinence, faithfulness and use of condoms in fighting the HIV pandemic.
Elizabeth Ramolale, one of the women, sees that African nations are dying and she wants to break the stigma that keeps it hidden. 

How to stop HIV spreading in Zambia’s prisons May 2, 2010

Moral concerns are stopping condom distribution in Zambia's prisons

BBright spent two years in Zambia's Lusaka Central Prison for selling cannabis but fears he now faces a life sentence.

"I did it because of hunger," says Bright softly.

"There's not much food in prison. Sex has become the way of payment."

The wall prevents an inmate from going outside, but the disease has no boundary Dr Chisela Chileshe Zambia Prisons Service medical director

"Conditions were bad," he remembers. "We had nshima [maize meal] and beans two times a day. I never felt full."

One day, the cell "captain" gave Bright extra food, then asked him for sex.

"I
had never had sex with a man, but I did it. The first time it was
painful, but I joined a group of maybe 20 men who did that.

"Mainly they were people who were condemned, or who had been jailed for 25 years. They hadn't seen women for a long time."

African History: Cheikh Anta Diop May 1, 2010

Cheikh Anta Diop (1923-1986) was an African historian who, in a series of studies, dramatically and controversially maintained that the scope of Africa's contribution to world civilization was considerably larger than heretofore acknowledged.

Cheikh Anta Diop was born at the end of 1923 in Diourbel, Senegal, a city reknowned for spawning great Islamic philosophers and historians. He received his higher education at the University of Paris (France), where he earned a doctorate of letters and was active in African student politics. Upon returning to Senegal, he joined what is today the Institut Fondamentale d'Afrique Noire, where he founded and ran the only carbon-14-dating laboratory in Africa. Diop experienced the great explosion of independence which began in early 1958 in Ghana. The hope that this movement created soon turned sour, as former European colonial powers, unseen, remained in control. Diop led and founded two political parties in Senegal: the Bloc des Masses Senegalaises in 1961 and a few years later the Front Nationale Senegalaise, both of which were outlawed by the government on the grounds that they threatened destruction of the existing order.

Condoms: It’s how you wear it that counts! April 26, 2010

So you thought there were only but a few ways to wear a condom? Think again! 

Condoms galore: Models strut their stuff in latex.

 

Recently, attendees of the AIDS Consortium Gala Dinner, held in Johannesburg, were treated to a fashion show featuring garments that were either decorated with, or completely created from condoms!  

The crowd was simply enthralled by the imagination and attention to detail paid in creating the colourful designs. 

You might think that using all those condoms to make clothes with a seriously short shelf-life is a waste. But when you think about it, maybe that’s the only way to ensure that condoms are actually used.  

The last leper colonies of Africa April 23, 2010

On the edge of Southern Sudan town of Juba lives a group of lepers inside Rokwe colony. It is the only place that about 3,000 Sudanese call home; 500 of them still suffering from the pain of leprosy.

A few families take care of their relatives living here, but Sudan Government is yet to support the missionary driven institution.

Govt Should Ban Condoms Or Tax Them High -Chief AS Ngwana, Moralist and National Chairman, CDP April 22, 2010

Chief Ngwana, you are Chairman of the Cardinal Democratic Party (CDP). Of late, you have been giving anti-condom and abortion public lectures here and there. You started in Douala, moved to Buea and then Limb. What do you gain doing this?

I would be happy to know that the general public is fully conscious of certain sensitive and important issues affecting their lives.

Chief A. S. Ngwana

I want the public to know that the anti-condom and abortion campaign is a national issue, not of a political party. I want all Cameroonians to understand that condoms and abortions are against our economic interest, our national interest, against our spiritual interest.

Let me tell you, condoms were manufactured to prevent pregnancy. People tell lies that condoms stop HIV spread. The HIV virus is such a tiny thing compared to human sperm. And they-promoters of condoms- tell lies that, the virus can’t go through the condom. Condoms spread AIDS. This has been proven. This should be made known to everybody. Knowledge is power.

So what have condoms done? They have stopped our population from growing and they are transmitting The HIV virus. That is why young people are dying in their thousands. It is a pity that the government is doing nothing about it. Instead the government allows for the advertising of condom on TV and radio.

I strongly call on parents to educate their children on the deadly effects of condoms and of their spiritual disaster.

Hard times drive Namibian girls to prostitution April 21, 2010

Flesh peddlers on the prowl. Child prostitution is on the rise in Namibia. Photo/FILE 

By CHARLES TJATINDI  

Several girls in Namibia are reportedly turning to commercial sex industry to fend for their basic needs.

And, of all the people, it is their parents who are their accomplices in the girls' deviant ways.

The parents are allegedly offering their children to older men for sex in order to get money in return.