Health

   COMMENT: By George Weisz Civil-society organisations create new alliance to tackle the challenge of NCDs in East African Global health organisations and initiatives – and, in particular, the World Health Organization – have traditionally focused on infectious diseases, from malaria (their great failure) to smallpox (their greatest success). But …

Rwanda has one of the lowest HIV prevalence rates on the African continent. Over the last decade, Rwanda has managed to stabilize the prevalence of HIV; the virus that causes the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), at 3% in the general population aged 15-49 years. But despite or because of …

Paris, France | AFP |  Paris officials have announced a crackdown on rats which blight parks and gardens around the City of Light and are thought to easily outnumber humans. The city’s rodents were given an image overhaul in 2007 in the hit animated film “Ratatouille” which depicted them cooking …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal on Tuesday overturned a ruling that granted a man the right to medically-assisted death and could have opened the way to legalise euthanasia. Last year, the High Court in Pretoria had ruled that a doctor could help retired …

Rate at which girls in the age bracket of 14-24 are getting infected alarming When it comes to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, Uganda is classified as a high burden country by UNAIDS, the international agency that is at the helm of mustering a joint response to the disease. High numbers of …

New interventions to offer women, children better protection Zam Kabali is a secondary school teacher in Kampala and so was her husband. In 2000, he fell sick and for the next four months, his health was only deteriorating. As he developed a rash all over his body and became sicker, …

African Civil Society alliances vows to fight against malnutrition in Africa Civil society alliances from several African countries have come together to moot strategies for achieving the sustainable development goal of attaining a world free from malnutrition by 2020, writes Susan Babijja. The intervention to minimise the impact of malnutrition …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  More than 100 patients escaped from Kenya’s only psychiatric hospital on Monday as doctors and nurses joined a national hospital strike for pay rises. Nairobi Police Commander Japheth Koome told AFP that police had launched an operation to return the patients to the hospital, as …

Rwanda’s Ministry of Health through Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC) in partnership with Society for Family Health (SFH) are asking Rwanda women to step forward and test for breast cancer, writes Susan Babijja. Statistics indicate that cases of cancer are increasing being registered at Kigali University Teaching Hospital (CHUK). So far …

Chengalpattu, India | AFP | A small scythe, a crowbar and a bundle of canvas bags are all that Kali and Vedan carry when they venture into the fields of southern India to catch some of the world’s deadliest snakes. Their skills, passed from generation to generation of the Irula …