The United Nations Population Fund, will now benefit from the international communities efforts to make maternal health a global priority. Over the last 7 years the US has withheld funding for the agency, which was appropriated by Congress, amounting to $204 million. According to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) $34 million has been authorized in funding each year since 2002, an an amount Anika Rahman, President of New York-based Americans for UNFPA, says would have allowed the fund “to prevent 244,000 maternal deaths, help 68 million women delay pregnancy and prevent 2.4 million women from suffering adverse health effects during pregnancy and childbirth (Women's eNews).
According to a new study released on today, November 8, 2007, the World Food Program says that approximately half of Laos rural children, some 255,000, suffer from chronic malnutrition. “The Government of Lao PDR and the donor community should give the highest priority to addressing child malnutrition as a critical aspect of national development,” said WFP Laos Representative Christa Raeder (Bangkok Post (Thailand)/Deutsche Presse-Agentur).
In Uruguay senators voted to ease the country's tough abortion laws, although the president has vowed to veto any legislation that seeks to decriminalize the procedure. Currently in Uruguay, women are only allowed to have an abortion if they were raped or if the pregnancy endangers their lives. The Nov. 6 vote gives preliminary approval to a bill that would let women have an abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy on grounds including economic or social hardship or “circumstances linked to how the conception took place.” (Reuters)
Hope has now come for many refugees of the conflict in Sudan, who have been desperate for more substantial medical attention. Medair has now completed construction of a permanent Primary Health Care Center (PHCC), to be staffed with eight support staff and 12 health professionals, including clinical officers, community health workers, and nurse midwives, which will provide access to a wide range of health services for up to 50,000 vulnerable Sudanese. In March of 2007, Medair opened a temporary PHCC in Melut Town, in partnership with the Health Ministry and local community authorities. Large tents were set up, and over the course of 34 weeks, 13,000 patients were seen and treated. (Reuters)
More than 3,000 cases of diarrhea have been reported in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city, in the last two months, as residents struggle with water shortages. Since the outbreak was first reported in August, the city has experienced a 10-fold increase in cases, up to the second week of November. Low rainfall and an inability to keep up with the demands of a growing population in a depressed economic environment have left many of Bulawayo's 1.5 million residents in the grip of water shortages and often having to obtain water from unprotected sources. (IRIN)
South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki remains an “AIDS dissident” – doubting the link between the HIV virus and AIDS, according to his new biographer, Mark Gevisser. Gevisser said Mbeki thinks he has “failed on the issue of Aids” and regrets dropping the debate. He also said Mbeki believes that anti-AIDS drugs, now distributed in South Africa, are toxic and doubts their efficacy. But the president's spokesman refused to comment on the book's claims, saying the cabinet and Mbeki were united. (BBC)
