It looks like Cynthia and I had the same idea this week. So instead of a traditional post, I’d like to do a little link-mailing today. As she wrote earlier this week, there are a lot of interesting things to share.
First, the wonderful “In Focus with Alan Taylor” photography blog at The Atlantic says in 31 photos what pursuing oil in the Niger Delta has done to the environment and hints at the human cost due to petro-conflicts and poor health caused by the disaster in this region–one of the most ignored social, economic, health, and environmental crises on the planet.
A new UN report by Special Rapporteur Frank La Rue calls for the recognition of unfettered Internet access as a human right. As someone who’s been following Internet freedoms and the potential of mobile- and web-based technologies to further improve health outcomes, this is very encouraging. As The Atlantic points out, Mr. La Rue takes on both the issue of the “Arab Spring” and the Obama Administration’s crackdown on whistleblowers and leakers. The report says:
The Special Rapporteur believes that the Internet is one of the most powerful instruments of the 21st century for increasing transparency in the conduct of the powerful, access to information, and for facilitating active citizen participation in building democratic societies. Indeed, the recent wave of demonstrations in countries across the Middle East and North African region has shown the key role that the Internet can play in mobilizing the population to call for justice, equality, accountability and better respect for human rights. As such, facilitating access to the Internet for all individuals, with as little restriction to online content as possible, should be a priority for all States.
Last Sunday marked the 30-year anniversary of the CDC recognizing the emergence of a new and unknown disease: HIV and its related syndrome, AIDS. Mark Trautwein wrote a very moving Op-Ed for The New York Times on Sunday about living with HIV, which he has had almost as long as the epidemic has been around. Last Friday also marked the 10-year anniversary of ARV programs in Khayelitsha, a Cape Town township. Doctors Without Borders reports on the successes in Khayelitsha over the past ten years. In 2001, 100 patients started on ARVs. As of May 2011, there were 20,000 enrolled in treatment. 55,000 HIV tests were performed in 2010. Mother-to-child transmission of HIV has been reduced to 2.5%. An encouraging story.
The UN High Level Meeting on AIDS is going on this week in New York. Yesterday, UNAIDS announced the launch of a global plan, called Countdown to Zero, “to work towards the elimination of new HIV infections among children and keeping their mothers alive” by 2015 (PDF of the full report). The plan aims to reduce the number of new HIV infections among children by 90% and to reduce the number of AIDS-related maternal deaths by 50% in the next five years. Although there are some gray areas (such as funding), this is exciting news for the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It’s also great to see that the role of community health workers, “professionalized into a grassroots paid workforce” (italics my own), especially women living with HIV, is a part of this plan.
