UN launches push for better sanitation
The United Nations unveiled a major push to halve the number of people around the world without access to basic sanitation by 2015.
Polygamy alive, well and illegal in Kazakhstan
Polygamy is illegal in Kazakhstan, but that has not stopped the practice of men taking multiple wives from mushrooming since the former Soviet republic’s independence. Kazakh politicians – reportedly including President Nursultan Nazabayev – commonly maintain older wives and children in the former capital, Almaty, while keeping younger wives and children in the new capital, Astana.
UN study shows need for midwives
A UN study of 58 countries, primarily in Africa, has found that midwives can do much more than deliver babies, such as delivering health services if there is a shortage of doctors and nurses. “We have now realized that there is a huge potential in the hands of the midwives that was not being exploited,” said a doctor involved in the study, which was intended to help save many of the millions of babies and women who die annually during childbirth.
The Polio Endgame
New polio cases have fallen by 95% in India and Nigeria since January 2010, and most countries where the virus had been reintroduced are again polio-free, after concerted efforts resulted in 2009 in a new vaccine and more effective tactics for reaching children typically bypassed in immunization campaigns.
Why wipe out measles
Global health researchers are making the case that measles not only can, but should be eliminated from the world. An increase in measles cases worldwide — the U.S. has registered the highest levels of infection since 1996 — is attributed to “weakness within immunization systems, cross-border transmission of measles virus, and insufficient political will and financial resources,” in an article published by the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
Syphilis care to protect newborns
Inexpensive tests and treatment for syphilis among pregnant women could reduce the number of newborn deaths and stillbirths by half, according to research by British scientists published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal. About 2 million pregnant women are infected with syphilis every year, with 1.2 million passing the infection on to their babies.
