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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Every year, on December 1, World AIDS Day is commemorated. People worldwide unite to show support for those living with HIV and remember those who have passed on from AIDS-related illnesses.
Ten years ago, HIV had infected at least 10 per cent of the population in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Some 50,000 infections were reported in the U.S. per year over the same period.
By Somar Wijayadasa*
Last year, every two minutes one person got infected with HIV, and every minute one person died of AIDS-related causes.
NEW YORK (IDN) — Every year on December 1, people throughout the world commemorate World AIDS Day to raise awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection.
The day is earmarked to educate people about the disease’s causes and early symptoms, to eliminate the stigma associated with it, to support those who are HIV positive, and pay tribute to those who lost their lives to the disease.
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power
LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Surely a massive infusion of aid into Africa would be to pour money down a rat hole? Isn't this the mistake that was made in the past—enormous generosity by the rich countries only to see it wasted on misconceived projects, bad economic management and, at its worst, siphoned away into war and corruption, as is so evident in, say Zimbabwe, Congo and Somalia right now?
By Pattama Vilailert
BANGKOK (IDN) — Quality Education and Reduced Inequalities are two Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With 3.3 per cent of Thailand’s population categorized as “disabled”, Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (STOU) has come up with an innovative program to provide a new lease of life to people who would otherwise be left behind in the sphere of higher education.
By Kalinga Seneviratne
BANGKOK (IDN) — Wile the massacre of 37 people that included 26 preschool children in a remote north-eastern township of Thailand on October 7 has shocked the nation and exposed the inadequacy of the public mental health system, it is yet to trigger a debate about whether Buddhism could step in to help solve a major social crisis in the majority Buddhist country.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Thousands of doses of a vaccine effective against the Ebola pathogen now circulating in Uganda have been discovered in freezers of the Merck pharmaceutical company in Pennsylvania.
The drugs were discovered after repeated inquiries by Science magazine, a peer-reviewed academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and one of the world's top academic journals.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK | JOHANNESBURG (IDN) — With the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, over three thousand people turned out for a joyous gay Pride Parade in Johannesburg despite a warning by the U.S. embassy of a potential terrorist attack.
LGBTQ activists cheered the resumption of the event after two years, dismissing the U.S. advisory.
Organizers said the march would not be derailed by any form of threat.
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The late Everett McKinley Dirksen, an American politician. once famously said: "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money".
Perhaps that remark may be applicable to the funding of the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), where developing nations continue their relentless search for billions of dollars—now rising to trillions—to help achieve these targets by the year 2030.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Nigeria has one of the highest cancer mortality rates in the world, with an estimated 72,000 cancer deaths occurring annually and 102,000 new cases diagnosed from its population of 200 million people, according to a report in Frontiers in Oncology.
Breast cancer accounted for the highest mortality, followed by prostate cancer. “(But) there is no efficient public policy on cancer issues,” says Chioma Obinna, writer of Good Health Weekly for Nigeria’s Vanguard newspaper. “And cancer mortality among Nigerians continues to rise despite improvement in cancer care across the world.”
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — At the World Cancer Congress meeting this month in Geneva, Switzerland, it was predicted that all cancers in South Africa would almost certainly double by 2030 without major spending increases for screening and prevention.
This comes as new cancer therapies have boosted survival odds from six months to five or six years for even late-stage cancer patients. But expensive pharmaceuticals—the ‘financial toxicity' of the new precision medicine drugs and scanning machines—benefit just 2% of the top tier medical aid plan beneficiaries.
IDN-InDepthNews offers news analyses, features, reports and viewpoints that impact the world and its peoples. It has been online since 2009. Its network spans countries around the world.