U.S. Urged to Tackle Lead in Aviation Gasoline

The global drawdown in the use of leaded fuel has resulted in benefits of some 2.5 trillion dollars a year. Credit: Bigstock WASHINGTON, Apr 22 2014 (IPS) – Consumer advocates, public health workers and environmental groups here are calling on…

Kenya’s Journey Towards Zero New HIV Infections Falters

During shortages of antiretrovirals due to strikes by health staff, Lucia Wakonyo resorted to self-medication. Credit: Miriam Gathigah/IPS NAIROBI, Jan 29 2014 (IPS) – In early January 2008, during the violence that rocked Kenya after disputed general elections, a man…

Fighting Now Brings Disease

The celebrations over food aid at Yarmouk camp in Damascus were short-lived. Credit: Niraz Saeed DAMASCUS, Mar 29 2014 (IPS) – For just that moment, the refugees in Yarmouk camp in Damascus made news. After months of facing starvation and…

OPINION: Unleashing African Young People’s Potential

This is part of a series of special stories on world population and challenges to the Sustainable Development Goals on the occasion of World Population Day on July 11. Girls attend school in South Africa. Healthy, educated young people can…

What’s More Important, the War on AIDS or Just War?

The budgets of many African countries reflect greater interest in arms deals than in managing the deadly HIV epidemic. Credit: Thomas Martinez/IPS JOHANNESBURG/NEW YORK, Aug 13 2014 (IPS) – They say there is a war on and its target is…

The Double Burden of Malnutrition

These Haitian schoolchildren are being supported by a WFP school feeding programme designed to end malnutrition which, for many countries, can be a double burden where overweight and obesity exist side by side with under-nutrition. Credit: UN Photo/Albert González Farran…

Nepali Children in Dire Need of Mental Health Services

Kids work side by side at a temporary school for those displaced by floods in eastern Nepal. Many children experience trauma, fear or other psychological impacts of natural disasters, but few receive the necessary treatment. Credit: Mallika Aryal/IPS SURKHET, Nepal,…