Zofeen Ebrahim

KARACHI, Feb 21 2007 (IPS) – Pakistan has intensified efforts to eradicate the polio virus with a new vaccination drive that targets 12 high-risk districts in southern Sindh province where three new cases were reported recently, bringing the total number of polio incidents countrywide to four since the start of the year.
The door-to-door anti-polio campaign from Feb. 20 to 22 is part of the Health Ministry s Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI). Pakistan s Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI) was launched in 1994 in collaboration with the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPI) which was begun six years before.

But despite a gargantuan effort by an army of some 60,000 frontline health workers in Pakistan, who go from house to house to administer two…

BRUSSELS, Jun 6 2009 (IPS) – In 1994, the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) proposed a groundbreaking shift in the approach to reproductive health: women s reproductive capacity was to be transformed from an object of population control to a matter of women s empowerment to exercise personal autonomy.
The ICPD s Plan of Action set out several key action areas: education and literacy, reproductive health care and unmet need for contraception, maternal mortality reduction and HIV/AIDS.

But although reproductive health programmes enjoyed fresh attention and resources from donors and governments, the emergence of HIV/AIDS as a leading funding priority undermined progress.

The two became awkward bedfellows despite HIV/AIDS being a health issue…

Jed Alegado is an incoming graduate student at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague, Netherlands. Angeli Guadalupe is a medical doctor currently studying under the University of Tokyo’s Graduate Program on Sustainability Science-Global Leadership Initiative. The two are Climate Trackers from the Adopt a Negotiator Project.

A young resident of Tacloban in the Philippines walks through some of the damage and debris left by the Typhoon Yolanda, Dec. 21, 2013. Credit: UN Photo/Evan Schneider…

Michelle Catenacci is an

CHICAGO, Jun 18 2018 (IPS) – Fertility health is an incredibly personal – and often vulnerable – topic. Fertility, infertility, and fertility preservation have gained increased public interest over the past few years. Infertility is formally defined as the inability to achieve pregnancy after one year of unprotected intercourse.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that approximately 12% of women aged 15 to 44 in the United States have difficulty getting pregnant or carrying a pregnancy to term. Even though a significant proportion of the population suffers from the challenges associated with infertility, …