A new vaccine will immunise five million Pakistani children annually against pneumonia. Credit: Adil Siddiqi

KARACHI, Nov 22 2012 (IPS) – Medical practitioners at the National Institute of Child Health (NICH), a leading government-run children’s hospital in Karachi, hope that this will be the last winter they have to treat a stream of children suffering from pneumonia.

The disease is one of the of under-five children in the country, accounting for about 19 percent of child mortality.

Last month Pakistan became the first country in South Asia to introduce a free pneumonia vaccine, to immunise five million children against the dead…

Fatema,15, sits on the bed at her home in Khulna, Bangladesh, in April 2014. Fatema was saved from being married a few weeks earlier. Local child protection committee members stopped the marriage with the help of law enforcement agencies. Credit: UNICEF

LONDON, Jul 23 2014 (IPS) – Heightening their campaign to eradicate violence against women and girls, United Nations agencies and civil groups have called for increased action to end child marriage and female genital mutilation.

At the first Girl Summit in London Wednesday, hosted by th…

Rural children coming out of the pre school crèche called Anganwadi in Harohalli Taluq 60 kilometres south of Bangalore, India where many lack sanitation and nutritious food at home lowering resistance to water borne infections. Credit: Malini Shankar/IPS

BANGALORE, Jan 14 2016 (IPS) – Though the state of Karnataka in India counts for a higher Human Development Index of 0.478 against the national average of 0.472 in the subcontinent, the continued deficit in water and sanitation continues and the children there are bearing the brunt of the lack of infrastructure.

Coupled with the so called Godzilla El Nino of 2015 that washed out the critical southwest monsoons, the…

John L. Lehr is chief executive officer of the Parkinson’s Foundation.

NEW YORK, Jun 27 2017 (IPS) – As one expert recently noted, if Parkinson’s were an infectious disease, we would call it an epidemic. Worldwide, 10 million people live with Parkinson’s disease, a number expected to double in the next 20 years. While there is no cure for Parkinson’s and no proven way to slow its progression, there is new reason to hope for a world without Parkinson’s.

John L. Lehr

The varied symptoms of Parkinson…

In this special series of reports, IPS journalists travel to the border region between Bangladesh and Myanmar to speak with Rohingya refugees, humanitarian workers and officials about the still-unfolding human rights and health crises facing this long-marginalized and persecuted community.

A Rohingya woman and her child at a refugee camp in Bangladesh. Credit: Kamrul Hasan/IPS

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh, Dec 8 2017 (IPS) – Under pouring rain, hundreds of young and expectant mothers stand in line. With her bare feet and the bottom of her dress covered in mud, Rashida is one of them, clu…