KARACHI, Pakistan, Mar 2 2010 (IPS) – The first time he and his wife had an ‘accident’, 40-year-old Kamran Rehman worried that they may have inadvertently paved the way for child number three. A chemist he consulted, however, recommended that his wife try the emergency contraceptive pill (ECP).
She did. Today, Rehman and his wife Aasia still have two daughters. Says Aasia Rehman: It was a big relief for both of us as we don’t plan to have another child.

It’s good to have a back-up in case of a mistake or an accident, she adds, confessing she has taken the drug when we were short of condoms at home and still had sex .

The ECP is essentially a high dose of female hormones – estrogen and progestin – that are normally in the daily-use oral contraceptive pi…

Milagros Salazar

LIMA, Apr 5 2010 (IPS) – A 200-km oil pipeline that Franco-British oil group Perenco aims to build in the heart of Peru s Amazon jungle region is at the centre of a controversy because of the reported existence of uncontacted native groups in the area.
In early 2008, Perenco acquired the exploration and production rights to Lot 67, which has total reserves of over 300 million barrels.

The firm plans to build a 200-km pipeline, which would connect to an existing one, in order to pipe the oil to Peru s Pacific coast.

A Perenco spokesman told IPS that the company plans to invest 1.5 billion dollars in the project and that oil would begin to be pumped in January 2011.

The oilfield is in Loreto, Peru s northernmost, and largest, region. A r…

Kristin Palitza

CAPE TOWN, May 5 2010 (IPS) – I sometimes drink alcohol because it makes things funny, 15-year-old Senelo* giggles shyly. I go to unlicensed taverns. They sell alcohol without asking questions.

Many South African teenagers are exposed to behaviour detrimental to their health. Credit: Kristin Palitza/IPS

The petite, pretty teenager from Mfuleni township 35 kilometres outside of Cape Town is far from being an exception. Thirty-five per…

Daniela Pastrana

MEXICO CITY, Jun 17 2010 (IPS) – By 5:00 AM, dozens of women are already lined up outside of this clinic in the Mexican capital. Most come with their mothers, sisters, husbands, friends or boyfriends. A few show up alone.

Oriana López at the offices of the Fondo de Aborto para la Justicia Social MARÍA. Credit: Daniela Pastrana/IPS

Sitting on the sidewalk, the women and the people accompanying them try to catch a few winks, i…

Marwaan Macan-Markar

Bangkok, Jul 15 2010 (IPS) – In a western corner of Cambodia known for battles waged by the genocidal Khmer Rouge decades ago, a new war is being fought. Its target, this time, is the lethal malaria parasite that is resistant to the most effective drugs available today.
In the frontline are teams of village volunteers who fan out across the mountainous province of Pailin, close to the Thai-Cambodian border, to supply free early diagnosis and treatment services to vulnerable communities in this malaria-infested region.

The village malaria workers in Pailin are part of 3,000 volunteers in the country who have been trained to help with early detection of malaria in the local communities, said Nguon Sokomar of the Phnom Penh-based National Centre for…

Dingaan Mithi

LILONGWE, Aug 6 2010 (IPS) – Diarrhoea causes more deaths than malaria and AIDS combined, yet while funding to fight the latter two have risen sharply, the same cannot be said of resources available for hygiene, sanitation and clean drinking water.

Esther Sakala outside the Skyloo toilet she constructed herself. Credit: Dingaan Mithi/IPS

The United Nations Children s Fund says 12,000 Malawian children die due to diarrhoea-related diseases every year.

In the densely-po…

Cam McGrath* – IPS/IFEJ

CAIRO, Sep 6 2010 (IPS) – The midday sun punishes a group of veiled women as they wait in line to fill their buckets and jerrycans. They have travelled on foot to a rusty tap on the outskirts of Cairo that gushes irrigation water never intended for human consumption.

Carrying drinking water in a low-income Cairo district. Credit: Victoria Hazou

We ll boil it when we get home, says one woman, positioning a blue jerrycan on her head.

Water shortages, aggravated by intense summer heat…

Matthew O. Berger and Peter Boaz

WASHINGTON, Sep 28 2010 (IPS) – Although the world will miss the 2010 deadline for universal access to HIV treatment, some countries, notably in sub- Saharan Africa, have made real strides forward, three United Nations agencies reported Tuesday.
The goal was set in 2006, but, as the joint report lays out, only some countries will achieve universal access, defined as coverage of at least 80 percent of the population in need, by the end of this year.

As with many health goals, progress is marked by unevenness both between regions and between aspects of the treatment needed.

While prevention efforts to reach the most at-risk populations globally – sex workers, drug users and men who have sex with men – are still limited, for i…

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Oct 21 2010 (IPS) – Northern Thailand s Chiang Rai province has many charms to draw foreign visitors, from hilltribe communities dressed in colourful ethnic clothes, trips to gentle hills close to the Burmese and Lao borders, excursions to once infamous opium trails and a journey along the Mekong River.
But foreign guests from neighbouring countries like Vietnam to other nations like China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Papua New Guinea are also being drawn to the province by a very different attraction its main provincial hospital.

These visitors, health workers for the most part, spend time at the Chiang Rai Prachanukroh Hospital to learn how Thai health workers have succeeded in reducing the spread of HIV among babies.

We sh…