Francesca Colombo* – Tierramérica

MILAN, Dec 8 2006 (IPS) – In Italy just 10 ill people have authorisation to use marijuana as therapy against pain. But that number could grow in the coming months if parliament approves a law for using this usually illegal plant for medical purposes.
Federico Fantoni, 58, is a doctor and a quadriplegic. For the past eight years he has used a wheelchair and suffers pain in his arms due to muscle contraction caused by his illness. To fight the pain he tried all possible medications, including opium patches, but he couldn t stand the side effects.

After learning more about the therapeutic use of marijuana (Cannabis sativa), he decided to try it. In five hours I didn t feel any discomfort, he said in testimony for the Italian Association…

Miriam Gathigah

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 4 2011 (IPS) – Medical experts have warned that malaria and HIV have monopolised interventions geared towards curbing child mortality in Kenya, thus ignoring the equally deadly killer, diarrhoea. This disease has silently claimed the lives of hundreds of children every year.
Cecilia Njambi, a mother of two, lost her first-born son to diarrhoea. He hadn t slept well the previous night and had complained that his tummy hurt. His stool was loose but we weren t alarmed as no one takes diarrhoea seriously anyway. We just assumed that he must have eaten something that didn t go down well with him.

We gave him a solution of water and salt, as is common practice, and in the morning I left for work. That s the last I saw of my five-year- o…