In Madagascar, little help for difficult pregnancies
When she was 20 years old, Alphonsina Zara was pregnant with her first child. After three days of excruciating labour, though she was in a health centre, her baby was stillborn.
View ArticleChild mortality in Niger plummets
Niger, one of the world's poorest countries, has bucked regional trends to achieve dramatic reductions in child mortality in recent years, according to a Countdown country case study published in The...
View ArticleNew strategies needed to combat disease in developing countries
So-called lifestyle diseases are gaining ground with epidemic speed in low-income countries. The traditional health focus in these countries has been to combat communicable diseases such as malaria,...
View ArticleSierra Leone joins eight West African states in polio eradication
Over 70.000 health workers and community volunteers were combing the streets and jungle paths in Sierra Leone Friday at the start of a vaccination programme targetting young children in the West...
View ArticleCash cuts increase smoking death risk for world's poor, study says
Proposed funding cuts within the international body responsible for tobacco control will leave the world's poorest countries more vulnerable to smoking-related diseases, a study suggests.
View ArticleNew study highlights Chagas disease as a growing health and socio-economic...
Today, The Lancet Infectious Diseases published a new report that examines the global economic burden of Chagas disease. In the first study of its kind, researchers measured the health and economic...
View Article'Diseases of affluence' spreading to poorer countries
High blood pressure and obesity are no longer confined to wealthy countries, a new study has found. These health risks have traditionally been associated with affluence, and in 1980, they were more...
View ArticleDrugmakers, health groups bring poor girls vaccine
Two multinational drugmakers are teaming up with top global health groups to protect millions of girls in the world's poorest countries from deadly cervical cancer.
View ArticleRemarkable progress in reducing child mortality and improving maternal health
Rapid expansion of programs to prevent HIV transmission to babies and vaccinate children show how results can be achieved in relatively little time.
View ArticlePatents making new AIDS drugs expensive, MSF says
New potentially life-saving HIV drugs are "beyond reach" due to restrictive patents, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Tuesday, even though basic medication for the disease has become cheaper.
View ArticleHow can supply of penicillin be an issue in any country in 2013?
Benzathine penicillin G (BPG) is the most essential antibiotic for the treatment and prevention of group A streptococcal infections associated with rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease. Yet...
View ArticleDental care in school breaks down social inequalities
A new survey conducted by the University of Copenhagen and the World Health Organization (WHO) is highlighting the role of schools in work to promote health and prevent disease.
View ArticleUN: Rich countries advance women, poorest don't
Richer countries have made advances toward equality for women and provided greater access to sexual and reproductive health care over the past 20 years—but the poorest countries have made little...
View ArticleLife expectancy rises in poor nations, UN reports
Life expectancy in the globe's poorest countries has risen by an average of nine years over the past two decades, thanks to major improvements in infant health, the United Nations said Thursday.
View ArticleToo soon for rich countries to stop HIV funding in poor ones
The global HIV epidemic has been unprecedented, both in its extent and in the way it has changed the world's approach to health funding.
View ArticleDeveloping countries should enroll medical and nursing students from rural areas
Nearly one third of medical and nursing students in developing countries may have no intention of working in their own countries after graduation, while less than one fifth of them intend to work in...
View ArticleNew contraceptive shot to reach 69 poor countries
A contraceptive shot will soon be available at one dollar per dose in 69 of the world's poorest countries, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Pfizer pharmaceuticals announced Thursday.
View ArticleMeningitis epidemic kills 45 in Niger
A meningitis epidemic that broke out in January in Niger has so far killed 45 people, the health minister told AFP on Saturday.
View ArticleNiger meningitis death toll rises to 129: minister
The death toll in a meningitis epidemic that broke out in January in Niger has reached 129, the health minister of the largely arid west African nation said Friday.
View ArticleMeningitis epidemic kills more than 250 in Niger
A meningitis epidemic in poverty-stricken Niger has claimed 252 lives since January, a health official said Monday, warning the country was short of vaccines to fight the outbreak.
View ArticleEvery country in the world can afford to support its smokers to stop
That is the conclusion of a major new review, written by leading world experts and published in the medical journal, Addiction. The review examined a wide range of measures that healthcare systems in...
View ArticleHow does an insecticide treated bed net actually work?
New research from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine has revealed precisely how insecticide-treated bed nets are so effective against malaria mosquitoes.Â
View ArticleUS hospital ship brings care, hope to poor Haitians
The huge white hospital ship anchored in the Port-au-Prince bay is impossible to miss, drawing Haitians from all over in hopes of a chance to see a doctor and get medical treatment.
View ArticleNiger needs 3.2 million meningitis vaccines: UN
Niger needs millions of doses of meningitis vaccines to ward off a possible epidemic after a spike that has seen dozens of cases reported since January, the United Nations said Wednesday.
View ArticleA healthy Brexit: UK leads EU fruit and veg consumption
Britain leads the way in consuming the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, EU figures showed Friday, while Romania and Bulgaria are the worst.
View ArticleHigh blood pressure affects 1.13 billion people, says new study (Update)
The number of people in the world with high blood pressure has reached 1.13 billion, according to new research.
View ArticleMost people with depression receive inadequate treatment or no care at all
The vast majority of people with depression across the world are not receiving even minimally adequate treatment for their condition, according to a new study of more than 50,000 people in 21 countries...
View ArticleUN: Malaria outbreak kills over 4,000 in Burundi this year
An outbreak of malaria has killed over 4,000 people in Burundi so far this year, the United Nations said Wednesday, a dramatic rise over the 700 victims the government announced just two weeks ago.
View ArticleVaccines save 20 million lives, $350 billion in poor countries since 2001
Vaccination efforts made in the world's poorest countries since 2001 will have prevented 20 million deaths and saved $350 billion in health-care costs by 2020, according to a new study from the...
View ArticleNew estimates of modern contraceptive use in the world's poorest countries
Statisticians Leontine Alkema, Niamh Cahill and Chuchu Wei at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, with others, today released new estimates and projections of modern contraceptive prevalence...
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