Keya Acharya

NEW DELHI, Aug 3 2010 (IPS) – Their ongoing negotiations remain shrouded in secrecy, but there are already reports that India and the European Union (EU) will have a free-trade agreement ready by the end of August, and that they will be putting signatures to it before the end of 2010.
Yet it is a potential development that is causing more nervous chatter than joyous jitters here in India, where drug manufacturers in particular have raised concerns over India s trade interests and intellectual property rights (IPR) issues.

India s 7.5-billion-dollar drug industry is among the world s top five bulk medicine producers. It is also among the world s 20 top pharmaceutical exporters, with its export business growing at 17.8 percent per year.

A large segm…

Matthew O. Berger

WASHINGTON, Aug 27 2010 (IPS) – As regulators traced the U.S. salmonella outbreak spread by infected eggs back to the hen feed used at two Iowa farms Thursday, many groups are pointing the blame at the factory farm system from which the eggs and bacteria came.
So far, over 550 million shelled eggs have been recalled after an estimated 1,300 cases of salmonella poisoning across 10 states.

While salmonella may not be the most deadly or dangerous bacterium out there no deaths have so far been tied to the current outbreak its symptoms do include diarrhea, fever and vomiting.

And, as food safety groups are pointing out, the speed at which and distance across which salmonella from eggs has spread in this outbreak are symptoms of a food system overl…

Zofeen Ebrahim* – IPS/TerraViva

KARACHI, Pakistan, Sep 21 2010 (IPS) – For five years, Sana Yasir toiled through medical school and then was awarded at the end with a diploma and a bright future. After completing the required year-long clinical practice, however, Yasir got married and quit the workplace.

The fact that many women doctors opt not to practise medicine raises…

Thelma Mejía

TEGUCIGALPA, Oct 14 2010 (IPS) – All too aware of the Honduran public health system s shortcomings and the great vulnerability of the country s poorest people, women who have beaten breast cancer are stepping up to share their experiences and knowledge in an effort to save more lives.
We are all survivors of this disease, and we decided to organise in order to help other people who have limited resources. Imagine that someone who doesn t have 300 lempiras (about 16 dollars) cannot get a mammogram, and could die as a result, Ingrid Castellanos, president of the Honduran Foundation Against Breast Cancer, told IPS.

For three years, the Foundation has led educational campaigns, forums and walks to bring attention to the issue and raise public awareness abou…

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Nov 15 2010 (IPS) – Latin America and the Caribbean are taking firm steps against the use of tobacco with the adoption of no smoking laws, bans on advertising, and graphic pictorial warnings on cigarette packets.
But some countries in the region are lagging behind, despite well-organised anti-smoking movements.

While the entire region moves ahead on this, Argentina is way behind on tobacco control measures, Dr. Verónica Schoj, director of the Interamerican Heart Foundation-Argentina (IAHF Argentina), told IPS.

The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) was negotiated under the auspices of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and adopted in 2003. It entered into force in early 2005 and now has 171 parties.

In Latin…

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Dec 23 2010 – The cholera crisis is forcing Haitian authorities to address an unpleasant and now life-threatening problem – untreated feces.

A desludging truck shoots excreta into the pit at Trutier. Credit: WASH Cluster, Haiti

The first infections likely came from cholera-infected feces in a river, and feces is a main vector of the vibrio cholera bacteria. But Haitian authorities have been slow to face the problem.

With at least 2,591 dead and over 63,000 hospitalised …

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Feb 10 2011 (IPS) – Activists hope that a popular agitation against the setting up of a factory to manufacture asbestos products in the eastern Bihar state will result in a nationwide ban on the large-scale import into this country of the deadly mineral fibre.

Rally against an asbestos plant in Muzzaffarpur, Bihar. Credit: Ban Asbestos Network of India

Following six months of agitation against the setting up of the factory in the Chainpur-Bishunpur area of Bi…

Julio Godoy

BERLIN, Mar 14 2011 (IPS) – The unfolding nuclear catastrophe in Japan, triggered by last Friday s massive earthquake and tsunami, followed by a chain of explosions in atomic power plants, has forced the German government to rethink its own nuclear energy policy.
Pressed by the opposition and the anti-atom movement, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced on March 14 that her centre-right coalition government, made up of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Free Democratic Party (FDP), had decided to temporarily reverse its earlier decision to prolong the lifetime of all nuclear power plants operating in the country.

Explaining a three-month moratorium, Merkel said that after the nuclear catastrophe in Japan we cannot go on as if nothing had happened. She a…

Helda Martínez

BOGOTA, Apr 7 2011 (IPS) – The announcement of progress towards making synthetic vaccines against 517 infectious diseases, and the award of an international prize for his work have stirred up lively controversy around Colombian pathologist Manuel Elkin Patarroyo, a malaria vaccine pioneer.

Manuel Elkin Patarroyo Credit: Manuel Elkin Patarroyo

While the scientific community complains that the media are making a big fuss over the announcement before the effectiveness of the vaccines has been confirmed, lawsuits have been brought about alleged an…

Timothy Spence

BRUSSELS, May 11 2011 (IPS) – British researchers are working on techniques to improve seeds chances of surviving drought by tapping the potential of little-known proteins that regulate water intake.
Lorenzo Frigerio and other plant scientists at the University of Warwick are researching seeds that would use water more sparingly and in turn boost crop defences against climate change in fast- growing developing nations that are the most vulnerable to freshwater shortages and food insecurity.

Asia s thirst for water will exceed supply by 40 percent within two decades, experts told the Asian Development Bank (ADB) board of governors last week. With 80 percent of the region s water consumed in agricultural production, water shortages could severely affect f…