Pia Engebrigtsen worked for 2 months as a nurse in Zimbabwe's Masvingo province during the country's cholera outbreak, in which MSF has so far treated more than 45,000 people. Here she shares her story of death, heartbreak, survival and saving lives against all odds.
It's been almost 15 years since we voted for all South Africans to have equal access to government services...to have dignity and a better life. To have treatment for life-threatening illnesses. But every now and then, as journalists, we step into corners of the country where apartheid and its indignities remains alive and well. Where the services that government has designed to improve our lives just CAN'T reach.
Would you believe that world-wide, 2 in 5 people don't have access to safe sanitation!? Today in our series on EVERYDAY HEROES ' people who make a difference in their part of the world ' we visit a doctor and a nursery school principal who are playing their part to promote good hygiene.
NIGERIA,(PlusNews) - Ijora Badia in Lagos, Nigeria's former capital city and the country's economic hub is a community virtually without government services.
Zimbabwe's doctors have sketched a picture of a health system that has collapsed with hundreds of people dying from a cholera epidemic which has now crossed the border into South Africa.
A staggering 854-million people were undernourished between 2001 and 2003 while at the other end of the scale 700-million people are likely to be obese by 2015, according to the Global Health Watch (GHW) 2.
Poor health care at several Eastern Cape hospitals left more than 140 underprivileged children dead in one of South Africa's poorest districts within the first three months of this year.
Every day, over 2,5-billion people suffer from a lack of access to improved sanitation and half of these practise open defecation, the riskiest sanitary practice of all, according to a report issued by the WHO/UNICEF.
Smoke-free policies are reducing heart disease related to smoke exposure, the prevalence of smoking in adults and the exposure of both adults and children to second-hand smoke.
Under-treatment, inappropriate treatment and lack of education for asthma patients in South Africa are contributing to still unacceptably high morbidity rates.
World Health Day (April 7) focuses on health threats posed by global warming.
There are no services in Nqileni Village in the Eastern Cape and kids are dying from drinking contaminated water. But a conditional grant for the district was returned untouched to the Treasury
Bulungula Lodge offers a sustainable way of life within a tight community.
TORONTO ' More effective ways to prevent HIV prevention than simply the old ABC approach of 'Abstain, Be faithful and Condomise' may be available soon, according to research being presented at the biennial International AIDS conference this week.
Reduce malaria, worms and bilharzia, make border posts more efficient ' and HIV rates will drop, argues a US expert.
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