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Tag: International

Giving Children a Healthy Start to Life

Mark Leon Goldberg here. The following article is from the most recent issue of PSI Impact Magazine, a quarterly publication from the global health NGO Population Services International. The cover story, written by Desmond Chavasse, Ph.D, Vice President, Malaria Control & Child Survival, PSI takes a look at some high-impact, low cost interventions that could greatly improve child health in the developing world. The solutions are relatively simple, but we need more political will (and funding) to fully realize their potential.

Prison Time for Women Who Use the Morning After Pill

There is terrible legislation being considered in Honduras which would send women to jail if they use the morning after pill. There is no exception for victims of sexual assault. The global activist group Avaaz is sounding the alarm on this terrible legislation, which is being actively debated in the Honduran Congress and may be “just days away.”

Nude Photos as a Revolutionary Act

The Nude Revolutionary Calendar is a project undertaken in support of Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, a young Egyptian woman who posted nude portraits of herself on Twitter last November, tagged #NudePhotoRevolutionary. Here’s a nude portrait of Elmahdy.

[Probably NSFW because, y’know, “nude portrait of Elmahdy.” – C]

Hero of the Day

Samira Ibrahim.

When Samira Ibrahim makes a rare foray into the streets of her hometown of Sohag in Upper Egypt or to a demonstration on the streets of Cairo, she has the distinct feeling of being watched.

“I never feel comfortable,” she said during in an interview in a Cairo cafe. “The only place I can feel like myself is in my home with my family. Everywhere I go, I feel there are eyes on me. They want me to forget everything and just go away.”

Ms Ibrahim, 25, is taking on, under her own name, a battle against the powerful ruling generals. She is the only named plaintiff in several legal cases against the officers who conducted “virginity tests” on 17 women protesters detained by the military last year.

Filming Against Odds: Undocumented Youth “Come Out” With Their Dreams

By Anne Galisky, cross-posted at On The Issues Magazine.

“Papers”is the story of undocumented youth and the challenges they face as they turn 18 without legal status. More than two million undocumented children live in the U.S. today, most with no path to obtain citizenship. These are youth who were born outside the U.S. and yet know only the U.S. as home. The film highlights five undocumented youth who are “American” in every sense but their legal paperwork.

Dr. Erik Fleischman and Involuntary Sterilization

Via Femonomics, we find a really disturbing post from Dr. Erik Fleischman, an American doctor practicing in Tanzania who brags about participating in an involuntary sterilization, calling the doctor who performed the procedure a “hero.” After a pregnant patient’s heart stops beating on the operating table during a C-section (because they screwed up the epidural and then didn’t monitor her vital signs), Dr. Erik performs rib-cracking CPR, and his partner doctor ties the patient’s tubes:

“Daktari, the epidural injection must have gone too high and paralyzed all her nerve function,” I said as I started doing chest compression over her sternum.. I heard a rib crack with a loud POP under my hand and I winced.
“Yes Daktari. I believe that is correct,” said Dr. M. She is a young woman and this is her fifth baby. She has a good heart.”
Fifth baby, I thought. Holy shit. All I could think of was five orphans.
“C’mon, cmon,” I said to no one in particular, “this cannot go down like this.”
As I pumped on her chest I saw Dr. M working inside her belly with his one good hand. With her body heaving back and forth from the chest compressions it must have been like trying to do a tattoo in a car on a bumpy road.
“How’s she doing down there, Daktari?” I asked.
“Fine. I am tying her tubes. I think she does not need another baby after this.” Dr. M was a cool character. I was wondering if she was going to survive the next five minutes and he was already doing family planning.
“Cmon, cmonnnnnnnnnnn…………..”

Suddenly her eyes opened up and she gasped loudly like someone inhaling a first breath after nearly drowning. I felt her heart. It was beating again. I”m a Buddhhist, but I reflexively said: Jesus.

“Daktari, she’s back,” I said, “She’s back.”
“Excellent work, Daktari. It is good that you were here tonight. It is good that I hurt my wrist.” His version of Tanzanian karma, I suppose. “Daktari, I think we should finish quickly.”

I quickly washed my hands again and we finished up. I even closed the incision on her skin with a neat plastic surgery closure. This point of finesse would ultimately never be noticed through the stretchmarks and redundant skin of five babies, but it was the right thing to do. The patient didn’t remember anything that had happened. It was like she went away and then came back. We told her she had a baby boy. She asked why her chest was hurting. Dr. M told her not to worry about it. She was wheeled into the recovery room. Dr. M. told me to go home. He would handle it from here.

The post has been taken down, but it’s cached here if you want to read it.

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On World AIDS Day

Two hands holding many smaill red AIDS ribbons

A few things to read (snippets posted here; click the links for the full articles):

Fight AIDS with Family Planning.

The situation in Mityana in not unusual; in fact it is far too common. 215 million women worldwide are not using an effective method of contraception despite the fact that they want to avoid pregnancy. The largest segment of these women live in sub-Saharan Africa and many are at risk of HIV. Women account for 60 percent of people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, and young women between the ages of 15-24 are up to eight times more likely to be infected than men of the same age.

December 1st marks World AIDS Day and this year’s theme is “Getting to Zero.” Much of this day will be focused on a celebration of new technology and science that can help prevent HIV through daily treatment and male circumcision. And we should celebrate those advances — but we should also not lose sight of women who need both family planning and HIV services.

Does the Global Community Care?

This year, on World AIDS Day, the scientific promise for the end of HIV is the brightest it’s ever been. We’re seeing radical new uses for antiretroviral drugs – to prevent the transmission of HIV as well as treat its effects. We’re poised, medically, to bring this epidemic to its knees.

In the face of this great opportunity, the global community responded in one voice, “Forget it. We don’t care.” Things are hard all around, you know, and foreigners with HIV don’t vote in domestic elections. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria just canceled its next round of grants. The WHO is laying off staff. Bilateral donors are cutting aid to global health. Instead of breaking the cycle of HIV transmission, developing nations will be lucky if they can protect the people they already have on treatment.

That may sound dramatic, but look at the numbers. The Global Fund asked donors for $20 billion. It received $11.5. Everyone from Germany to the USA reneged on their pledges of support.

As Long as Homophobia Lives, AIDS Won’t Die.

MSM [Men who have sex with men] are among the most-at-risk populations in Zambia for HIV and AIDS, chiefly because they are “hidden,” unable to access or ask about health services freely due to prejudice and blatant homophobia in traditional African society. As a result, MSM have a high risk of dying of HIV/AIDS-related illness — a scandalous statistic in an era when many HIV-positive people are living productive and optimistic lives with free modern treatment.

No Retreat in the Fight Against AIDS [Ed: Why yes I am linking to an op/ed by George W. Bush. I can’t believe it either].

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