WHO wants bird flu surveillance stepped up
geneva — The World Health Organization on Thursday urged countries to step up surveillance for bird flu after the first case was detected in a child in the United States. A small but growing number of H5N1 avian influenza infections…
Kenyan clinics provide health care to truck drivers, sex workers
A clinic initiative in Kenya aims to provide health care to vulnerable mobile populations such as truck drivers and commercial sex workers. The goal is to combat the spread of disease across borders in Africa. Juma Majanga reports from the…
HIV activist to use Charlize Theron’s Instagram for a day
Geneva, Switzerland — A young South African activist living with HIV will take over Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron’s Instagram account on World AIDS Day, the United Nations said Thursday. Ibanomonde Ngema, a 21-year-old activist, will be given the reins to…
Trump picks vaccine skeptic to lead top US public health department
President-elect Donald Trump says he intends to nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy disagrees with much of the scientific community on subjects including vaccines and HIV/AIDS. VOA’s Anita Powell has…
UNAIDS: upholding human rights essential for ending AIDS
HARARE, ZIMBABWE — Ahead of World AIDS Day on December 1, the U.N. has released a report saying that upholding human rights is essential for ending the AIDS pandemic. The report says human rights violations, including discrimination against girls and…
Court agrees with ban on medical marijuana advertising in Mississippi
JACKSON, Mississippi — Medical marijuana businesses in the southern U.S. state of Mississippi don’t have the right to advertise on billboards or other places because marijuana itself remains illegal under federal law, an appeals court says. The owner of a…
Countries remain divided as fifth UN plastics treaty talks begin
As delegates from 175 countries gathered in Busan, South Korea, on Monday for the fifth round of talks aimed at securing an international treaty to curb plastic pollution, lingering divisions cast doubts on whether a final agreement is in sight….
Earth bids farewell to its temporary ‘mini moon’ that is possibly a chunk of our actual moon
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Planet Earth is parting company with an asteroid that’s been tagging along as a “mini moon” for the past two months. The harmless space rock will peel away on Monday, overcome by the stronger tug of…
Development, pollution threaten Papuan women’s mangrove forest in Indonesia
JAYAPURA, Indonesia — On the southeastern coast of the city of Jayapura, Petronela Merauje walked from house to house in her floating village inviting women to join her the next morning in the surrounding mangrove forests. Merauje and the women…
Small but mighty efforts are brewing to bring back native forests in India
UDHAGAMANDALAM, India — Scattered groves of native trees, flowers and the occasional prehistoric burial ground are squeezed between hundreds of thousands of tea shrubs in southern India’s Nilgiris region — a gateway to a time before colonization and the commercial…