Zanzibar nurses have said they were facing serious challenges in carrying out their duties, as the ratio of a nurse to patients stands at 1:50. In their message during the occasion to mark World’s Nurses Day, they expressed the need for the government to consider employing more nurses in health facilities for them, to be able to provide standard services.

cc Following UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Olivier De Schutter's comments at the 17th session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), Vía Campesina and Friends of the Earth International give their response to the special rapporteur's comments. While highlighting the recommendations and broad understanding that they share with De Schutter, the authors' statement emphasises the centrality of 'food sovereignty', namely, the right of different communities and peoples to control their own territories. This the authors contend is a process that goes beyond producers' mere 'participation' in high-level decision-making; it is one which actively positions farmers and peasants at the centre of agricultural production and control.

At the Opportunistic Infections Clinic at Parirenyatwa Hospital, the largest referral facility in Harare, capital of Zimbabwe, a group of 30 HIV-positive patients are having the first of four counselling sessions on staying healthy by eating a balanced diet, disclosing to family members and avoiding cigarettes and alcohol. Counselling is a requirement for starting antiretroviral (ARV) treatment; the results from a number of tests, none of which can be done at the hospital any more, are also necessary.

Construction has begun of West Africa’s first clinic for reconstructing clitorises for victims of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C). Amid high demand, the US non-profit Clitoraid is funding the clinic, dubbed “Pleasure Hospital”, in Bobo-Dioulasso, western Burkina Faso.

No Influenza A (H1N1) cases have yet been confirmed in Africa, causing medical experts to question whether this is due to good luck or the continent’s lack of fully-equipped influenza testing facilities. A (H1N1) cases have been confirmed in North and South America, Asia and Europe, but not yet Australasia or Africa, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Results of a needs assessment by OUT LGBT-Wellbeing that showed that many homosexual people, among other risky behaviors, feel uncomfortable talking about safer sex, gave birth to the PRISM Lifestyle Centre to be launched in Tshwane on Friday 08 May 2009. This health and wellness centre is professionally staffed and offers all professional services free of charge but a R20 facility fee to cover administrative costs.

It is a health crisis of alarming proportions. Up to nine million Egyptians have been exposed to hepatitis C, and tens of thousands will die each year unless they receive a liver transplant. Health authorities are taking steps to stop the spread of the blood-borne virus, but must also contend with higher liver failure mortality rates as the disease advances in those infected decades ago.

The cholera outbreak that took hold of Zimbabwe from last August sustained its downward trend last month while aid agencies continued their efforts to combat the disease, according to the latest United Nations update. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported 65 cholera infections by the end of April with four deaths, compared to 26 cases and 13 deaths the previous month.

cc Kenya is a country of runners, writes Njonjo Mue, but for all its athletic prowess the country has yet to prove medal-worthy in the relay race of building true nationhood. With the baton passed from race leg to race leg, the Kenyan people have seen participation in the race restricted to a select, exclusivist and often brutal few, with many who have sought to champion the right of others to be involved being severely crushed. The finishing line of true nationhood remains a distant dream, with the runners even having dropped the right baton altogether, and if Kenya is not to perish entirely, the race's next leg can only be run by all Kenyans together.

Philo Ikonya remembers . We might never know, but we need to say we want to know what happened to him, says Ikonya.

Four Southern African states will be covered in the new financing decision by the European Commission, under the food facility package for developing countries. Lesotho, Madagascar, Mozambique and Zambia will be among the 23 developing countries that will benefit from a support valued at € 194 million to projects and programmes aimed at boosting agriculture and improving the food security situation in the selected countries.

Researchers in Africa fear they may not be able to identify swine flu cases swiftly enough to prevent the spread of infection because there are so many diseases around with similar symptoms. Although swine flu has spread from Mexico to several other continents it has not yet been reported in Africa and in some respects the continent is well prepared, say researchers. Rapid response teams are accustomed to reacting to diseases such as meningitis and Rift Valley fever, as well as completely unknown new infections.

This AfricaFocus Bulletins contains excerpts from two World Malaria Day articles on recent initiatives against malaria, one by Sue Mbaya, Africa Advocacy Coordinator for World Vision, based in Nairobi and one by UNICEF on Children & Malaria. And, from an article about the UN Foundation's "Nothing but Nets" initiative to mobilize individual contributors for supplying bednets.

The making of a new constitution is slowly turning into one big fight. That our country needs to revitalise itself is in no doubt, and the fact that it needs a constitutional overhaul is also a well known fact. But the road to constitutional reform is full of landmines, and more will be planted if threats by the National Constitutional Assembly and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions are to be taken seriously.

Based on assessment of all available information, and following several expert consultations, it has been decided to raise the current level of influenza pandemic alert from phase 4 to phase 5. Influenza pandemics must be taken seriously precisely because of their capacity to spread rapidly to every country in the world.

Most people across Southern Africa, and globally, are feeling the pinch of the current economic crisis. For many families, the escalating cost of food means fewer trips to the grocery store. Yet for social service organisations with many mouths to feed, such as shelters for children or places of safety for women and girls, the economic crisis has hit even harder.
Cindy Dzanya

Zanzibar marks the International Malaria Day this week with a remarkable record of combating the disease in the isles, as medical authorities put emphasis on ‘proper malaria diagnosis before treatment or using medicine.” “Some people including medical practitioners prescribe malaria treatment before diagnosis,” medical practitioners said here yesterday at one-day workshop on “updating journalists about malaria in Zanzibar. Malaria prevalence in Zanzibar has dropped from 40 per cent in 2004 to one per cent or less in 2007, according to Zanzibar Malaria Control Programme (ZMCP) statistics.

Not long ago, a young Nova Scotian woman working in Guatemala told me how she found herself in a bus being blocked by local people protesting the destructive operations of a Canadian mining company in their community. Fellow passengers advised her to pretend she was American; Canadians were not welcome.

In Uganda, a fast, cheap diagnostic test based on vinegar is invigorating the battle against cervical cancer. Health activists are raising money to put it in a mobile clinic and health officials are eyeing a national rollout.

Dehydration caused by severe diarrhoea is a key cause of infant deaths in Zambia, a country with one of the highest child morality rates in the world, according to a new report by Zambia’s health department. This will not change until government makes a major effort to improve access to clean water and sanitation throughout the country, health experts say.