Maybe it’s ironic, the day after health guru Jack LaLane dies of pneumonia, a new vaccine to prevent pneumonia is being rolled out across Africa: The Gavi Alliance, a global health partnership of public and private sectors for immunisation, says 19 countries will get the jab at first. Kenyan children have begun receiving it and Sierra Leone, …

New Pneumonia Vaccine Launches Today in Africa. Lives Will Be Saved Read More »

Zimbabwe has halved its HIV rates from 1997 to 2007 according to a study in British journal Plos. Reuters reported today on the findings: British researchers said Zimbabwe’s epidemic was one of the biggest in the world until the rate of people infected with HIV almost halved, from 29 percent of the population in 1997 to 16 percent …

Latest: How Did Zimbabwe Cut Its HIV Rates in Half? Read More »

Every year half a million children under 5 die from Strepcoccus Pneumoniae, or pneumoccal disease. We’ve written about the life-saving pneumonia vaccine already, which is key because, in Kenya, the disease claims the lives of more children than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined. More than 70 percent of the deaths caused by the disease are …

Latest: Kenya Pioneers a New Vaccine for Pneumonia Read More »

Here’s a novel idea: what if people, normal healthy women and men in developing villages around the globe, jumped in to fill the gap of doctors and nurses?  In today’s New York Times Opinionator column, Tina Rosenberg looks at one village in India that trains villagers to do the jobs of doctors and nurses. It’s …

Latest: It Takes a Village to Improve Health Read More »

Despite its often anti-protection opinions, the Vatican will be hosting an AIDS conference, which will hopefully clarify their recent confusing flip-flopping on condoms. PBS Newshour headlines the incredible news: Last fall, Pope Benedict XVI grabbed headlines when he saidduring an interview that the use of condoms might be a sign of moral responsibility for someone …

Latest: Will the Vatican Allow Condoms After Its AIDS Conference? Read More »

It’s been a roller coaster of a year in HIV and AIDS. AIDS turned 30 in 2011, and with new evidence of the effectiveness of HIV treatment as prevention, experts are increasingly talking about “the end of AIDS”. At the same time, however, funding for HIV has become ever more uncertain, jeopardizing efforts to put …

HIV/AIDS: Ten big stories in 2011 Read More »

Improving levels of health among the world’s population is a critical goal, writes Harnoor Gill, 17, a Commonwealth Correspondent from Georgetown in Canada, who says individuals can take effective action. Health is important for all of us in the world and it is imperative that everyone should always be concerned of his or her health. Living …

“Taking action on the global health in crisis” Read More »