The Ugandan government has launched a new HIV/AIDS prevention strategy and plan for the elimination of mother to child transmission of HIV by 2015, a top ministry of health official said. Zainab Akol, Program Manager at the AIDS Control Program (ACP), [said] that the plan will virtually eradicate...

The Organization of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA) held its General Assembly, on 30 January 2012, at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, under the theme: “An HIV/AIDS free tomorrow needs caring men and women today”. The OAFLA General Assembly was chaired by Advocate...

Sexually active adults aged 45 and over are being encouraged to pay more thought to safe sex in line with recent figures showing that STIs in 50-90 year olds have doubled in the past ten years. In an editorial published in the [UK]  Student BMJ, Rachel von Simson, medical student at King’s College...

Four South African men have been sentenced to 18 years in jail for stabbing and stoning to death 19-year-old lesbian Zoliswa Nkonyana in 2006. The court found that the men killed Ms Nkonyana because she was living openly as a lesbian. A crowd outside the court in Khayelitsha, a Cape Town township,...

Pakistan would become fourth most populous country [by] 2050, if concrete and timely steps are not taken to address this major challenge. The population of the country is likely to reach to 325 million by 2050 but the figure can be restricted to 270 million by introducing comprehensive policy.These...

A Jamaican gay activist who has been forced to flee his home due to death threats against him has received the inaugural David Kato Vision and Voice Award. Maurice Tomlinson picked up the award, named after the gay Ugandan activist who died in January last year, at a ceremony in London on Sunday...

There was an element missing when Prime Minister Stephen Harper made an otherwise masterful effort, during the 2010 G8 summit in Muskoka, to paint his government as the West's leading benefactor to, and champion of, women and children in the developing world. Harper insisted, presumably for ideological...

Almost a year to the day that David Kato, the Ugandan human rights activist, was murdered in his home because of his sexuality, I am flying from Toronto to London to accept the inaugural David Kato Vision and Voice Award*, which recognises individuals who uphold the human rights and dignity of lesbian,...

January 22nd marked the 39th anniversary of one of the most significant legal decisions of the 20th century, Roe v. Wade. This landmark ruling from the United States Supreme Court legalized abortion and changed the course of history for women in this country. Yet women in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Oral human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is more common among men than women, leading to an increased risk for men of head and neck cancers, a US study suggests. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) study assessed around 5,500 people aged 14 to 69. Around 10% of men had oral...

A saliva test used to diagnose the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), is comparable in accuracy to the traditional blood test, according to a new study led by the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) and McGill University.  The meta-analysis, which compared studies...

A saliva test used to diagnose the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), is comparable in accuracy to the traditional blood test, according to a new study led by the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) and McGill University. The meta-analysis, which compared studies...

When Lord Justice Leveson launched his inquiry into the ethics of the press, he may not have expected to be confronted with an enlarged photograph of near-naked bottoms. Or to be presented with evidence deemed so explicit it was censored before being circulated to other witnesses. But a coalition...

On January 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed every woman's right to make her own medical decisions without government interference. At the time, the Supreme Court recognized the inherent right to privacy for women, an urgent issue given that women were dying in emergency rooms across the...

Countries restricting abortions, particularly in Africa and Latin America, have higher rates of unsafe abortion than those that allow the procedure, according to a study. The rate of unsafe abortion in Africa was 28 per 1,000 women of childbearing age and 31 per 1,000 in Latin America, regions where...

The Sixth Annual Research Conference on Population, Reproductive Health and Economic Development, has opened in Accra with a call on African leaders to show commitment in addressing family planning issues since it was one of the tools when applied would address maternal health problems. “To help...

When Kartuma Katim went into labour she was referred to Bo district hospital, 35km away from Old Condor, the small village in the southern province of Sierra Leone where she lives. Alone and with no money for transport, the 15-year-old eventually gave birth in her own small hut with the help of...

On the poor outskirts of Dakar, Senegal, we sat before six imams in an airy mosque. They are holy men, respected community leaders, and, lately, birth control champions. "Family spacing," they called it, as they cheerfully explained why Islam supports it. "What's good for a woman is good for her...

Although there is significant reduction in maternal and infant mortality in Ghana, the country cannot achieve its Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of 53 deaths per 1000 live births by 2015 if effective child survival and interventions are not increased. This is because the maternal mortality rate,...