Merck fights Bilharzia in Mozambique

Merck fights Bilharzia in Mozambique

54m treated

By Justine Wangui (ScienceAfrica correspondent)
justinewangui@gmail.com

 Merck pharmaceutical company is fighting bilharzia (schistosomiasis) worm in Mozambique, Malawi and Senegal and other African nations hoping to eliminate it by taking a holistic approach including education programs to ensure that less children contract the disease while giving them new opportunities for a brighter future.

Merck collaborates with World Health Organization (WHO) to fight and has donated more than 200 million praziquantel tablets to treat almost 54 million patients.  WHO estimates show that over 18 million people in Mozambique require treatment. This amounts up to four out of five people infected thus portraying the vast spread of the epidemic.  In agreement with WHO, the country has been receiving tablets from the British Department for International Development (DFID) since 2O11.

Currently, Merck and British Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI) which are both members of the Global Schistosomiasis Alliance developing a joint concept to fight future outbreak of schistosomiasis in Mozambique. (Source:http://www.merckgroup.com)

The Genetic Resources Team in Syria scoops Mendel Prize

The Genetic Resources Team in Syria scoops Mendel Prize

By Justine Wangui

justinewangui@gmail.com

The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) has been awarded the prestigious Gregor Mendel Innovation Prize.  This was conducted yesterday, 19^th March 2015 in Berlin.  This follows its exemplary success in keeping its globally important collection of crop genetic resources in Syria secure, despite the challenges linked to civil war.  ICARDA is a global agricultural research center working with countries in the world’s dry areas.

The personalities who showed up for the event are Christian Schmidt, Germany’s Federal Minister for Nutrition and Agriculture, Hans-Joachim Fuchtel, State Secretary of Germany’s Ministry of Economic cooperation and Development, Peter Harry Carstensen, former state premier and President of the Board of Trustees of the Gregor Mendel Foundation, and Paula Bramel, deputy CEO of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, amongst others.

Mahmoud Solh, the Director General of ICARDA clarified that his team takes it as a fundamental duty to work with governments for food security and improve rural livelihoods in conflict and post-conflict zones.  “Over the years, ICARDA had managed to safely-duplicate most of its genebank collections outside Syria. When the conflict there escalated, we sped up the duplication and now have secured 100% of the germplasm collection outside Syria. We also duplicated 80% of our collection in Svalbard Seed Vault in Norway already. I’m also glad to add that ICARDA had earlier rescued and safety-duplicated germplasm collections from Afghanistan and Iraq.”

Dr. h. c. Peter Harry Carstensen, President of the Gregor Mendel Foundation validated that ICARDA’s work is valuable for both plant breeders who are highly dependent on diversity to improve agricultural varieties and following generations who benefit from drought tolerant and disease and pest resistant crops.

ICARDA’s unique genebank of barley, lentil, chickpea, faba bean, several forage and rangeland species, along with durum and bread wheat play a vital role in the sustainability of life on earth due to their nitrogen fixing properties. 
 

Source: http://icarda.org

Sexual and reproductive health and rights, a must in gender equality

Sexual and reproductive health and rights, a must in gender equality

Justinewangui@gmail.com

 United Nations, New York: A report from the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), both a service provider and an advocate of sexual and reproductive health and rights has said that Gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls cannot be accomplished in the absence of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).  This was given by speakers from the Permanent Missions of Uruguay, Denmark and Costa Rica to the United Nations, UN Women and UNFPA at a high-level panel event in New York organized by IPPF on 16^th March this year.  They termed SRHR as the cornerstone of gender equality.

The launching of the new report “Sexual and reproductive health and rights- the key to gender equality and women’s empowerment” took place on the 20th anniversary of the Beijing+20 Platform for Action during the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). 

 IPPF Regional Director for the Western Hemisphere, Carmen Barroso opened the event with intense emphasis on the need for these women rights.   

“We can tackle inequalities and change things. This goes to the very heart of poverty eradication and development goals. Sexual and reproductive health and rights give women the ability to control their fertility which, in turn, affects many other aspects of their lives – employment, education, family life, and social and economic participation. It’s the freedom from which all other freedoms flow.”   This statement was seconded by Honorable Gonzalo Koncke, Ambassador, Permanent Mission of Uruguay as he talked on Uruguay’s prioritization of gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights.

The key facts relayed by the report show that one in three women experience either intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence during their lifetime and that domestic workers are among the most vulnerable groups in the global workforce.  Women make up 83% of domestic workers worldwide.  The risk of maternal death is 2.7 times higher among illiterate women and girls than women with more than 12 years of education.  Globally, women make up only 22% of parliamentarians.   Estimations are that women account for two-thirds of the 1.4 billion people currently living in extreme poverty.

The new report recommends   governments, multilateral organisations and the donor community to make sexual and reproductive health and rights and gender equality a reality.  This is by including these rights in the post 2015 sustainable development framework and in governments’ national plans within gender and health ministries. The success of sexual and reproductive health interventions must be supported fully by prioritizing the sexual and reproductive health of women and girls in the financing framework.  Engaging men and boys as partners in programmes on sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls must be considered as a crucial necessity. 
 

Sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls needs to be eradicated through protective domestic laws.   Additionally, governments must increase data collection by working with agencies such as UN so as to elevate examination of links between sexual and reproductive health and rights and the empowerment of women and girls. These recommendations, if accomplished fully, will see women and girls undergo superb transformation and enjoy a fuller life. 

Source:  http://tinyurl.com/n5u7seb, UN women