Mixed messages on home deliveries in Philippines

MANILA, 24 May 2013 (IRIN Asia) - Varied implementation of a Department of Health (DOH) policy advocating health facility-based delivery under the care of a skilled birth attendant (SBA) has health officials and advocates worried that the policy may be doing more harm than good. full report

Containing cholera in Niger

NIAMEY, 22 May 2013 (IRIN Africa) - Cholera has struck 248 people in Ayorou in the Tillabéry Region of northwestern Niger, killing six, two of them Malian refugees. full report

Somalia, beyond the famine

NAIROBI, 22 May 2013 (IRIN Africa) - Over one million people in Somalia are currently food insecure, according to a May report by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET). This number is a significant drop from the 3.7 million considered food insecure in mid-2011. full report

Malaria overstretching healthcare in DRC

KAMPALA, 20 May 2013 (IRIN Africa) - Gaps in the healthcare system in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are hampering the fight against malaria, a leading killer of children, say experts. full report

Making WASH work in Burkina Faso’s cities

OUAGADOUGOU, 17 May 2013 (IRIN Africa) - Earlier this year Denis Ouedraogo, a tailor living in the Tampouy neighbourhood just north of Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou, connected his mud-walled home to the water network for the first time. “Even without electricity, having enough water can make you happy,” he said. full report

Challenges to improving health care in Pakistan

LAHORE/DUBAI, 17 May 2013 (IRIN Asia) - Hamza Mazhar, a 35-year-old teacher from Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore, says he never wants to see the inside of a government hospital again. full report

The making of the Hyogo2 disaster prevention framework

JOHANNESBURG, 17 May 2013 (IRIN Global) - A month after the Indian Ocean tsunami struck in December 2004, affecting millions, 168 countries signed on to a 10-year plan to make the world safer from natural hazards. Yet the plan, the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005-2015, focused primarily on “what to do to prevent disasters, but not enough on how to implement it,” says Neil McFarlane, chief coordinator and head of all regional programmes at the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR). full report

Tracking vaccine scares

LONDON, 14 May 2013 (IRIN Global) - Vaccine scares have emerged as a major challenge to global efforts to eliminate preventable diseases, with rumours and conspiracy theories proliferating faster than health authorities can respond to them. Now researchers, led by Heidi Larson of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, are developing a tool to identify the first signs of these negative reports. full report

Uganda grapples with paediatric vaccine shortages

KAMPALA, 14 May 2013 (IRIN Africa) - Ugandan children are going unimmunized as the country grapples with persistent and widespread vaccine shortages, the result of insufficient funds and inefficient procurement and supply systems, officials say. full report