Archives: Morning Breakouts

"Thousands of vaccination teams have traversed the vast Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on foot, by motorbike, boat and car, in a campaign to immunize at least 14 million children against polio, the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) said," IRIN reports. The campaign, which was run over three days beginning October 20 by the government with support from UNICEF, also provided vitamin A supplements and deworming, IRIN notes.

"Seasonal rains cause massive damage and disease throughout Nigeria each year, and this year's onslaught comes as international experts warn West Africa is suffering from its worst cholera outbreaks in years," the Associated Press/ABC News reports. According to UNICEF, Nigeria "had recorded more than 21,000 cholera cases this year by the end of September" and "[a]t least 694 people have died from the disease," the news agency writes. Twenty-five of Nigeria's 36 states have reported cholera cases, with most coinciding with local flooding, the AP notes, adding that "almost half of Nigeria's 150 million people lack access to clean water and proper sanitation, according to the World Health Organization" (Gambrell, 10/26).

Women living with HIV in Swaziland "fight a tireless tripartite battle against HIV, the stigma it places on them, and their inferior status in Africa's last absolute monarchy," freelance journalist Gary Nunn writes in the Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog." Nunn recounts the story of Siphiwe Hlophe, who founded Swaziland for Positive Living (Swapol) in 2001, and writes, "Women operate at grassroots level in tackling HIV because they're rarely trusted with real responsibility. But they are increasingly making their voices heard."

The Guardian examines China's one-child policy and its impact. The newspaper writes that "the description of the system as a 'one-child policy' is misleading. Most married women in China have the chance to bear two offspring, but the entitlement to breed beyond a solitary child is determined by a complex set of rules" and factors. In fact, the policy's "countless adjustments over the past 30 years have created a mind-bogglingly complex system that touches on everything from contraception and sterilization to pensions and tax incentives," according to the Guardian. The newspaper notes that "across all of China, the government claims there would be more than 300 million more children without the family planning policy" and that "the nation's population is forecast to peak around 2030," leading "many [to] say the family planning policy had outlived its usefulness." It also describes the policy's effects in Henan Province, which "claims some of the greatest successes in taming demographic growth through its family planning policies" (Watts 10/25).

Babatunde Osotimehin, the executive director of the U.N. Population Fund (UNPFA), said in an interview with the Guardian that "efforts to expand family planning services in the developing world stalled for a decade while global health organizations turned their energies to fighting HIV/AIDS. 'We made a mistake. We disconnected HIV from reproductive health. We should never have done that because it is part and parcel,' he said." The newspaper adds, "Osotimehin said the international community was regaining momentum in its efforts to make family planning services available to women in all countries" and "argued it was crucial for developing countries to devote a larger share of their own resources to family planning and health."

UNICEF released a statement on Tuesday correcting an October 21 report by its office in Madagascar "expressing concern over a resurgence of polio in Madagascar after a routine health survey identified vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) in several healthy children." According to the statement, "there was no re-emergence of polio in Madagascar," and "[t]he last wild poliovirus case in Madagascar was detected in 1997."