Brick-making, an important economic activity in the highlands of western Kenya, may be the cause of recent malaria epidemics in the area, where the disease was not naturally endemic, a recent study has shown. The study showed that brick-making generated dry season habitats for malaria vectors in western Kenya. The research findings were published by the BMC Public Health, an online journal that carries research articles. It is available at: www.biomedcentral.com/bmcpublichealth/.

Malawi is losing 2.8 percent of its forest cover every year and has the highest deforestation rate in the Southern African Development Community. "Forest resources are under enormous pressure from expansion of agricultural activities, because of an increase in the population. Many people cultivate in government-protected forests because they say they do not have land," John Ngalande, deputy Director of the forestry department, told IRIN.

More than half the number of Mozambicans interviewed in a recent poverty survey said they had been unable to meet household food needs in the last 12 months, and many did not have access to sufficient water. About 8,000 Mozambicans in 102 of the 146 rural and urban districts of Mozambique participated in the research conducted by a group of civil society organisations called G20, as part of its contribution to the "poverty observatory".

The third meeting of the African Reproductive Health Task Force in Harare, Zimbabwe, called on African countries and the international community at large to allocate more resources to reproductive health programmes with a view to stemming the tide of maternal and child deaths. Zimbabwe's Minister of Health and Child Welfare said that African and global health policies have overlooked the need to allocate adequate resources to reproductive health programmes, which has contributed to the massive numbers of maternal and newborn deaths.

Two major studies on the interface between the use of hormonal contraception and HIV infection are currently being finalized and will be released in early 2005. Depending on the results (of the studies), there may be a need to have an urgent consultation in Geneva to develop an evidence-based response to the findings, followed by a consultation of scientists, senior clinicians, policy makers and programme managers in the WHO African Region.

In this book, international activists and scholars reveal how policies implemented by the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, and other first world interests limit access to health care and sentence millions to disease and premature death. Essayists provide a historical context for understanding the complex relationship between health, inequality, politics, and globalization.

Global Health Watch is calling activists, health workers and academics from around the world to submit case studies and testimonies to supplement the first edition of the Global Health Watch Report. These case studies and testimonies will form part of the electronic accompaniment to the alternative world health report which will be launched in July 2005 at the People's Health Assembly in Ecuador.

Political leaders and health workers launched a drive Saturday to immunise more than 80 million children against polio in 23 African nations and fight back against a resurgence of the crippling disease. Campaigners had been hoping to eradicate polio this year or next but the virus has spread in the past 18 months to 12 countries where it had been wiped out, in part because the northern Nigerian state of Kano banned the vaccination.

Botswana was warned last week by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, in a document made public on October 4th, to ensure that trade agreements do not undermine Botswana's ability to ensure access to affordable treatment for children or other people with HIV/AIDS.

Jean-Marie Muzaz, a chief nurse, has attended to the victims of cholera for as long as Mandela was in jail: 27 years. In the absence of government help, he has designed his own equipment to deal with this "poor man's disease" - one of the clearest indicators of poverty and despair. According to Musafiri, six years of conflict in Kalemie have killed 55% of the children under five, 31% of the pregnant women, 17% of the men. Now people die from Aids, many of them women who were raped during the war. December will see the departure of the Italians who provide drugs to the cholera victims.

As South Africa rolls out its national treatment programme, the country continues to lose skilled healthcare professionals to wealthier nations abroad, leaving severe shortages in an already over-stretched public health system. In the face of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the human resources factor is even more critical. Civil society groups have warned that the government programme to provide free antiretrovirals (ARVs) could fall apart unless more professionals are attracted into the health system.

A Cape-based project called Cell-Life has developed software and data management systems that enable the health workers at the Hannan Crusaid treatment centre in Cape Town's Guguletu township to monitor patients who are on AIDS drugs and pick up problems before they become life-threatening. Now, thanks to an innovative application of cellphone technology, is on the verge of becoming a paperless operation.

Dr Ken Sagoe, Director of Human Resource Development of Ghana Health Service (GHS), at a meeting on Monday called on stakeholders to collaborate to ensure the establishment of a national health library, where health information could be readily accessed and utilised. The meeting seeks to identify gaps in health information sharing and to explore opportunities for improvement at all levels within the health care delivery system in the country.

The food shortage crisis in three southern African countries is far from over and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has appealed for $78-million to provide emergency aid to millions of people. WFP regional director Mike Sackett said the money was needed to provide emergency aid to 1.85-million people in Lesotho, Malawi and Swaziland in the first half of next year.

Impoverished Madagascar is to distribute 15 million free condoms next year to promote safe sex and halt the spread of HIV/AIDS by making its 17 million people familiar with the product as a weapon against AIDS. While the country's infection figure of 1.1 percent of the population is low compared to some countries on Africa's mainland, it is on the rise.

This report draws on data for 24 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa which shows that large proportions of adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa have inadequate information on how to protect themselves against HIV, and substantial proportions are sexually active and engage in behaviors that place them at risk of becoming infected.

Relief International is seeking a health specialist for its Darfur program in the following fields: Primary health, reproductive healthy and health hygiene education. These positions will create and oversee the implementation of RI's health projects, make sure that said projects are appropriately monitored and evaluated, and that reports are written and submitted in a timely manner. They will also ensure that necessary training is provided to health staff.

Inadequate rainfall from July to September has brought about food shortages in the southeastern and northwestern pastoral zones, causing an increase in food prices since September and bringing hardship to many households throughout Djibouti, a famine alert agency reported.

According to a new report conducted by the government, while the number of South Africans carrying the virus that causes AIDS increased in 2003, the rate of infection, especially amoung teenagers, was stabilizing. "Stability observed particularly amongst teenagers and the non-significant difference between the national figures for HIV prevalence for 2002 to 2003 all point to an epidemic in stabilization phase," the report said.

The FAO Committee on World Food Security (CFS) has adopted Voluntary Guidelines to "support the progressive realization of the right to adequate food in the context of national food security." Seen by many as a breakthrough, the adoption of the Right to Food Guidelines comes after two years of often difficult, but constructive negotiation. This should improve the chances of reaching the hunger reduction target of the World Food Summit.