News headlines for “Health Issues”, page 257
What Does Covid-19 Crisis Mean for Rural Development?
- Inter Press Service

LONDON, Apr 22 (IPS) - The implications and consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic are playing out before us. Much of the news coverage of the to date in both the Global North and the Global South has understandably focused on the horrifying impact of the disease on urban communities, where it is clearly hitting people, and economies, hardest.
A Global Crisis Like No Other Needs a Global Response Like No Other
- Inter Press Service

WASHINGTON DC, Apr 22 (IPS) - I have been saying for a while that this is a ‘crisis like no other.' It is:
- More complex, with interlinked shocks to our health and our economies that have brought our way of life to an-almost complete stop;
- More uncertain, as we are learning only gradually how to treat the novel virus, make containment most effective, and restart our economies; and
- Truly global. Pandemics don't respect borders, neither do the economic shocks they cause.
Coronavirus: Six Key Factors Poor Countries Should Focus on
- Inter Press Service

IBADAN, NIGERIA, Apr 21 (IPS) - Since the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic late last year in Wuhan, China, the global community has witnessed unprecedented policy responses to curtail, contain and control the disease. Many have proven to be successful. But others required critical context consideration.
The Theology of Pandemics
- Inter Press Service

NEW YORK, Apr 21 (IPS) - Ingmar Bergman's 1957 film The Seventh Seal is set in medieval Sweden, as the bubonic plague ravages the countryside. In one famous scene, a procession of zombie-like flagellants enters a village and interrupts a comic stage-show.
Covid-19: Brazil’s Bolsonaro trumps Trump
- Inter Press Service

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Apr 21 (IPS) - Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro appointed medical entrepreneur Nelson Teich his new health minister on 17 April. The businessman quickly echoed his boss' desire to resume business as usual regardless of its potentially lethal consequences.
Haunting Forest Spirits – is Mother Nature Striking Back?
- Inter Press Service

STOCKHOLM / ROME, Apr 20 (IPS) -
Epidemic diseases are not random events that afflict societies capriciously and without warning, on the contrary, every society produces its own specific vulnerabilities. To study them is to understand the importance of a society's structure, its standard of living, and its political priorities. Epidemics are a mirror, they show who we really are: Our ethics, beliefs, and socio-economic relationships.
-- Frank Snowden 1BCG Vaccine Fighting Coronavirus in South Asia
- Inter Press Service

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Apr 20 (IPS) - Numerous studies in many parts of the world have linked the BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) vaccination, widely used in the developing world with fewer Coronavirus cases. This is good news for countries that have universal BCG vaccination in tropical Asia and Africa.
Global Leaders Must Prioritise Children’s Wellbeing amid Coronavirus Pandemic - UN
- Inter Press Service

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 17 (IPS) - United Nations Secretary General António Guterres on Thursday pleaded with global leaders and families to ensure the protection of the world's children, millions of whom he says are vulnerable to a myriad of threats as a result of the shutdown arising from the global coronavirus pandemic.
Multilateralism Through Public-Private Partnerships Are Key to Flattening the COVID-19 Curve
- Inter Press Service

NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 17 (IPS) - The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that now is "a defining moment for modern society. History will judge the efficacy of the response not by the actions of any single set of government actors taken in isolation, but by the degree to which the response is coordinated globally across all sectors for the benefit of our human family."
On Watching Contagion: What Do We Learn?
- Inter Press Service

LONDON, Apr 17 (IPS) - Contagion is a 2011 film by US director Steven Soderbergh (Erin Brockovich, Traffic, Che) that has proved very popular viewing during the first few weeks of the Coronavirus crisis. Set in a fictional global pandemic – modelled on the outbreak of a bat-borne Nipah virus identified in 1999 that killed around 100 people in Malaysia - the film is a tightly-written topical drama with a great castthat includes Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard and Jennifer Ehle.

