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Latin American link-up aims for US$1 syphilis test
Paraguayan and Uruguayan scientists are working together to develop a US$1 diagnostic test for syphilis, which they hope could be launched as early as next year. The early-detection kit for a disease that affects three million people in Latin America would be used alongside pregnancy tests to cut cases of congenital syphilis, say the researchers, who have linked up through the UN University's Biotechnology Programme for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNU-BIOLAC), based in Venezuela.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Latin America
- Tags
- public health
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Unequal Access to Health Care in Latin America No. 1 Killer of Moms & Kids
An international delegation recently concluded their meeting on infant and maternal health in Latin America. The conclusion – unequal access to health care is still the number one killer for mothers and their children. While child mortality has more than halved in the region according to the World Bank, children from impoverished homes are five times more likely to die before they turn five years old. The majority of those deaths deemed preventable. Over the past 20 years significant improvements have been made on maternal health and mortality rates have dropped by 40 percent.
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- Health Care
- Region
- Latin America
- Tags
- public health
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Brazil, facing health-care crisis, imports Cuban doctors
Since the 1960s, Cuba has deployed an army of doctors by the tens of thousands to the world’s most inhospitable corners, from Haiti to Africa’s killing fields to the ultra-violent barrios of Venezuela.Now, thousands of Cubans are heading to relatively affluent Brazil to shore up a decrepit health-care system that has become a national embarrassment.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Latin America
- Tags
- public health
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Mortality rate in Latin America and Caribbean drops
With the exception of young men, most people in Latin America and the Caribbean are living much longer today than 40 years ago. The mortality rate has dropped by at least 80 percent for children 4 years old or younger and by more than 50 percent for women between the ages of 20 and 44. For men between the ages of 15 and 19, however, the mortality rate has increased by 1 percent, largely due to deaths from road injuries and rising violence.
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- Health Care
- Region
- Latin America
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Bringing Solar To Impoverished Towns, With A Model Straight From The Corporate World
Disillusioned by corporate life, Manuel Aguilar and Juan Rodriguez started Quetsol, an organization that uses business acumen to supply rural Guatemalans with solar power.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Latin America
- Tags
- rural development, solar
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Colombia is world’s first country to wipe out river blindness – WHO
Colombia has become the first country in the world to eradicate river blindness through the distribution of an anti-parasitic drug in affected parts of the South American nation and a sustained health education campaign in local communities, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.
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- Health Care
- Region
- Latin America
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Breast-feeding woes: Mexico sees dramatic drop of moms nursing, raising concerns over health
Despite the well-known advantages to breast milk and vigorous campaigns around the world championing breast as best, Mexican mothers say the bottle is better.
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- Health Care
- Region
- Latin America
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Brazil’s eco-tourists keep social enterprises successful and sustainable
The three–part series closes with an investigation into Brazilian ecotourism and social entreprise success by Iguazu Falls.
- Categories
- Environment
- Region
- Latin America