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Africa Begins to Face Up to AIDS UP to 5 million people may be infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) on the African continent, more than twice as many [...]

AIDS: Statistics But Few Answers PARTICIPANTS at the Third InternationalConference on AIDS* (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) were inundated with data about the spread and transmission of the disease. Many of [...]

Salt industry representatives and government officials from eight southern African countries sat down together in Francistown, Botswana, last April to decide how to ensure that all salt consumed in the [...]

1995 is the target date set by the World Health Assembly in May 1991 for eradicating dracunculiasis (guinea-worm disease ). The same target date was set by African ministers of [...]

Malaria is one of the most important health problems of the countries of the African Region of WHO. Of the 110 million clinical cases found today throughout the world, 80% [...]

Much progress has been made in western Africa to eradicate polio but more effort is needed. Polio cases continue to occur because vaccination rates are low. In 1997, only three of 15 west African countries reported vaccination rates greater than 70%. During January 1997-June 1998, all but two countries administered supplementary vaccine during National Immunization Days (NIDs). During January-September 1998, 189 cases of paralysis were reported in West Africa. During the same period, wild poliovirus type 1 was isolated from 15 people with paralysis in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Niger, and Senegal.

PARIS--Each year, just before World AIDS Day on 1 December, United Nations AIDS officials release the latest statistics on the epidemic. This year's figures brought more bad news: An estimated [...]

Information technology is helping doctors in rural Africa consult with colleagues, exchange information, access current medical information, and remain connected to the global medical community. Many regions of Africa lack reliable telephone and electrical service and the technical knowledge to maintain a communication system. International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War launched SatelLife in 1991, a satellite network linking radio and telephone communications by satellite. Other organizations provide services to increase information exchange. Better communications is key to improving health and medical care in Africa.

Political violence in civil war and ethnic conflicts has generated millions of refugees across the African continent with unbelievable pictures of suffering and unnecessary death. Using a political ecology framework, this paper examines the geographies of exile and refugee movements and the associated implications for re-emerging and newly emerging infectious diseases in great detail. It examines how the political ecologic circumstances underlying the refugee crisis influences health services delivery and the problems of disease and health in refugee camps. It has four main themes, namely, an examination of the geography of the refugee crisis; the disruption of health services due to political ecologic forces that produce refugees; the breeding of disease in refugee camps due to the prevailing desperation and destitution; and the creation of an optimal environment for emergence and spread of disease due to the chaotic nature of war and violence that produces refugees. We argue in this paper that there is great potential of something more virulent than cholera and Ebola emerging and taking a big toll before being identified and controlled. We conclude by noting that once such a disease is out in the public rapid diffusion despite political boundaries is likely, a fact that has a direct bearing on global health. The extensive evidence presented in this paper of the overriding role of political factors in the refugee health problem calls for political reform and peace accords, engagement and empowerment of Pan-African organizations, foreign policy changes by Western governments and greater vigilance of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the allocation and distribution of relief aid. Key words - refugee crisis, political ecology, health and disease, Africa