http://ssla.oneworld.net/article/archive/2752 sh_SH http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/160942/1/2752 U.S. presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama are missing a massive opportunity to save lives and radically change the course of world history, say health and education activists Saul Garlick and Elizabeth Arkell. http://www.oneworld.net/article/view/160758/1/2752 CAPE TOWN, May 30 (IPS) - When four-year-old Alice Were suddenly developed a fever, her mother Miriam took her to the local medicine woman close to her house in Kangemi, a poor, cramped settlement on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Two days later, Alice was unconscious. Her frantic mother rushed to hospital with the child in her arms. But it was too late. Alice died of malaria. http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/160689/1/2752 According to World Bank’s Global Monitoring Report 2008, the rate of absenteeism among health workers is highest in India. The report says that if corrective measures are not taken the MDGs with regard to reduction in child and maternal mortality are unlikely to be met. http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/160633/1/2752 In a recent campaign by the government in Bangladesh, 19 million children under the age of five have been administered life-saving vitamin A doses. Vitamin A deficiency increases the risk of diseases measles and diarrhoea, both contributing to more than one-third of child deaths in the country. http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/160408/1/2752 Traditional midwives or dais have been overlooked by India’s National Rural Health Mission that focuses solely on institutional delivery. In a country having the highest maternal mortality rate and collapsing rural health care, there is a need to integrate these women in public health programmes.