Haiti
Brazil is set to donate 2 million dollars to help Haiti fight an outbreak of cholera and assist people suffering from the disease, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
The money is to go toward the purchase of medication and hospital equipment to fight the outbreak, which was confirmed last week and has already caused 259 deaths and more than 3,000 infections, according to Haitian authorities.
Further, two Brazilian epidemiologists are set to travel to Haiti this week to help Haitian authorities draw up a strategy to hinder the cholera spread.
Brazil was assessing a possible release of additional money as an “extraordinary loan” to finance the work of the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) in Haiti, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued in Brasilia.
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Dilma Rousseff may have failed to win in the first round of voting because she favoured legalising abortion. Reuters
Presidential contenders Dilma Rousseff and Jose Serra court religious right, altering their positions on ‘moral’ issues.
The issue of abortion has turned into a weapon that threatens to take away votes from the candidates in the campaign for the second round of presidential elections in Brazil, with conservative religious groups using it as a bargaining chip in exchange for their support.
But this situation does not reflect the position of the majority of voters, who are in favour of the decriminalisation of abortion, say analysts and representatives of the women’s movement, which criticise the use of women’s bodies as a means of electoral pressure.
The question of whether abortion, which is currently punishable by up to 10 years in prison in Brazil, should be legalised has become a flashpoint issue in the campaign for the October 31 runoff vote between Dilma Rousseff of the governing Workers Party (PT) and her rival José Serra of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB).
Earlier indications that Rousseff favoured the legalisation of abortion were seen as the main reason she failed to win outright in the first round of voting, on October 3.
As in most of Latin America, abortion is illegal in Brazil except in cases of rape or when the mother’s life is in danger.
A decisive number of voters defected from the Rousseff camp to Green Party candidate Marina Silva, an evangelical Christian.
Silva, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s (no relation) former environment minister, is opposed to abortion and proposed holding a referendum on whether or not it should be legalised. (more…)
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City of Joao Pessoa Flag
Brazil’s Paraiba state capital Joao Pessoa is set to receive 125mn reais (US$75.5mn) to improve basic sanitation services under phase two of the national growth acceleration plan (PAC), a spokesperson from state water utility Cagepa told BNamericas.
“A total of 53.4mn reais is going toward projects to expand sewerage service, with the remaining 71.4mn reais being used to improve the city’s potable water supply,” the spokesperson said.
The neighborhoods of Jose Americo, Bessa and Valentina Figueiredo will receive 19.2mn, 9.6mn and 8mn reais, respectively, for work on their sewage systems.
PAC II will also allocate 10.4mn reais to the Pedreira wastewater treatment plant and another 6.2mn reais will go towards cleaning up beaches in Seixas and Penha.
In terms of potable water, 29.5mn reais will go towards building the Translitoranea water main, 11mn reais toward improving the Gramame water treatment plant and 2mn reais will be used to improve pipeline flow and install pressure meters.
The Cidade Verde neighborhood will receive 2mn reais for potable water improvements, the spokesperson said.
Business News Americas - English
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Edeilson Manoel do Nascimento holds an X-ray showing a knife that was inside his head. (AP Photo/Helia Scheppa, JC Imagem)
Brazil doctors remove knife blade stuck in man’s head for 3 years
A man in northeastern Brazil is recovering after surgeons removed a 4-inch (10-centimeter) blade that had been stuck in his head for three years following a bar fight. Edeilson Nascimento, a 29-year-old tire repairman, tells reporters Friday he is feeling great after the three-hour surgery earlier this week.
He is expected to be released from a hospital in the city of Recife next week.
Nascimento says he got into a bar fight in 2007 and was attacked by assailants when he returned home.
At the time, doctors only removed the knife handle, fearing that pulling the blade from his head would cause brain damage.
But three years of intense headaches led Nascimento to take a chance on the surgery.
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Brazil slashed its infant mortality rates by 50% between 1990 and 2006 thanks to rising incomes and better healthcare
The woman at the door furrows her brow and breaks into a giggle. “What’s broccoli?”
It’s early afternoon in Ipuca, a rural shantytown in one of the most deprived corners of Rio de Janeiro state, and Lucileide Alves Costa, a 25-year-old mother of two, is receiving a visit from members of the Pastoral da Crianca, an outreach group devoted to fighting infant mortality.
Pointing to 1-year-old Francisco, the visitors rattle off a list questions from their notebook: “Is he eating ok?” “Does he eat vegetables?” “Has he been vaccinated?” Costa responds in the affirmative - until broccoli is mentioned. “I use onions and pepper – and stock cubes,” Costa confesses. “But I’ve never cooked broccoli. What is that?”
Welcome to the frontline of a three-decade battle against infant mortality in Brazil, a country that has managed to drastically reduce death rates over the last 30 years, saving tens of thousands of young lives.
A 2008 study by Unicef found that Brazil had slashed infant mortality rates, those among children between 0 and 1 year of age, by over 50% between 1990 and 2006. According to the report the national death rate had dropped from 48 deaths per thousand live births to around 19.
Even in Brazil’s indigenous communities, some of the worst-affected areas, the government says things are improving. According to Brazil’s health agency Funasa, there was a 10% drop in infant deaths in indigenous areas between 2007-2009.
In 2000, Funasa claimed that the death rate in such areas was nearly 75 for every 1,000 children under the age of one. In 2009 that figure dropped to around 42 per 1,000. (more…)
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