JUMBO BURA IS HOME AWAY FROM JUNGLE HOME

Bura, the 14-month-old calf elephant at David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi. The elephant, injured by poachers in a Kenyan game reserve, has been adopted by the United Nations Security Council. As a parting gift, Britain's outgoing president of the Security Council, Jeremy Greenstock, persuaded the 15-member body to adopt the elephant calf, named Bura. (AP Photo).

Killer malaria still stalks Africa’s child

By Susan Mabonga and Naftali Mungai

The African child still continues to bear the brunt of the apparently uncontrollable dreaded killer malaria.
According to the latest World Health Organisation statistics, more than 3,000 children still die of malaria in Africa daily. This is despite the Governments’ commitment to the fight against the killer disease. In Kenya for instance, an estimated 93 children die from this parasitic disease daily.
And despite newer and traditional malaria control efforts, including drugs, chemical spraying and insecticide-impregnated bed-nets that are now the mainstay of malaria control in Africa, the scourge continues its relentless march, taking an unacceptably heavy toll on the continent’s children.
Globally, an estimated 20 per cent of the world’s population, mostly in the world’s poorest countries, is at risk of contracting malaria. The disease causes more than 300 million acute illnesses and kills at least one million people every year.

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Cote D’Ivoire gets grant to fight HIV/Aids

THE Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight Aids has just granted $92 million to Cote d’Ivoire to fight the epidemic in the strife-torn West African country.
Cote D’Ivoire, with a population of 16 million, is the most affected by HIV/Aids in West Africa.
Unfortunately, the country has been split into two by a six-month civil war, making it virtually impossible for anti-Aids campaigners to operate freely.
“Cote D’Ivoire’s monitoring system is in disarray in more than half the country. How will those living with HIV/Aids in conflict zones take advantage of this grant? It will be hard to locate all those still alive, given the prevailing security situation in war zones,’’ says Urban Tiecoura of Luniere Action, a non-governmental organisation, working with people living with HIV/Aids in Cote D’Ivoire.
Since the outbreak of the civil war in September 2002, anti-Aids groups have found it hard to keep track of people living with HIV/Aids, most of who have fled for their lives. Since there is no possibility of reaching them in the bush, those living with HIV/Aids will have to cope on their own.

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