AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Co-captain Lindsey Horan brushed aside criticism leveled at the United States by former teammate-turned-pundit Carli Lloyd, calling it outside noise.
Lloyd called her former team “uninspiring” and criticized players for dancing and laughing with fans after the match in Auckland on Tuesday
“I have never witnessed something like that,” she said. “There’s a difference between being respectful of the fans and saying hello to your family, but to be dancing, to be smiling?”
The next day, Lloyd walked back the comments a bit: “I was very critical of the team last night. I had some time to reflect, to sleep on it and I want people to understand that I care deeply about this team.
Horan said Thursday that Lloyd’s comments stung.
“It’s kind of frustrating for me to hear, especially knowing this team and knowing how much we put into every single game, how much preparation we put into every single game, seeing our trainings, seeing how hard we work,” Horan said.
Lindsey Horan said she was frustrated by negative comments former U.S. World Cup winner Carli Lloyd.
The United States has long retreated into a bubble environment at the World Cup, staying off social media, avoiding commentators and generally shutting out the outside world.
So the criticism aimed at the team essentially is just noise, Horan said.
“Again, it’s noise and, again, it’s an opinion and everyone is entitled to their own opinion. We know that’s how it goes,” Horan said. “I always want to defend my team and say, ’You have no idea what’s going on behind the scenes, you have no idea every single training what we’re doing individually, collectively, etc.”
The United States, which has won a record four World Cup titles, faces Sweden on Sunday in Melbourne, Australia, to open the Round of 16.
Lloyd, who retired in 2021, scored three goals in the first 16 minutes of the 2015 World Cup final against Japan, and the United States went on to win the title 5-2. She also was on the squad that won the 2019 World Cup.
Two pregnant girls walk through the center of the capital of El Salvador, a country with one of the highest rates of pregnancies among girls aged 10 to 14, and where, as in the rest of Central America, what prevails are conservative views opposed to the teaching of sex education in schools, which is essential to reducing the phenomenon. CREDIT: Francisco Campos / IPS
by Edgardo Ayala (san salvador)
Inter Press Service
SAN SALVADOR, Aug 03 (IPS) – Pregnancies among girls and adolescents continue unabated in Central America, where legislation to prevent them, when it exists, is a dead letter, and governments are influenced by conservative sectors opposed to sex education in schools.
The most recent incident reflecting this situation was the Jul. 29 veto by Honduran President Xiomara Castro of an Integral Law for the Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy, approved by the single-chamber Congress on Mar. 8 and criticized by conservative groups and the country’s political right wing.
“We don’t know the arguments behind the veto, but we could surmise that the law is still being held up by pressure from these anti-rights groups,” lawyer Erika García, of the Women’s Rights Center, told IPS from Tegucigalpa.
The influence of lobbying groups
Conservative sectors, united in “Por nuestros hijos” (“for our children”), a Honduran version of the regional movement “Con mis Hijos no te Metas” (roughly “don’t mess with my children”), have opposed the law because in their view it pushes “gender ideology”, as international conservative populist groups call the current movement for the dissemination of women’s and LGBTI rights.
In June, the United Nations expressed concern about “disinformation campaigns” surrounding the Honduran law.
The last of the marches in favor of “family and children” took place in Tegucigalpa, the country’s capital, on Jul. 22.
These groups “appeal to people’s ignorance, to fear, to religion, with arguments that have nothing to do with reality,” said García. “They say, for example, that people will put skirts on boys and pants on girls.”
According to the Honduran Penal Code having sexual relations with minors under 14 years of age is statutory rape, whether or not the girl consented.
In 2022, 1039 girls under 14 gave birth.
“The problem is quite serious, and it is aggravated by the lack of public policies to prevent pregnancies among girls and adolescents,” García said.
In the countries of Central America, which have a combined total of some 50 million inhabitants, ultra-conservative views prevail when it comes to sexual and reproductive health and education.
In El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua – as well as the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean – abortion is banned under all circumstances, including rape, incest or a threat to the mother’s life.
In the rest of Central America, abortion is only permitted in certain circumstances.
The Honduran president vetoed the law under the formula “return to Congress”, so that it can be studied again and eventually ratified if two thirds of the 128 lawmakers approve it.
Zuleyma Beltrán, 41, talked about becoming pregnant at the age of 15 because there is no proper sex education in El Salvador. A second pregnancy led to a miscarriage that landed her in jail in 1999, where many Salvadoran women who miscarry or have abortions end up due to a draconian anti-abortion law. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala / IPS
“I didn’t even know what a condom was”
However, having laws of this nature does not ensure that the phenomenon will be reduced, since legislation is not always enforced.
An UNFPA report noted that in this country the pregnancy rate among girls and adolescents dropped by more than 50 percent between 2015 and 2022.
However, “it is worrisome to see that El Salvador is one of the 50 countries in the world with the highest fertility rates in girls aged 10-14 years,” the UN agency said in its latest report, released in July.
Among girls aged 10-14, the study noted, the pregnancy rate dropped by 59.6 percent, from 4.7 girls registered for prenatal care per 1000 girls in 2015 to 1.9 in 2022.
The map of pregnancies in girls and adolescents in El Salvador added that the country “needs to further accelerate the pace of reduction, adopting policies and strategies adapted to the different realities of girls aged 10-14 years and adolescents aged 15-19 years.”
Such actions must be “evidence-based,” the report stressed.
The reference appears to be an allusion to the prevalence of conservative attitudes of groups that, in Honduras for example, reject sexual and reproductive education in schools.
This lack of basic knowledge about sexuality, in a context of structural poverty, led Zuleyma Beltrán to fall pregnant at the age of 15.
“When I became pregnant I didn’t even know what a condom was, I’m not ashamed to say it,” Beltrán, now 41, told IPS.
She added: “I suffered a lot because I didn’t know many things, because I lived in ignorance.”
Two years later, Beltrán became pregnant again but she miscarried, which landed her in jail in August 1999, accused of having an abortion – a plight faced by hundreds of women in El Salvador.
El Salvador not only bans abortion under any circumstances, even in cases of rape. It also imposes penalties of up to 30 years in prison for women who have undergone abortions, and women who end up in the hospital after suffering a miscarriage are often prosecuted under the law as well.
“The State does not provide girls with sex education or sexual and reproductive health, and when pregnancies or obstetric emergencies occur as a result, it is too cruel to them, it only offers them jail,” she added.
Recinos said that, due to pressure from conservative groups, the State has backed down on the strategy of providing sexual and reproductive information in schools.
“Now they are more rigorous in not allowing organizations working in that area to go and give talks on comprehensive sex education in schools,” she noted.
Not even baby formula
In Guatemala, initiatives by civil society organizations that since 2017 have proposed, among other things, that the State should offer reparations to pregnant girls and adolescents, to alleviate their heavy burden, have made no progress either.
These proposals included the creation of scholarships, making it possible for girls to continue going to school while their babies were cared for and received formula.
“But unfortunately we have not been able to take the next step, to get these measures in place,” said Paula Barrios, general coordinator of Women Transforming the World, in a telephone conversation with IPS from the capital, Guatemala City.
Barrios said that most of the users of the services offered by this organization, such as legal and psychological support, “are girls and adolescents who are pregnant because of sexual violence and are forced to have their babies.”
She said that in the last five years some 500,000 girls under 14 years of age have become pregnant, and the number is much higher when teenagers up to 19 years of age are included.
“Today we have half a million girls who we don’t know what they and the children who are the products of rape are eating,” Barrios stressed, adding that as in El Salvador and Honduras, in Guatemala, having sex with a girl under 14 years of age is considered statutory rape.
“Society sees it as normal that women are born to be mothers, and so it doesn’t matter if a girl gets pregnant at the age of 10 or 12 years, they just think she has done it a little bit earlier,” she said.
Patriarchy and capitalism
The experts from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador consulted by IPS said the root of the phenomenon is multi-causal, with facets of patriarchy, especially gender stereotypes and sexual violence.
“The patriarchy has an interest in stopping women from going out into the public sphere,” said Barrios.
She said the life of a 10-year-old girl is cut short when she becomes pregnant. She will no longer go to school and will remain in the domestic sphere, “to raise children and stay at home.”
For her part, Garcia, the lawyer from Honduras, pointed out that there is also an underlying “system of oppression” that is intertwined with patriarchy and colonialism, which is the influence of a hegemonic country or region.
“We have girls giving birth to cheap labor to feed the (capitalist) system, and there is a greater feminization of poverty, girls giving birth to girls whose future prospects are ruined,” she said.
In the meantime, to avoid a repeat of her ordeal, Beltrán said she talks to and teaches her nine-year-old daughter about sexuality.
“In order to keep her from repeating my story, I talk to her about condoms, how a woman has to take care of herself and how she can get pregnant,” she said.
“I don’t want her to go through what I did,” she said.
Newswise — MONTCLAIR, NJ – [August 1, 2023] – Hackensack Meridian Mountainside Medical Center is proud to announce the introduction of Cerianna, an advanced breast imaging technology, further solidifying its commitment to providing cutting-edge healthcare services to the community. Cerianna represents a significant step forward in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, offering unprecedented precision and accuracy in detecting and localizing breast lesions.
Breast cancer is a prevalent and potentially life-threatening disease that affects countless women worldwide. Recognizing the urgent need for improved diagnostic tools, Mountainside Medical Center has made a substantial investment in acquiring Cerianna. This state-of-the-art technology allows for the identification and localization of cancerous lesions through molecular breast imaging, enabling physicians to provide personalized and targeted treatment plans.
Cerianna utilizes a novel imaging agent, which binds to the cancer cells and emits gamma-ray signals, allowing for precise localization and characterization of estrogen receptor (ER) positive lesions in patients with recurrent or metastatic breast cancer. This advanced method offers superior sensitivity, making it an indispensable tool for accurate tumor detection, staging, and monitoring treatment response.
CEO Tim O’Brien emphasizes the significance of bringing such advanced technology to a community hospital. “At Hackensack Meridian Mountainside Medical Center, we are dedicated to ensuring that our patients have access to innovative and effective healthcare solutions close to home,” he states. “By introducing Cerianna, we are taking a significant stride forward in the fight against breast cancer, providing our community with a crucial resource that eliminates the need for patients to travel for specialized care.”
The availability of Cerianna at Mountainside Medical Center marks a turning point for women in the community who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. Previously, patients had to travel considerable distances to access similar technology. Now, they can benefit from this cutting-edge tool within their own community, receiving expert care and personalized treatment plans from a team of dedicated professionals. “With the introduction of Cerianna, we eliminate the need for our community members to travel for specialized care, bringing cutting-edge breast imaging right to their doorstep,” says Ann Chuang, M.D., breast surgeon and medical director of Mountainside’s Breast Program.
The Cancer Program at Mountainside Medical Center is accredited by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer with commendation, a designation awarded to only about one quarter of all cancer care hospitals nationwide. A multidisciplinary team collaborates from screening and early detection through treatment and post-rehabilitation to provide an individualized care plan for each patient. The program offers a collaborative case review, sophisticated diagnostic resources, access to clinical trials, counseling and psychosocial services, infusion services, radiation oncology, genetic counseling, palliative support, nutrition education and counseling, among other services.
About Hackensack Meridian Mountainside Medical Center
Mountainside Medical Center has been serving Montclair and its surrounding New Jersey communities since 1891. The hospital provides patients immediate access to innovative and effective treatment alternatives at specialized centers within the hospital that focus on imaging, women’s health, cancer care, surgery, obesity, stroke and chronic kidney disease. Mountainside Medical Center is a designated Primary Stroke Center by the NJ State Department of Health and Senior Services and is one of only a few community hospitals licensed by the State to perform emergency and elective cardiac angioplasty. To learn more about Mountainside Medical Center visit www.mountainsidehosp.com.
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Hackensack Meridian Health (Mountainside Medical Center)
Canada’s Allysha Chapman’s frustration was on clear display during Monday’s 4-0 defeat to Australia, which saw the Canadian team eliminated from the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
After a robust 64th-minute challenge with Australia’s Hayley Raso, which left Raso on the ground, on-pitch microphones recorded Canada’s Chapman as shouting:
“She fucking jumped into me you twat.”
But it prompted BBC commentator Robyn Cowen to say sorry to viewers for the salty comment. “Apologies there if any language was picked up on the very sensitive pitch-side microphones it seems,” said Cowen.
Australia won 4-0 with goals from Mary Fowler, Steph Catley and two from Raso. Australia advances to the knockout round.
Newswise — As with many toxins, exposure to the toxic metal cadmium during pregnancy can adversely impact fetal development. Now, researchers at the Rutgers School of Public Health think they’re beginning to understand how the metal inflicts its damage: by disrupting placental hormones that regulate pregnancy physiology.
Unlike other toxins, relatively little cadmium crosses the placenta to directly impact the fetus. Instead, the placenta concentrates cadmium in its tissue at rates of up to six times that found in umbilical cord serum.
“We already know a lot about cadmium and its detrimental impacts on fetal health, such as low birthweight,” said Zorimar Rivera-Núñez, an assistant professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology and lead author of the study published in the journal Toxics. “What we don’t really understand is how the placenta regulates exposure to cadmium and other toxicants. That’s what this research was trying to ascertain.”
Very few epidemiological studies have examined cadmium’s endocrine-disrupting potential during pregnancy, the researchers said. To address this knowledge gap, Rivera-Núñez, together with Megan Hansel, a doctoral degree student at the Rutgers School of Public Health, and Camila Capurro, a clinical research assistant at the school and an MPH student, analyzed urine samples from 294 pregnant women who participated in the Understanding Pregnancy Signals and Infant Development (UPSIDE) study in Rochester, N.Y.
Study participants provided urine samples during each trimester and answered questions about demographics, lifestyle, health history and other measures.
By testing their urine for cadmium and sex steroid levels, including testosterone, which is important to fetal brain development, the researchers determined as cadmium levels increased, levels of free testosterone – testosterone that isn’t attached to a protein – decreased.
At the same time, total testosterone – both free and bound testosterone – remained stable, suggesting cadmium may influence fetal exposure to sex steroids, which in turn can adversely influence fetal growth.
“We think that what cadmium is doing is altering the bound/unbound process of testosterone during pregnancy,” said Rivera-Núñez. “If cadmium is interfering with these binding proteins, it might explain why we’re seeing lower levels of free, or unbound, testosterone.”
Rivera-Núñez said one goal of this research is to help pregnant women avoid cadmium exposure. Doing so will be difficult: Although human exposure occurs through tobacco products, it’s frequently found in foods, accumulating in the environment through industrial emissions, mining and the burning of coal. To address these sources, expectant mothers need to understand the risks and regulators must work to keep the toxin from the environment in the first place, she said.
“If we can understand the mechanisms by which cadmium impacts growth in utero, we might be able to understand how similar chemicals work on the placenta,” Rivera-Núñez said. “Eventually, that could help lower exposure risks across the board.”
Newswise — Though it’s just as likely to be worn while lounging on the couch as in the gym, a large driver of activewear’s popularity among women is its association with a dynamic lifestyle, positive wellbeing and overall good health.
However, two new Edith Cowan University (ECU) studies suggest online shopping for activewear may in fact be harmful to women’s body image.
Sales of “Athleisure” — a hybrid style of athletic clothing typically worn as everyday wear — have risen rapidly following the onset of COVID-19 and are expected to be worth more than $548 billion globally by 2024.
Led by ECU psychology researcher Dr Ross Hollett, the new studies are the first to use an eye-tracking experiment to explore online clothing shopping for activewear and its psychological outcomes.
During laboratory sessions, women were randomly allocated to browse an activewear, casualwear or home decor website for 15-20 minutes.
Their body image and self-esteem were then measured using a combination of self-report and reaction time measures.
After the shopping activity, researchers used eye tracking technology to measure the women’s eye gaze behaviour towards a new set of female images, to see if the websites they browsed led to changes in where they focused their attention.
Both studies found women felt worse about their looks and experienced lower self-esteem after browsing an activewear website.
In comparison, browsing for casual clothing or homewares did not lead to negative body image or lower self-esteem.
Dr Hollett said activewear retailers deliberately used body-focused marketing to promote their products, which tended to be tight, form-fitting or revealing.
“Activewear marketers often use images of toned athletic models who are cropped to focus on specific body parts, for example buttocks or breasts,” he said.
“This type of imagery can be very threatening to women’s body image because it promotes an idealised and difficult to attain physique.”
Clues from gaze behaviour
Dr Hollett said the first experiment found an interesting pattern of attention when researchers tracked women’s eyes towards a new set of female images after the activewear shopping activity.
“Women who browsed for activewear showed much lower body gaze, meaning they preferred to gaze at faces, compared to women who browsed for casualwear,” he said.
“One potential reason for this finding is that women who browsed for activewear may have felt their body image was threatened by the body-focussed imagery used by the activewear website.
“When body image is threatened, women may be less likely to continue looking at other women’s bodies after browsing for activewear because they feel more uncomfortable.”
Choose websites wisely to protect your self-esteem
Almost 100 per cent of women involved in Dr Hollett’s study had shopped online for clothes in their lifetime, and 80 per cent had done so in the past month.
They spent about 90-100 minutes per week browsing for clothes online, with activewear one of the most popular clothing categories — second only to casualwear.
“In one of our studies, we found a general reduction in negative mood across all the shopping websites, suggesting that online shopping might be used by women to alleviate negative mood by offering a distraction from everyday stresses,” Dr Hollett said.
However, Dr Hollett said if women do engage with online shopping to reduce negative mood, the choice of website is important.
“Browsing some apparel websites might put women at risk of negative self-concept because they are comparing themselves with fit and toned models in tight fitting clothing which may contribute to longer term issues such as body shame and depression,” he said.
Dr Hollett said clothing retailers are under increasing pressure to operate in ethically responsible ways, such as reducing environmental impact or avoiding exploitative labour.
However, he said minimising the negative impact of retail imagery on the psychological wellbeing of consumers was also their responsibility.
“Our research offers some of the first experimental evidence that the use of sexually objectifying imagery by some online apparel retailers is threatening to women’s wellbeing,” he said.
“These findings provide an impetus to explore alternative marketing strategies which achieve the retailer’s objectives while minimising threats to the self-worth of consumers.”
The study ‘Gaze behaviour, body image in women and online apparel shopping’ was published in the International Journal of Consumer Studies and the study ‘Experimental evidence that browsing for activewear lowers explicit body image attitudes and implicit self-esteem in women’ was published in the Journal Body Image.
Video of two tribal women being assaulted has caused outrage with questions for the governing BJP.
It happened more than two months ago, but video only released last week of a mob in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur, attacking two women has led to outrage.
The women were stripped naked and paraded in public with no help from the police.
The governing BJP is also in charge of the state – and changes it has made to tribal land rights have been behind the region’s recent ethnic unrest.
So will this have any impact on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP, with elections next year?
Could it have any influence on women’s rights in India?
Presenter: Adrian Finighan
Guests:
Tora Agarwala – Independent journalist who covers India’s northeastern region
Mohan Krishna – Spokesperson for India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
Binalakshmi Nepram – Convenor at the Northeast India Women Initiative for Peace
AUKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — Sophia Smith scored twice for the United States in the opening half and the two-time defending champions kicked off the Women’s World Cup with a 3-0 victory over tournament first-timers Vietnam on Saturday.
Lindsey Horan added a goal for the favored Americans, who have won four World Cups overall and are vying for an unprecedented three-peat in this year’s tournament.
Vietnam drew comparisons to Thailand, the team the Americans routed 13-0 in in their 2019 World Cup opening game. But Vietnam was surprisingly resilient, kept the game closer than expected, and goalkeeper Tran Thi Kim Thanh stopped Alex Morgan’s first-half penalty attempt.
Morgan was knocked to the field clutching her calf after trying for the rebound off her missed penalty, but she quickly returned. It was just her second penalty miss for the United States.
Smith, one of 14 Americans playing in their first World Cup, showed why she was named both U.S. Soccer’s Player of the Year and the National Women’s Soccer League MVP last year with her two first-half goals.
Smith scored off a pass from captain Lindsey Horan in the 14th minute. Smith and Horan celebrated with a choreographed handshake after the goal. She scored again in first-half stoppage time to make it 2-0 going into the break. The United States was at first flagged as offside before a video review confirmed the goal.
The U.S. team was infused with young talent including Smith and Trinity Rodman after settling for a disappointing bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics. Among the veterans, 38-year-old Megan Rapinoe made her 200th international appearance against Vietnam.
Rapinoe, who scored in the World Cup final in France and was named that tournament’s best player, did not start. She announced before the team left for New Zealand that this would be her last World Cup and she would retire from her professional team at the end of the season.
Rapinoe and midfielder Rose Lavelle, who were both limited by injuries in the run-up to the tournament, both came in as substitutes in the 63rd minute. Rapinoe sported bright blue hair.
The youngest player on the team, 18-year-old Alyssa Thompson, was also a second-half sub.
Horan scored into a wide-open net off a pass from Smith, who was rushed by the goalkeeper and deftly sent the ball back to her. Horan, who was recently engaged, kissed her ring in celebration.
There was early drama when Rodman, the daughter of former NBA great Dennis Rodman and one of the young newcomers on the team, appeared injured after falling hard on her back when she was tackled by defender Tran Thi Thu. Rapinoe warmed up on the sidelines and a stretcher was brought out on the filed, but Rodman stood and returned to the match a few moments later.
Saturday’s game was the first meeting between the United States and Vietnam. The Vietnamese lost two exhibition matches ahead of the tournament and fell 9-0 to Spain in a closed-door tune-up match in Auckland last Friday.
Also in Group E are the Netherlands and Portugal, which meet Sunday in Dunedin. Portugal is also making its first World Cup appearance.
The group plays all of their matches in New Zealand, which is co-hosting the tournament with Australia. The United States plays the Netherlands in a 2019 final rematch on Thursday in Wellington.
Should the United States top the group, the team will head to Sydney for the round of 16.
Back home in the United States, a sign was erected on the North Lawn of the White House that said “Go Team USA! We are all behind you.”
AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — In the words of Vietnam’s coach, facing the U.S. national team in the Women’s World Cup is a daunting quest, something “like a mountain,” said Mai Duc Chung.
Vietnam makes its World Cup debut Saturday against the United States, the heavy favorites to win the tournament for an unprecedented third time. The Americans enter Saturday’s game in Auckland at Eden Park with the same confidence it carried through its last two World Cup-winning runs.
“The U.S. is a very, very strong team. It is like a mountain. But it doesn’t mean that we will give up,” said Mai.
But few believe Vietnam has a chance. The national team is very similar to Thailand, which the Americans thumped 13-0 in the opener at the World Cup four years ago in France. The United States went on to beat the Netherlands 2-0 for its second consecutive World Cup and fourth overall, the most of any nation.
“Fear? We Believe,” said captain Nuynh Nhu. “We’ve already prepared. Nothing to fear, nothing to be afraid of.”
The Americans wouldn’t dare discount an opponent, particularly after the criticism it took for running up the score against Thailand four years ago in France. They are taking Vietnam in the opening game quite seriously.
“We want to show our respect by giving our best game, and we know that they’ll do the same for us,” captain Lindsey Horan said Friday, the eve of the match. “I think everyone always gives us their best game.”
The United States has a new cast of players at this World Cup, including 14 who are making their first appearance in soccer’s biggest tournament. Among them is 18-year-old phenom Alyssa Thompson and up-and-comer Trinity Rodman, the 20-year-old daughter of former NBA star Dennis Rodman.
AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND – JULY 22: Trinity Rodman of USA arrives at the stadium prior to the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023 Group E match between USA and Vietnam at Eden Park on July 22, 2023 in Auckland / Tāmaki Makaurau, New Zealand. (Photo by Hannah Peters – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
Coach Vlatko Andonovski infused the United States with young talent after the team finished with a disappointing bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
“I think that we have a very good mix of young, energetic, enthusiastic players, and experienced players that have been through tough games, that have been in big tournaments and know how to win big games,” Andonovski said.
Megan Rapinoe is among the veterans on the squad and should make her 200th appearance for the national team if she plays against Vietnam. Rapinoe, 38, announced before the team left for New Zealand that this would be her last World Cup and she would retire from her professional team at the end of the season.
Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle were both limited by injuries in the run-up to the tournament, but Andonovski said both are available to play.
Also in Group E are the Netherlands and Portugal, which meet Sunday in Dunedin. Portugal is also making its first World Cup appearance.
The teams play all of their matches in New Zealand, which is co-hosting the tournament with Australia. Should the United States top the group, the team will head to Sydney for the round of 16.
Saturday’s game will be the first meeting between the United States and Vietnam. The Vietnamese lost two exhibition matches ahead of the tournament and fell 9-0 to Spain in a closed-door tune-up match in Auckland last Friday.
Andonovski was asked what would happen if the United States lost to Vietnam, similar to how Argentina lost to Saudi Arabia at the beginning of the men’s World Cup in Qatar last year. Argentina recovered to win the World Cup.
“Then we’ll have to win the next two games and move forward,” the coach said, “and hopefully end up like Argentina.”
Nigeria goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie on Friday made the save of the Women’s World Cup so far ― and it could stand up for quite a while. (Watch the video below.)
Nnadozie denied Canadian great Christine Sinclair on a penalty kick in the 50th minute, diving left to block the attempt and then slapping the ball away as Sinclair rushed the net for a second chance.
The spectacular play preserved a 0-0 tie in Melbourne, Australia, that might feel more like a victory for Nigeria. The squad is ranked 40th in the world and Canada, the defending Olympic champion, is ranked 7th.
But on this occasion she couldn’t convert. She sat on the turf and slumped her head between her knees in disbelief.
If American viewers want to catch the first game live, they’re in for a very, very early morning. The first match kicking things off will be New Zealand vs. Norway at noon in Auckland. For U.S. viewers, that will be at 3 a.m. EDT on Thursday. Slightly less dedicated viewers can shoot for the second game – Australia vs. Ireland in Sydney – which starts at 6 a.m. ET and marks Ireland’s first ever appearance in the Women’s World Cup.
Dr Rintaro Mori, Regional Adviser, Population Ageing and Sustainable Development at UNFPA, told the conference it was crucial to invest to improve social security, health, and well-being. Credit: APDA
by Cecilia Russell (bangkok & johannesburg)
Inter Press Service
BANGKOK & JOHANNESBURG, Jul 19 (IPS) – Countries with falling population growth face twin dilemmas: Ensuring their aging population live healthy and fulfilling lives and removing barriers to parenthood.
This was the focus of a recent workshop in Thailand reviewing the ICPD30 process and preparation for the Summit for the Future slated for next year (2024).
The workshop was opened by Professor Keizo Takemi, MP Japan and Chair of AFPPD, who contextualized the issue.
“In the Asia Pacific region, a profound shift awaits us. By 2050, one in four individuals will be about the age of 60, with a majority of them being women. The empowerment and the well-being of these women become essential for their meaningful and independent participation in the socio-economic development.”
The meeting sought to highlight what is required from lawmakers to ensure a dynamic and balanced aging society where older people will be physically, mentally, and economically self-reliant as possible, with a sustainable healthcare system.
Dr Rintaro Mori, Regional Adviser, Population Ageing and Sustainable Development at UNFPA, in an interview with IPS, said parliamentarians’ role included “macro level policy planning to prepare for the coming population aging and low fertility including both economic and human rights perspectives.”
Their role was to lead the governments’ reform policies and systems of the country to adjust for “the emerging population trend, such as pension reform and education sector reforms to accommodate all ages,” and “investing in early and later years to take preventative measures to improve social security, health, and well-being.”
Mori said this was possible using a life-cycle approach with a strong emphasis on prevention:
“Prevention is the most cost-effective way to promote healthy and active aging. Life-long investment in social security, health promotion, and psychological well-being (relationship) is the key.”
Parliamentarians and experts met in Bangkok to discuss the ICPD30 process and preparation for the Summit for the Future 2024. Credit: APDA
Boosting fertility was crucial for countries facing declining and aging populations. Dr Victoria Boydell from the University of Essex in the UK said it is vital to remove barriers to parenthood but not through the trend of reducing access to sexual and reproductive health services.
According to research by UN Women and the International Labour Organization, 1.6 billion hours a day are spent in unpaid care work – representing 9 percent of global GDP, and women carry out at least two and a half times more unpaid household work than men. These factors needed to be considered by lawmakers.
Boydell said policy responses to boost fertility and remove barriers to parenthood included supporting early childhood development, enrollment in quality childcare from an early age, compensation for the economic cost of children through the allocation of benefits, tax exemptions, and other subsidies.
Other practices include fostering employment, especially amongst mothers, for example, part-time and flexible working conditions, promoting equal pay, equal sharing of paid and unpaid work, and allocating benefits to low-income families.
Regarding SRH services, there could be an increase in access to infertility treatment, fertility targets and policies to support the higher number of children, cash or tax exemptions, and access to contraception and abortion. Choice was a key right that needed protection.
In a case study, Chalermchai Kruangam, an MP from Thailand, said it was expected that a growing number of older people would need institutional long-term care – with considerable costs to the fiscus. It was, therefore, crucial to encourage governments and stakeholders to support modifications of living arrangements for older people and provide access to knowledge and training on new technologies, particularly digitalization and information technology. This would ensure that older people remained independent for longer periods, especially if supported health facilities near their homes.
Willie Mongin, an MP from Malaysia, said governments needed to formulate and implement necessary measures to ensure that social systems are ready to meet the older adult’s needs, improve their lives and the well-being of their families and communities – so they can live their lives with dignity. With the World Bank, Malaysia was formulating a strategic plan or blueprint to address an aging population’s impact, including economic growth, productivity, social protection, and health care.
Mori told IPS it was important to note that “older persons are a quite diverse population. Some of the wealthiest persons are among the older population. The health status of older persons is quite different depending upon the individual. Any country should have basic social security infrastructure based on the needs and demands of the population, not solely on the age of a person.”
He also said governments should take into account the older persons’ diversity in their plans to, for example, encourage them to remain in the workplace beyond traditional retirement ages.
“The health, skills, and knowledge of older individuals are diverse, and governments should not plan such economic and labor market policies based on the assumption that older persons are homogenous, Mori said. Recently in Japan, trends show that small and frontline jobs seem to be suitable for older persons (Sakamoto 2022).
Note: The workshop was organized by the Asian Population and Development Association (APDA) and supported by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — In a country known more for its love of rugby than women’s soccer, New Zealand is aiming to win fans as well as matches.
The Football Ferns kick off the Women’s World Cup on Thursday night with a Group A match against Norway. The Ferns got the nod for the tournament opener just an hour ahead of co-host Australia’s match against Ireland in Sydney.
“I hope there will be a lot of people here for not just our games, but all of the games. It’s a world tournament and something we’ve been so excited to have here now. I’ve been looking forward to this for three years,” defender Ali Riley said. “So I hope the excitement is there and I hope we do well, so that maybe the people who didn’t know about it will hear about it and will want to come to see us make history.”
New Zealand Football announced that the opener at Auckland’s Eden Park will have the biggest crowd for a soccer match in the country’s history, estimated to be at least 50,000.
“I was at the 1999 World Cup final in Los Angeles and I know what that did for me as a young girl. And so to have people here, that noise will give us energy,” said Riley, who grew up in California and plays professionally for Angel City in the National Women’s Soccer League.
“But also I know what that can do for any little girls seeing these players, these awesome, confident empowered, women and athletes just living their dreams.”
While the Ferns are trying to capture hearts, the demand for tickets to Australia’s opener was so high that the match was moved to Stadium Australia, which was built for the 2000 Olympics and seats more than 82,000.
The Ferns have never won a World Cup match in five previous appearances in soccer’s biggest tournament. And they have struggled this year, with losses in seven of the nine games they’ve played.
While it’s hoped that New Zealand will rally as hosts, the team faces a significant challenge in Norway, which won the World Cup in 1995. Considered the favorites in Group A, the Norwegians are 5-1-1 all-time against New Zealand, with the only loss coming in a 2019 exhibition match.
“There will be a lot of pressure, both on the home team but also on us, for the opening game, but we feel like we know what to expect,” Norway coach Hege Riise said. “Again, in opening game, everything can happen. But our preparation has been good on New Zealand, defensively and offensively, attacking, so we feel like we are prepared.”
Ada Hegerberg returns to Norway’s World Cup squad after the striker’s self-imposed hiatus from 2017 to 2022 in protest of what she believed was lack of respect for the women’s national team.
The first woman to win the prestigious Ballon d’Or award, Hegerberg scored 43 goals in 76 international appearances. Currently playing for Lyon, she has scored a record 59 goals in the Champions League.
Like Hegerberg, Australia star Sam Kerr is one of the game’s top players.
Australia is well primed as co-hosts of the tournament. The team went undefeated in February’s Cup of Nations, beating Jamaica, Spain and the Czech Republic. In April, the Matilda’s ended England’s 30-game unbeaten streak with a 2-0 win.
But, a note of caution for the Matildas: they dropped a 3-2 match against Ireland in Dublin in late 2021.
Ireland is playing in its first World Cup and it has been a bumpy road to get here. A warm-up match against Colombia in Brisbane was called after 20 minutes because of what the Irish said was rough play.
Denise O’Sullivan was taken to the hospital with a shin injury the midfielder sustained during the behind-closed-doors match. Two Colombia players received yellow cards in the opening 19 minutes.
The injury wasn’t serious and O’Sullivan, who plays for the NWSL’s North Carolina Courage, was expected to play in the opener.
Newswise — In the late 1950s and 1960s, more than 12,000 malformed babies with short arms and legs were born as a side effect of thalidomide, a drug sold to pregnant women to prevent morning sickness. The tragedy was caused by the drug’s side effect, which exists in a racemic mixture of two mirror-image forms. Research to determine the molecular structure of various compounds is essential for understanding biological phenomena and developing drugs to treat diseases and is mainly based on the interpretation of frequency signals measured by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR).
Drs. Jinwook Cha and Jinsoo Park of the Natural Product Informatics Research Center at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) announced that they have developed the first NMR method (Ultraselective Heteronuclear Polarization Transfer Method, or UHPT) that can selectively measure the information of carbon atom nuclei linked to specific hydrogen in a single measurement.
Even with existing ultra-high field NMR equipment costing 10 billion won, only selective NMR signal measurement of specific hydrogen nuclei was possible. Still, rapid measurement of carbon nuclei signals was not possible, making it difficult to secure a satisfactory level of specific hydrogen-carbon NMR signal resolution. In addition, there were limitations in identifying the chemical structure of pharmaceutical raw materials and drugs of toxicity concern.
With the UHPT method, the researchers were able to distinguish the carbon associated with a specific hydrogen atom nucleus in a single measurement among complex carbon-carbon NMR signals, with a signal resolution of several hertz (Hz). The method enabled them to clearly analyze the structure of natural products with complex molecular structures, such as the anticancer drug dactinomycin, which is composed of optical isomers of amino acids. It also enabled the accurate assignment of the fungicide iprovicarb, a mixture of diastereoisomers.
The UHPT method is fast, accurate, and economical compared to conventional methods. When applied to NMR equipment owned by universities and companies, it has been confirmed that equivalent NMR signal resolution can be achieved in about one-fifth the measurement time of ultra-high field NMR equipment.
“The new NMR method can be used as a standard analysis technique for identifying and standardizing the active ingredients of new materials in the natural product bio industry,” said Dr. Jin-Wook Cha of KIST. “It is expected to contribute to the development of the natural product bio industry by solving the challenges of the drug development process by using it to identify the structure of partial particulate matter, which plays a crucial role in determining the efficacy and safety of drugs.”
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KIST was established in 1966 as the first government-funded research institute in Korea. KIST now strives to solve national and social challenges and secure growth engines through leading and innovative research. For more information, please visit KIST’s website at https://eng.kist.re.kr/
The research was supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Lee Jong-ho) through the KIST Major Project and was published on June 2 as the cover article in the latest issue of Angewandte Chemie International Edition (IF 16.82), an academic journal in the field of chemistry.
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National Research Council of Science and Technology
Newswise — Despite having worse stroke symptoms and living within comparable distances to comprehensive stroke centers, women with large vessel occlusion acute ischemic stroke are less likely to be routed to the centers compared to men, according to a new study from UTHealth Houston.
Led by corresponding author Sunil Sheth, MD, associate professor of neurology and director of the vascular neurology program with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, and senior author Youngran Kim, PhD, assistant professor of management, policy, and community health with UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, the study was published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Large vessel occlusion stroke occurs when a major artery in the brain is blocked. They are considered one of the more severe kinds of strokes, accounting for an estimated 24% to 46% of acute ischemic strokes.
“Timely treatment of stroke is incredibly important; the faster a doctor is able to get the vessel open, the better the patient’s chance of having a good outcome. These routing systems in hospitals are designed to get patients to the best care as quickly as possible,” Sheth said. “We don’t know exactly why women were less likely than men to be routed to comprehensive stroke centers, but we do know that gender is an implicit bias. Getting to the granular level of what went into a hospital’s routing decision will be very important for future studies.”
Researchers identified consecutive patients with large vessel occlusion acute ischemic stroke from a prospectively collected multi-hospital registry for the Greater Houston area from January 2019 to June 2020. They compared prehospital routing of men and women to centers capable of performing endovascular therapy to remove the clot blocking the artery. Among 503 patients, 82% were routed to comprehensive stroke centers. Women made up 46% of the study participants.
Compared with men, women with large vessel occlusion acute ischemic stroke were older (73 versus 65) and presented with a greater National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) Score (14 versus 12), meaning their symptoms were worse. After adjusting for differences in stroke type, age, travel distance, and other relevant factors, women with large vessel occlusion acute ischemic stroke were approximately 9% less likely than men to be routed to comprehensive stroke centers.
“The greater NIHSS score in women may be partially attributed to their older age, as age itself is a known contributing factor to sex differences in stroke severity,” Kim said. “Moreover, elderly women are more likely to live alone and experience social isolation, which can result in delayed recognition of stroke symptoms and subsequent delays in seeking medical attention.”
Additionally, patients living within a 10-mile distance to the nearest comprehensive stroke center were 38% more likely to be routed to one.
Stroke is the fifth-leading cause of death for women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and because women generally live longer than men, more women have strokes over their lifetimes.
Previous studies have shown that women with acute ischemic stroke were less likely than men to receive the clot-busting intravenous tissue-plasminogen activator (tPA) treatment, and that women with stroke are 33% more likely to be misdiagnosed with non-stroke related issues, such as headache or dizziness.
“Older age at onset and severe stroke in women, compounded by a higher likelihood of age-related risk factors, can contribute to the higher rate of death from stroke and higher risk for disability after stroke in women,” Kim said. “Therefore, appropriate triage and prehospital routing can be even more critical for women. Whether large vessel occlusions in women are less likely to be identified using current screening tools due to older age, premorbidity, or nontraditional symptoms needs to be investigated.”
Muhammad Tariq, MD, chief resident in the Department of Neurology at McGovern Medical School, was first author on the study. Other co-authors with McGovern Medical School’s neurology department included student Iman Ali, BS; resident Sergio Salazar-Marioni, MD; research coordinator Ananya Iyyangar, BSA; research coordinator Hussain Azeem, BS; resident Swapnil Khose, MD; research assistant Rania Abdelkhaleq, MPH; and Louise McCullough, MD, PhD, professor and chair of the department and the Roy M. and Phyllis Gough Huffington Distinguished Chair at McGovern Medical School. Abdelkhaleq is also a student at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health. McCullough is a member of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.
Also co-authoring the study was Victor Lopez, MD, a resident at Emory School of Medicine.
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University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
يقول الدكتور سامي “يمكن أن تؤثر متلازمة الفم الحارق على البلع والأكل والكلام والنوم”. “هناك أكثر من مجرد شعور غير مريح في فمك. وبالإضافة إلى تأثيرها على جودة حياتك، يمكن أن تؤثر على جوانب مختلفة من صحتك.”
يمكن أن تشمل متلازمة الفم الحارق الفم شعورًا حارقًا في اللسان أو الشفتين أو اللثة أو الحلق أو سقف الفم. توجد أعراض أخرى قد تشمل الشعور بالعطش وجفاف الفم أو الإحساس بطعم مرارة أو مذاق معدني في الفم أو فقدان حاسة التذوق والشعور بالتنميل أو اللسع أو الخَدَر في الفم. يمكن أن يختلف تكرار الأعراض على نطاق واسع، من يوميًا طوال اليوم إلى متقطع.
يقول الدكتور سامي إن العلاج يتضمن معالجة الأعراض والسبب. فعلى سبيل المثال، إذا كان من المحتمل أن تكون متلازمة الفم الحارق مرتبطة بانقطاع الطمث، فقد يُساعد العلاج بالهرمونات البديلة. تشمل الحالات الكامنة المحتملة الأخرى الارتجاع المعدي المريئي، ومشكلات الغدة الدرقية، ونقص الفيتامينات، والتهيج الناجم عن معجون الأسنان وغسول الفم الحمضي أو الأطعمة والمشروبات الحمضية. وليس دومًا يمكن تحديد السبب.
يقول الدكتور سامي: “نستخدم الأدوية بشكل أساسي لتهدئة الأعصاب والمستشعرات في الفم، لأننا نعتقد أن هناك حساسية مفرطة”. “يمكن أن يسببها التوتر أيضًا، لذلك قد نستخدم علاجات تكميلية مثل الوخز بالإبر.”
قد تشمل العلاجات الأخرى الصلصة الحارة، والمعروفة أيضًا باسم صلصة الفلفل: “توجد بها مواد كيميائية معينة تساعد في تقليل الحساسية. قد تبدو الصلصة الحارة غير منطقية، لكنها تحتوي على مادة الكابسيسين، والتي يمكن أن تساعد في تخفيف الألم الحارق في الأعصاب،” كما يقول الدكتور سامي.
تشمل العوامل التي تضع الأشخاص في أعلى خطورة للإصابة بالفم الحارق أن تكون أنثى، أو في فترة ما قبل انقطاع الطمث أو بعد انقطاع الطمث، أو أكبر من 50 عامًا، والتدخين. تشمل العوامل الثانوية التي يمكن أن تزيد من المخاطر المرض الحديث، الحالات الطبية مثل الألم الليفي العضلي، وداء باركنسون، ومرض في المناعة الذاتية والاعتلال العصبي، والخضوع لإجراءات في الأسنان وتفاعلات تحسُّسية من الطعام، أدوية معينة، والتوتر والقلق والاكتئاب وأحداث حياتية صادمة.
بالإضافة إلى العلاج الطبي، يمكن تخفيف أعراض الفم الحارق عن طريق تغيير نمط الحياة وإجراءات أخرى للمساعدة الذاتية. وهي تشمل شرب الكثير من السوائل، وامتصاص رقائق الثلج، وتجنب الأطعمة والسوائل الحمضية مثل الطماطم وعصير البرتقال والمشروبات الغازية والقهوة، وتجنب الكحول وتجنب الأطعمة الغنية بالتوابل، والامتناع عن استهلاك منتجات التبغ، وتجنب المنتجات التي تحتوي على القرفة أو النعناع، واستخدام معاجين أسنان خفيفة أو خالية من النكهات. ويمكن للاسترخاء وتقليل التوتر المساعدة أيضًا في تخفيف الأعراض.
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نبذة عن مايو كلينك للرعاية الصحية مايو كلينك للرعاية الصحية، الموجودة في لندن، هي شركة فرعية مملوكة بالكامل لـ مايو كلينك، وهي مركز طبي أكاديمي غير هادف للربح. تُصنَّف مايو كلينك في الولايات المتحدة في المرتبة الأولى في تخصصات كثيرة أكثر من أي مستشفى آخر وفقًا لتقرير يو إس نيوز آند وورد ريبورت بسبب: جودة الرعاية. مايو كلينك للرعاية الصحية هي المدخل في المملكة المتحدة لتلك التجربة التي لا مثيل لها. تفضل بزيارة مايو كلينك للرعاية الصحية لمزيد من المعلومات.
A transgender person participates in health services provided by the Khmer HIV/AIDS NGO Alliance (KHANA) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, December 2019. Credit: UNAIDS
by Ed Holt (bratislava)
Inter Press Service
BRATISLAVA, Jul 14 (IPS) – A report released this week has highlighted how continuing criminalisation and marginalisation of key populations are stymying efforts to end the global HIV/AIDS epidemic.
The report from UNAIDS, entitled ‘The Path that Ends AIDS’, says that ending AIDS is a political and financial choice, and that in countries where HIV responses have been backed up by strong policies and leadership on the issue, “extraordinary results” have been achieved.
It points to African states that have already achieved key targets aimed at stopping the spread of HIV and getting treatment to people with the virus. It also points out that a further 16 other countries, eight of them in sub-Saharan Africa which accounts for 65% of all people living with HIV, are close to doing so.
But the report also focuses on the devastating impact HIV/AIDS continues to have and how alarming rises in new infections in some places are being driven largely by a lack of HIV prevention services for marginalised and key populations and the barriers posed by punitive laws and social discrimination.
“Countries that put people and communities first in their policies and programmes are already leading the world on the journey to end AIDS by 2030,” said Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS.
Estimated adults and children living with HIV. Credit: UNAIDS
Experts and groups working with key populations have long warned of the effect that the stigmatisation, persecution and criminalisation of certain groups has on the AIDS epidemic.
They point to how punitive laws can stop many people from accessing vital HIV services.
Groups working with people with HIV in Uganda, which earlier this year passed anti-LGBTQI legislation widely considered to be some of the harshest of its kind ever implemented (it includes the death penalty for some offences), say service uptake has fallen dramatically.
“The law has had a very negative effect in terms of health,” a worker at the Ugandan LGBTQI community health service and advocacy organisation Icebreakers told IPS.
“Community members are threatened by violence and abuse by the public; many are afraid to go out. HIV service access points are now seen by LGBTQI community members as places where they will be arrested or attacked,” he said.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the worker added: “This is going to affect adherence to treatment and will be bad for the spread of HIV. Some people are being turned away at service centres, including places where people go for ARV refills, because although the president has declared that treatment will continue for members of the community, there are individuals at some centres who say the law has been passed, and so they don’t need to give treatment to members of the community.”
Estimated number of adults and children newly infected with HIV. Credit: UNAIDS
Groups working with people with HIV in other countries where strict anti-LGBTQI laws have been introduced have also warned that criminalisation of the minority will only worsen problems with the disease.
In Russia, which has one of the world’s worst HIV/AIDS epidemics, anti-LGBTQI legislation brought in last year has effectively made outreach work illegal, potentially severely impacting HIV prevention and treatment. Widespread antipathy to the community also forces many LGBTQI people living with HIV to lie to doctors about how they acquired the disease, meaning the epidemic is not being properly treated.
A worker at one Moscow-based NGO helping people with HIV told IPS: “What this means is that the right groups in society are not being targeted , and so the epidemic in Russia is what it is today.”
Harsh legislation, conservative policies and state-tolerated stigmatisation also impact another key population – drug users.
Countries in regions where drug use is the primary or a significant driver of the epidemic, such as Eastern Europe and Central Asia and Asia and the Pacific, drug users often struggle to access harm reduction and HIV prevention services. They fear arrest at needle exchange points, attacks from a general public which often views them negatively, and prejudice and stigmatisation from workers within the healthcare system.
At the same time, in states with harsh laws targeting the LGBTQI community, drug users, sex workers or other vulnerable groups, civil society organisations helping those populations are also affected by the legislation, meaning that vital HIV prevention and treatment services they provide are hampered or halted completely.
And these problems are not confined to a handful of states. The UNAIDS report states that laws that criminalize people from key populations or their behaviours remain on statute books across much of the world. The vast majority of countries (145) still criminalize the use or possession of small amounts of drugs; 168 countries criminalize some aspect of sex work; 67 countries criminalize consensual same-sex intercourse; 20 countries criminalize transgender people; and 143 countries criminalize or otherwise prosecute HIV exposure, non-disclosure or transmission.
Consequently, the HIV pandemic continues to impact key populations more than the general population. In 2022, compared with adults in the general population (aged 15-49 years), HIV prevalence was 11 times higher among gay men and other men who have sex with men, four times higher among sex workers, seven times higher among people who inject drugs, and 14 times higher among transgender people.
Ann Fordham, Executive Director at the International Drug Policy Consortium, told IPS there was an “urgent need to end the criminalisation of key populations”.
“Data shows HIV prevalence among people who use drugs is seven times higher than in the general population, and this can be directly attributed to punitive drug laws which drive stigma and increase vulnerability to HIV. It is devastating that despite evidence that these policies are deeply harmful, the majority of countries still criminalise drug use or the possession of small quantities of drugs,” she said.
But it is not just minorities which are disproportionately affected by HIV.
Globally, 4,000 young women and girls became infected with HIV every week in 2022, according to the report.
The problem is particularly acute in the sub-Saharan Africa region, where there is a lack of dedicated HIV prevention programmes for adolescent girls and young women and where across six high-burden countries, women exposed to physical or sexual intimate partner violence in the previous year were 3.2 times more likely to have acquired HIV recently than those who had not experienced such violence.
Research has suggested that biological, socio-economic, religious, and cultural factors are behind this disproportionately high risk of acquiring HIV. Many girls and young women in the region are economically marginalized and therefore struggle to negotiate condom use and monogamy. Meanwhile, a predominantly patriarchal culture exacerbates sexual inequalities.
“For girls and women in Africa, it is general inequalities which are driving this pandemic. It is social norms which don’t equate men and women, girls and boys, it is norms which tolerate sexual violence, where a girl is forced to have unprotected sex, and that is then dealt with quietly rather than tackling the abuser,” Byanyima said at the launch of the report.
UNAIDS officials say that promoting gender equality and confronting sexual and gender-based violence will make a difference in combatting the spread of the disease, but add that specific measures aimed at young women and girls, and not just in sub-Saharan Africa, are also important.
“ services are not designed for young women in many parts of the world – for instance, girls cannot access HIV testing or treatment without parental consent up to a certain age in some countries,” Keith Sabin, UNAIDS Senior Advisor on Epidemiology, told IPS.
“A lack of comprehensive sexual education is a tremendous barrier in many places. It would go a long way to improving the potential for good health among girls,” he added.
But while the report highlights the barriers faced by key populations, it also shows how removing them can significantly improve HIV responses.
It cites examples from countries from Africa to Asia to Latin America where evidence-based policies, scaled-up responses and focused prevention programmes have reduced new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths, while some governments have integrated addressing stigma and discrimination into national HIV responses.
It also noted that progress in the global HIV response has been strengthened by ensuring that legal and policy frameworks enable and protect human rights, highlighting several countries’ removal of harmful laws in 2022 and 2023, including some which decriminalized same-sex sexual relations.
“Studies strongly suggest a better uptake of services among men who have sex with men (MSM) in countries where homosexuality has been decriminalised or is less criminalised. A certain policy environment can improve uptake and outcomes,” said Sabin.
The UNAIDS report calls on political leaders across the globe to seize the opportunity to end AIDS by investing in a sustainable response to HIV, including effectively tackling the barriers to prevention and services faced by key populations.
Experts agree this will be crucial to ending the global epidemic.
“We have long known that we will not end AIDS without removing these repressive laws and policies that impact key populations. Today, UNAIDS is once again sounding the alarm and calling on governments to strengthen the political will, follow the evidence and commit to removing the structural and social barriers that hamper the HIV response,” said Fordham.
“Every new wave of warfare brings with it a rising tide of human tragedy, including new waves of war’s oldest, most silenced and least condemned crime,” she said.
The Council meeting to examine implementation of its resolutions on conflict-related sexual violence was convened by the United Kingdom, which holds the rotating presidency this month.
Meetings survivors in DRC
Ms. Patten presented data from her latest report, published last month, which documented 2,455 UN-verified cases of wartime rape committed during 2022. Women and girls accounted for 94 per cent, with six per cent against men and boys.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was again the country with the highest number of cases, 701. The UN expert visited the country in June and was horrified by the testimonies of women and girls, many of whom had been very recently raped.
“So many of them stressed the daily risk of sexual violence while carrying out livelihood activities around the camps, such as searching for food, collecting wood or water. Just imagine facing the reality each day that you are likely to be raped, yet having no choice,” she said.
Visit to Ukraine
Ms. Patten also conducted her first field visit to Ukraine last year. She was struck by both the occurrence of sexual violence in conflict zones and the vulnerability of women and children forced to flee to countries such as Poland and Moldova.
“I witnessed first-hand the extraordinary toll on women, children and the elderly, including their vulnerability to unscrupulous individuals and criminal networks for whom the rapid and unprecedented mass displacement of people is not a tragedy but an opportunity for trafficking and sexual exploitation,” she said.
Impunity going unpunished
Ms. Patten’s annual report also detailed horrors committed in other countries, such as Haiti, Ethiopia and Iraq. Serious allegations of conflict-related sexual violence in Sudan have also surfaced since fighting erupted in April.
The report also clearly demonstrates the emboldening effects of impunity, she said. Nearly 50 parties, mostly non-State actors, are listed for systematically committing sexual violence. More than 70 per cent have appeared on the list for five years or more.
“The reality is that until we effectively raise the cost and consequences for committing, commanding or condoning sexual violence, we will never stem the tide of such violations,” she said.
Resolve and resources
Ms. Patten called for greater political resolve and resources. She said there is more knowledge today about what motivates sexual violence, who the perpetrators are, and the response required by survivors.
It is essential that prevention efforts are grounded in this enhanced knowledge, she said, which is at the heart of a strategy launched by her office last September.
She advised that the international community must ensure implementation of Security Council resolutions while adapting actions to today’s conflicts and emerging global challenges, such as cyber threats and climate-related insecurity.
“The time is now to double down on the institutional and accountability frameworks put in place by successive resolutions,” she said. “We must act urgently, and with sustained resolve, to save succeeding generations from this scourge.”
In a study published in the Environmental Health Perspective, a research team made up of scientists from across the country have found that environmentally relevant exposure to toxins found in algal blooms posed a risk to women’s reproductive health by heightening the probability of irregular menstrual cycles and infertility related to ovulatory disorders.
Saurabh Chatterjee, PhD, professor of environmental and occupational health at the UC Irvine Program in Public Health and professor of medicine at the UC Irvine School of Medicine, served as a co-author on the publication with corresponding author, Shuo Xia, PhD from Rutgers University and is available for interview.
In marine and freshwater ecosystems, there is a dangerous phenomenon occurring that causes adverse health effects in humans and wildlife animals. Around the globe, large swaths of harmful cyanobacterial (or more commonly referred to as algal) blooms have been cropping up more frequently, primarily owing to the global temperature rise caused by climate change and human behavior like agricultural runoff and urbanization. Humans are exposed to this harmful microcystins via drinking water, food, algal dietary supplements, and recreational activities in polluted waters. These toxins are not routinely monitored due to the absence of federal/state regulatory guidelines, and conventional water treatments cannot completely remove dissolved cyanobacterial toxins.
“Halfway to the 2030 deadline the Sustainable Development Goals are dangerously off track,” he warned. “Gender equality is almost 300 years away. Progress on maternal health and access to family planning has been glacial.”
World Population Day is commemorated annually on 11 July and this year’s focus is on unleashing the power of gender equality and giving greater voice to women and girls.
Invest in women
Although they comprise half of all people on the planet, women and girls are often ignored in discussions on demographics, with their rights violated in population policies, according to the UN.
As a result, women and girls can be limited in their ability to make decisions about their own health and sexual and reproductive lives, which in turn heightens their vulnerability to violence, harmful practices, and preventable maternal death.
The Secretary-General said gender-based discrimination harms everyone, while investing in women uplifts all people, communities, and countries.
“Advancing gender equality, improving maternal health, and empowering women to make their own reproductive choices are both essential in themselves, and central to achieving all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” he added.
Mr. Guterres called for standing with women and girls fighting for their rights and for intensifying efforts “to make the Sustainable Development Goals a reality for all 8 billion of us”.
Harness the power
What women and girls want matters, according to the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA.
World Population Day is a reminder that a more prosperous, peaceful, and sustainable future can be achieved “if we harness the power of every human being on the planet”, said Dr. Natalia Kanem, the UNFPA Executive Director.
Her message for the Day highlighted that over 40 per cent of women around the world cannot exercise their right to make decisions as fundamental as whether or not to have children.
Gender equality benefits all
“Empowering women and girls, including through education and access to modern contraception, helps to support them in their aspirations and to chart the path of their own lives,” she said.
Dr. Kanem stressed that advancing gender equality is a crosscutting solution to many social problems.
She said for ageing societies worried about labour productivity, achieving gender equality in the workplace represents the most effective way to improve output and economic growth.
“Meanwhile, in countries experiencing rapid population growth, women’s empowerment through education and family planning can bring enormous benefits by way of human capital and inclusive economic growth,” she added.
Dr. Kanem said the solution is clear, as “accelerating the advancement of gender equality – through access to sexual and reproductive health and rights, improved education, appropriate labour policies, and equitable norms in the workplace and home – will result in healthier families, stronger economies, and resilient societies.”
