Health/Science

Zambia Tobacco Workshop-Zarina Geloo

Many of the journalists were shocked to realize how dangerous smoking is. (Photo: Zarina Geloo)

Jul 222011

Health Reporting in Nigeria is on the Rise, With a Long Way to Go

It’s been almost three months since I arrived here in Abuja to commence my Knight Fellowship and so much has happened with lots still lined up for the coming months and weeks. My decision to visit several newsrooms and some of my former colleagues who are now senior or managing editors -- seated often behind expensive and expansive mahogany desks -- gave me a good idea about where health journalism is headed in Nigeria.

Jul 212011

Cervical Cancer and Journalism Ethics in Angola

Before the end of the year, Angola will vaccinate 10,000 young teen girls against human papilloma virus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer - the most frequent cancer among Angolan women aged 15-44, and the most lethal, killing more than 1,000 women every year.

Nigeria: Create New Health Section at Daily Trust newspaper

As a Knight Health Journalism Fellow, Sunday Dare created an eight-page weekly health section at Daily Trust, the most widely read newspaper in northern Nigeria.

Working with a team of dedicated health reporters, he increased health coverage at the newspaper from an average of eight stories per month to 27, with in-depth and investigative stories on issues such as AIDS, cancer, cholera, polio, public health facilities, and Lassa fever, a fatal disease carried by rats.

Ethiopia: Launch the Country's First Health Journalists' Association

Elsabet Samuel Tadesse is a Knight Health Journalism Fellow who has led the creation of Ethiopia's first health journalists' association, the Addis Ababa Health Journalists' Initiative. She also launched a half-hour health show called “Tenachin” (Our Health) on Ethiopia’s national television network. The show, which airs every two weeks on the Ethiopian Radio and Television Agency (ERTA), educates the public on key topics such as tuberculosis, maternal health, HIV/AIDS, and health extension services.

Apr 182011

In Malawi, the battle over trees pits the poor population against the government

Editor note: Knight Fellow Edem Djokotoe discusses contrasting philosophies between a government bent on prosecuting the charcoal industry and a rural population dependent on its profits.

Two weeks after he returned from the UN climate change conference in December, Malawi’s energy minister, Grain Malunga, made a controversial public pronouncement: “Arrest all charcoal sellers.”

Prosecuting them, he argued, would save the country from the devastating effects of deforestation and deter others from chopping down trees for charcoal.

Apr 42011

In Mozambique, Surgery Helps Women Recover Both Health and Dignity

There is nothing like interviewing women with fistula to realize, in your heart and in your bones, what fistula does to women: the humiliation, marginalization, loss of self-esteem, and depression. Fistula is an orifice resulting from ruptured tissue between bladder, rectum and vagina that provokes permanent incontinence. Feces and urine flow through the vagina.

Obstetric fistula is caused by early and repeated pregnancies, long and complicated deliveries without proper medical care, delays in reaching hospital, clandestine abortion and violent rape.

Feb 282011

Witchcraft in Malawi Provides Challenges for Journalists

Editors note: Knight Fellow Edem Djokotoe discusses the challenges and various methods of identifying and prosecuting withcraft.

The witchcraft stories that make the news range from spine-chilling and spooky to downright bizarre to fatally tragic. Take the case of 26-year-old Leticia Wyson from Nkondilile Village in central Malawi, for example. On January 15, villagers say she gave birth to two plastic bags containing a millipede, a snail, two mango seeds and nine small stones instead of a baby.