Local initiative benefits several hiv positive individuals in Bangkok Pa, a 45-year-old woman from Bang Khen district in Bangkok, works with a massage parlour in Cabbages and Condoms, an upmarket restaurant in Bangkok. Pa is hiv positive. This drastically limits her livelihood options, made worse because banks don

Some women in countries where abortion is restricted are using the Internet to buy medication enabling them to abort a pregnancy at home, according to a bbc report. The report says that women in more than 70 countries where abortion is illegal have used the services of the website www.womenonweb.org. The site posts the drugs only to countries where abortion is heavily restricted,

Lucknow: Endorsing health department's pledge to curb maternal mortality rate, the district administration and health team formalised a strategy to promote institutional deliveries. For this, they have decided to publicise provisions of Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) - a scheme sponsored by the ministry of health and family welfare, under the National Rural Health Mission.

The state initiating an inquiry against an in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) clinic that allegedly duped a childless couple has raised concerns whether stringent regulations for nursing homes and clinics offering Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) need to be brought in.

The staffs of health and family planning department have been asked to make all-out efforts to ensure safe motherhood in the country.

HYDERABAD: It may still be a long way for Andhra Pradesh to achieve its population stabilisation goal, but it has the satisfaction of standing first in the country in conducting family planning operations during 2007-08.

The Government on Wednesday assured the Supreme Court that fertility clinics across the country would be regulated by guidelines that would soon be enforced till a suitable Act replaces it. Terming it as a "serious' issue, Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium attempted to assuage fears of couples being duped by ill-equipped clinics and untrained doctors in clinics.

Sukhdev Singh, 30, a contract labourer from village Kharakha in Sikar district in rural Haryana was desperate to get married. His parents, Hasan Ram and Ranu Bai, had tried to find a match for him but after seven fruitless years they finally gave up. The reason for the shortage of brides lies in Haryana's sex ratio which is acutely skewed with 861 females for every thousand males. In other words, out of every hundred males, 14 would be unable to find a bride. The brunt of this problem is felt the most by poor, rural males.

Mianzhu: Chinese soldiers were working non-stop to dig a giant sluice to ease pressure on a swelling "quake lake', with plans to evacuate 100,000 people to avert a new disaster, state media said. China on Tuesday put the death toll from the earthquake that struck Sichuan province on May 12 at 67,183, with the figure certain to rise with 20,790 listed as missing. Nearly 362,000 people were injured.

With a view to increasing the access of safe motherhood and child health services under RCH-2 programme, participation of hospitals of non-government and private sectors is being ensured. The willing private and non-government hospitals are being authorised under the programme after fulfilling the stipulated standards. At the 198 private hospitals included in Janani Sahayogi Yojana, so far 8067 ordinary and 3069 caesarean sections have been conducted. As many as 52 private hospitals were authorised in the year 2006-07.