Journalists who covered and were psychologically affected by last year’s post election violence are now going to benefit from a trauma counseling programme that was launched last week.

Organized by the Kenya Association of Photographers, Illustrators and Designers (KAPIDE) and Kenya Correspondents’ Association (KCA) and funded by International Media Support (IMS), the programme will provide trauma counseling to a total of 150 journalists.

Caused by tse tse flies and rated as one of the neglected tropical ailments in the developing world, the disease is already spreading to new areas of Uganda where it was once eradicated.

A new study released last week  shows that 40 percent of health workers in  public, private, faith based and non governmental health facilities exhibit stigma and discrimination tendencies against HIV Aids positive patients.

 Conducted between 2006 and 2007 in the country’s five provinces, the study reveals how government hospitals are operating without standard policy guidelines for People Living with HIV Aids (PLHIV), despite the policy documents lying at the Ministry of Health.

Pamela Aoko Ndhiwa has lived here for the last three years. She seems oblivious to the the sewage just inches from her plastic sandals as she crosses the small bridges leading to her house.

Several of these women have been hopping frantically from one supermarket to another in search of their preferred brands.

On the hilly and rugged terrain of Emuyaha constituency, a pregnant woman groans in pain as another bewildered old woman looks on helplessly.

Few months ago, Jane Esitwati, who operates in this village as a revered Traditional Birth Attendant (TBA), would have delivered this woman without hesitation. 

The decision by the government to ban traditional birth attendants from delivering women may not succeed if the current feelings on the ground are anything to go by.

While the government has directed retired midwives to be the ones to deliver women, some of the women in rural areas remain suspicious of these trained personnel.

Just under two years since the first test-tube babies were born, a Kenyan doctor has for the first time hit the 30 per cent success rate being recorded in developed countries.

In the recent two cycles of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) treatment, the Nairobi IVF Centre has managed to record a 30.2 percent success rate, which is measured by the number of women who get pregnant in any given treatment cycle. 

A Kenyan scientist is dashing to the finish line in the microbicide race, with the development of a gel that offers triple benefits-ability to kill HIV, protect women from pregnancy, and act as a lubricant.

Studies in monkeys have shown the microbicide gel’s ability to immobilize the sperms, preventing conception, with those in the laboratories indicating the gel’s ability to kill HIV by making the vaginal environment too acidic for the virus to survive. 

Known to deny women a chance to enjoy motherhood, polycystic ovaries is one of the major causes of infertility among women.

A woman with the condition usually has many cysts that develop from ovarian follicles, but which fail to rupture and release eggs, a prerequisite for fertilization.