Hospital-acquired infections are fuelling antimicrobial resistance

[watch the interview] When we go to seek healthcare in hospitals or other healthcare settings, getting infected with hospital-acquired infections instead, is not part of the deal. “Why are hospital-acquired infections so acceptable?” rightly questions Dr Nour Shamas, a Lebanese infectious disease clinical pharmacist, who is also part of the World Health Organization (WHO) Task Force of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Survivors.

[video] Antimicrobial resistance and animals: Misuse and overuse of medicines in veterinary and livestock must stop

4th Edition of the Annual Global Media Forum in lead up to World AMR Awareness Week

Register

The 4th Edition of the Annual Global Media Forum in lead up to World AMR Awareness Week (WAAW: 18-24 November 2024) will be organised by Global AMR Media Alliance (GAMA) on 7th November, Thursday, 11am CET.

Young people do not want a future with looming threat of antimicrobial resistance

Who would ever want to deal with infections that are difficult (or impossible) to treat! Young people are right when they call on world leaders to ensure a future where antimicrobial resistance is no longer a threat to global health security and food security.

SHE & Rights 2nd session: Reality check on promises for gender equality and human rights

Our governments have promised to deliver on gender equality and human rights by endorsing a range of declarations, agreements and other commitments, including legally binding treaty CEDAW, 1994 ICPD and its platform of action, 1994 Beijing Declaration and its platform for action, UN Sustainable Development Goals, among others.

HIV response under lens of indigenous rights

It is alarming to note that as per UNAIDS data the annual number of new HIV infections in the Latin American countries increased by 9% between 2010 and 2023, despite the advent of powerful new prevention tools like PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis).

[video] At least a century of inequities and injustices plaguing the TB response

Are we delivering new HIV prevention tools with speed, scale and equity?

[watch the video] Imagine failing 1.3 million times in a year: Failure to ensure that everyone has access to prevention options to protect oneself from HIV acquisition, has resulted in at least 1.3 million new HIV infections in 2023. The pace of progress towards ending AIDS is out of step if we are to end AIDS by 2030.

Choices for women and girls for HIV prevention: So near and yet so far

Longstanding gender inequalities, discrimination and poverty deny many women and girls bodily and economic autonomy - which deprives them of control over their sexual health, and increase the risk of preventable infections like HIV. Women and girls are still disproportionately affected with HIV.

At least a century of inequities and injustices plaguing the TB response


Join us on 15th October 2024, in a special session of End TB Dialogues on the theme: At least a century of inequities and injustices plaguing the TB response.

Global meet comes to Asia Pacific – home to largest TB burden worldwide



Indonesia is gearing up to welcome thousands of delegates to the largest lung health gathering, the Union World Conference of Lung Health 2024, in Nusa Dua, Bali from Nov 12 through Nov 16 this year.

Are we on the path to end AIDS by 2030?

The reality is a mix of YES and NO. While the facts and figures shared in the latest report by UNAIDS reveal that as a world we are NOT already on the path, they do show that we CAN be there if world leaders take bold actions ensuring that the HIV response has the resources it needs and that the human rights of everyone are protected.

My body - Is it my own?

Alas! it is not for 45% of women who are not empowered to make choices over their healthcare and contraception needs and choices. Nearly half of the women in 57 developing countries are denied the right to decide whether to have sex with their partners, use contraception or seek healthcare, according to UNFPA’s State of World Population Report. This lack of bodily autonomy- the right to make free and informed decisions about one’s own body, without coercion or violence- has serious implications for the health and wellbeing of women and girls.

SHE and Rights Media Initiative 2024-2025


Sexual Health with Equity (SHE) and Rights initiative (or SHE & Rights initiative) is launched to increase media understanding and engagement around sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) particularly abortion care with the lens of equity and right to health.

Co-hosted by Asia Pacific Media Alliance for Health and Development (APCAT Media), Asian-Pacific Resource & Research Centre for Women (ARROW), International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR), and CNS, this initiative will engage media around SRHR during September 2024 to March 2025.

Feminism is the bedrock for a socially just and ecologically sustainable world

Recently, over 500 feminist leaders from 38 countries across Asia and the Pacific region gathered in Chiang Mai, Thailand at the 4th Asia Pacific Feminist Forum (APFF 2024) to deliberate upon their collective journeys for building a world that is free of patriarchy, corporate capitalism, imperialism and colonialism, militarism and religious fundamentalism.

Would Bangladesh take stronger positions at global UN meet to prevent antimicrobial resistance?

Published in IDN Bangladesh: 18 September 2024

Bangladesh has taken strong positions to prevent antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the past. We urge the new leadership in Bangladesh to take stronger positions at the upcoming UN meeting of world leaders on 26th September 2024 on AMR and advance more concrete actions on the ground against AMR – one of the top-10 global health threats today.

[podcast] Reality check on gender justice in Kyrgyzstan: Nurgul Dzhanaeva speaks


This podcast features Nurgul Dzhanaeva, President of the Forum of Women's NGOs of Kyrgyzstan, who has worked on SDG-related issues at the local, national, regional and global levels. From 2016-2019, she was instrumental in initiating the campaign “From Global to Local” which sought to integrate SDG Goal 5 – to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls – into Kyrgyzstan’s local sustainable development strategies and plans.

She is in conversation with Shobha Shukla, CNS Founder Executive Director and feminist development justice leader, at the Asia Pacific Feminist Forum (APFF 2024) in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
  • Opening and closing instrumental piano music is played by young feminist Ms Tara Shukla Iyer from UK.
Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, YouTube Podcasts, TuneIn, Podtail, BluBrry, Himalaya, ListenNotes, American Podcasts, CastBox FM, Ivy FM, Player FM, iVoox, and other podcast streaming platforms.

[video] Kyrgyzstan: Would we deliver on gender justice? Nurgul Dzhanaeva speaks

[podcast] Reality check on gender justice in the Pacific: Nalini Singh of Fiji Women's Rights Movements speaks

This podcast features Nalini Singh, a noted Fiji's human rights activist and Executive Director of Fiji Women's Rights Movement (FWRM). She is in conversation with Shobha Shukla, a feminist development justice activist and CNS Founder Executive Director around the 4th Asia Pacific Feminist Forum on the theme of: Feminist world building - creative energies, collective journeys in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
  • Opening and closing instrumental piano music is played by young feminists Ms Tara Shukla Iyer and Ms Reya Shukla Iyer from UK.
Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, YouTube Podcasts, TuneIn, Podtail, BluBrry, Himalaya, ListenNotes, American Podcasts, CastBox FM, Ivy FM, Player FM, iVoox, and other podcast streaming platforms.

[video] Fiji's human rights activist shares ground realities of gender justice in the pacific

Rocking chair syndrome gripping the TB response?

[watch the video] Akin to a rocking chair that moves forwards and backwards without any real progress, we cannot assume busy TB programmes which may appear to have a lot of movement, to be making any real progress - unless they are doing what is warranted as per science and evidence to end TB.

One step towards making the world free of TB

Let us share an old story you might have read it already. But guiding lights always guide. This is one of them for us: "Once upon a time, there was an old woman who used to go to the ocean to do her writing. She had a habit of walking on the beach every morning before she began her work. Early one morning, she was walking along the shore after a big storm had passed and found the vast beach littered with starfish as far as the eye could see. Off in the distance, she noticed a small girl approaching.  As the girl walked, she paused ever so often and as she grew closer, the woman could see that the girl was occasionally bending down to pick up an object and throw it into the sea.  The woman called out, "Good morning!  May I ask what it is that you are doing?" The girl paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean. When the sun gets high, they will die, unless I throw them back into the water.”  The woman replied, “But there must be tens of thousands of starfish on this beach. I am afraid you would not really be able to make much of a difference." The girl bent down, picked up yet another starfish and threw it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she turned, smiled and said, “It made a difference to that one!”

Feminist world-building: Creative energies, collective journeys


... So goes the theme of the 4th Asia Pacific Feminist Forum (APFF) which will be held in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand next month. This theme is a pointer towards channelising the energies of people of all genders who work to defend human rights and promote gender equality to collectively resist the patriarchal, militarised and greed-driven world we are living in, and envisioning a feminist world order.

[podcast] Asia Pacific not on track to end AIDS, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections

This special Podcast features Dr Po-Lin Chan, Regional Advisor (HIV, Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Infections - STIs) at World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asia Regional Office, and Dr Ishwar Gilada, who is a part of Organising Committee of 25th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2024) and Governing Council of International AIDS Society (IAS). They were in conversation with CNS Founder Executive Director and Managing Editor Shobha Shukla in Munich Germany. CNS is among the official media partners of AIDS 2024.
  • Opening and closing instrumental piano music is played by Ms Reya Shukla Iyer from UK.
Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, YouTube Podcasts, TuneIn, Podtail, BluBrry, ListenNotes, American Podcasts, CastBox FM, Ivy FM, Player FM, iVoox, and other podcast streaming platforms.

[podcast] 2024 Asia Pacific Feminist Forum to focus on "Feminist world-building: Creative energies, collective journeys"

This special Podcast features leaders from 2024 Asia Pacific Feminist Forum #APFF4 (Chiang Mai, Thailand: 12-14 September 2024). The theme of APFF4 is "Feminist world-building: Creative energies, collective journeys." Panelists include: Abia Akram, a disability rights activist and the founder and CEO of the National Forum of Women with Disabilities in Pakistan; Eni Lestari, a migrant rights activist and the Chairperson of International Migrants Alliance; Ivy Josiah, a women's rights activist who has led Malaysia’s Women’s Aid Organisation for 20 years as its Past President and Executive Director. They are in conversation with CNS founder Executive Director and feminist leader Shobha Shukla.