The Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) initiative, launched at the 2012 London Summit on Family Planning, aims to enable 120 million additional women to use modern contraceptive methods by 2020 in the world’s 69 poorest countries. It will require almost doubling the pre-2012 annual growth rate of modern contraceptive prevalence rates …
as the koala (a marsupial resembling a small bear) population surges ahead, desperate measures are being called for. The latest one includes contraception where the male koalas will be given vasectomies and females provided with hormone implantations to stop them from ovulating. The three-year trial is to start this month …
A sugar-based pill has been lauded as the most promising candidate for a male contraceptive. In fertilisation, the sperm penetrates a sugary coating around the egg with the help of an enzyme called N-acetyl-beta- D-hexoaminidase (HEX). After several computer-aided drug design programmes, Joseph Hall, a biochemist from North Carolina University, …
POPULATION control has just got its first big success in permanent contraception for men - an injection full of the male hormone, testosterone. This contraceptive, after worldwide trials on 399 couples for a two-and-a-half -year period is proving to be as reliable as birth control pills for women, said scientists …
Population control measures using the controversial contraceptive, Norplant -- developed by Population Council, us -- has backfired, with its acceptance level among women being on the lower side. This has been revealed in a survey conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), New Delhi. The ministry of health …
IF HEALTH is indeed wealth... then we Indians are going to get richer. Very soon: announces the advertisement for Depo Provera (DP) in a national daily -- the same Depo Provera (depomedroxyprogesterone) that has been around for more than 25 years, getting into one controversy or the other ever since …
On May 12, women activists protesting the commercial launch of the controversial contraceptive, Depo Provera, stormed a press conference held in the Capital by Max Pharma, the company launching the contraceptive in India. Max Pharma -- licensed to market Depo Provera in the country in collaboration with the US-based company …
KOREAN condoms, preferred by the World Health Organisation over the Indian Nirodh, have turned out to be too big to be of any use in the country. The Korean condoms, larger by 3 cm and wider by 1 cm than Nirodh, were distributed free in red light areas, making a …
MEDICAL research aims at producing technologies for the human good. But in pursuit of this objective, should we allow medical research to violate basic human rights? The violence of a male-dominated scientific establishment is being directed against the weaker members of society: women, the poor, and the illiterate. This exploitation …
A CHEMICAL used originally to kill bacteria in drinking water is now proving extremely effective as a male contraceptive. S K Guha, who is a professor at the biomedical engineering department at the Indian Institute of Technology and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, both in Delhi, and his …
STUDIES suggest that countries can reduce birth rates significantly, without waiting for development to make an impact, by promoting modern contraceptive methods. Birth rates are falling in countries too poor for development to have stabilised population growth. Between 1970 and 1991, fertility rates declined from 7 to 5.5 children per …
THE CHINESE health ministry has proposed a law requiring people with diseases that lead to birth defects or mental retardation to postpone marriage or undergo "long-term contraceptive measures after marriage". The legislation aims to "avoid new births of inferior quality and heighten the standards of the population", says the official …
COGNISANT of the limitations of various contraceptives, scientists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore and at the National Institute of Immunology (NII) in Delhi have been trying to develop safe and effective contraceptive vaccines for both men and women. And, their efforts are soon to bear fruit. …
• Investors have been flocking to timber-based businesses in Malaysia, where timber related stocks are being traded at high prices. This is a result of a combination of strong timber prices and a comparative scarcity of timber-related listings on the Kuala Lumpur stock market. • Japanese electronics firms are looking …
With the increasing importance of birth control in the national family welfare programme, contraceptive research in the country is bustling. A whole range of new contraceptives, from plant-based creams to surgical methods and vaccines, could make conventional birth-control practices such as sterilisation and condom-use obsolete. And, though they have yet …
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that do not help in the government's family planning programmes may get debarred from receiving government funds. Since the beginning of October, the government has made it mandatory for NGOs that draw government funds to promote family planning. The decision came in the wake of an unequivocal …
The Indian government and the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) are trapped in a cleft stick because of five million defective copper-T contraceptives given by UNFPA to Hindustan Latex Ltd, a government of India undertaking. The copper-T contraceptives were part of batches manufactured by US-based Finishing Enterprises that …
THE WHOLE world, including the most sober environmentalists, seems obsessed with the dangers of a rising population. An obsession that has led people to be unjustly branded pollutants in our collective environmental consciousness. And the causes for this are essentially threefold. In part, this phenomenon stems from a misconception of …
THE ABORTION pill RU486 developed by French drug company Roussel-Uclaf may be available soon in the US market, following meetings between Rous-sel-Uclaf president Edouard Sakiz and US food and drugs commissioner David Kessler. Women's groups are eagerly awaiting RU486, but anti-abortion groups in USA are threatening,a boycott of the US …
THE DEBATE on abortion between pro-choice and pro-life supporters is as old as antiquity, historian Angus McLaren says in his book, A History of Contraception. McLaren argues the issues raised by even the most recent breakthroughs in reproductive technologies are firmly rooted in the cultural traditions of the West. He …
A NEW CONDOM for women that gives them greater sexual freedom has been approved for sale in some European countries (Outlook Vol 10, No 2). The condom consists of a loose-fitting, polyurethane sheath with flexible rings at both ends. The smaller ring at the closed end is inserted into the …
