Yemi Omoshola, a woman from Lagos State, in southwestern Nigeria, needed blood desperately. Her doctor's attempts to induce delivery of her overdue baby had caused excessive bleeding. Unfortunately, the hospital had no blood bank. While her husband searched for blood, Mrs. Omoshola lost consciousness and died.
(2005) More African Americans are living with HIV or already dead from AIDS than any other single racial or ethnic group in the United States—a crisis one black AIDS activist calls "a state of emergency" for the African American community.
(2006) As avian flu kills a growing number of people and outbreaks of the virus are reported in birds from China to Turkey, public health officials fear a new global influenza pandemic could already be brewing.
(2002) Overall child mortality declined significantly in the 1990s, but environmental hazards still kill at least 3 million children under age 5 every year.1 Such young children make up roughly 10 percent of the world's population, but comprise more than 40 percent of the population suffering from health problems related to the environment.2
(2005) Americans perched on punctured rooftops in the blazing sun for days. Others slogged through rising floodwaters. And many others rushed inland before the storm hit, only to remain homeless weeks later, unable to return to their ruined homes.
(2003) Education is a key part of strategies to improve individuals' well-being and societies' economic and social development.
Stacked next to the ubiquitous piles of green bananas in Uganda's markets are equally ubiquitous 5-foot-tall sacks of charcoal, a major reason why this country's forests are rapidly disappearing. Charcoal and fuel wood are the energy sources for the vast majority of a population that is increasing so rapidly the forests can't possibly keep up.
(2011) Ethiopia has one of the highest rates of early marriage in the world, with one in two girls marrying before her 18th birthday and one in five girls marrying before the age of 15.