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Health and Disease

In what ways are followers of Jesus demonstrating God's loving character through caring for the sick, preventing disease, and even attempting to eradicate some diseases?

Photo credit: Sanofi Pasteur - Flickr

Posts tagged Africa
The Role of the Church and Other Public Health Providers in the Fight against HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa

by Kalemba Mwambazambi

The spread of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa poses an enormous challenge for public health providers in countries that are already weakened by many other evils such as poverty, wars, corruption, social injustice, and political conflicts. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is a drop of water in a bucket already overflowing. Within the context of African concepts of family, sexuality, and of the pandemic itself, this article analyzes the tasks of public health providers, communities, and government. It emphasizes the role of families and the church in stemming the exponential spread of this pandemic.

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EditorAIDS, Africa, HIV, health, public health, church, family, crisis Comment
Conséquences et remèdes pour l'élimination inadéquate des déchets hospitaliers au Cameroun

Consequences and Cures for Inadequate Waste Disposal in Hospitals in Camaroon

by Samuel-Béni Ella Ella and Louise Chrésance Silinou

This article is in French. Copy and paste into Google Translate to read one segment of this article at a time (3900 character limit per translation).

The authors are associated with the Institut Universitaire de Développement International (Francophone University of International Development) founded by Moussa Bongoyok with the assistance of WCIU.

The World Health Organization (WHO 2011) reports that inadequate disposal of hospital waste has caused 21 million hepatitis B virus infections, 2 million for hepatitis C and at least 260,000 HIV infections worldwide in 2000. The same study shows that 18 to 64% of health facilities south of the Sahara do not correctly dispose of their waste, which nevertheless constitutes "a reservoir of potentially dangerous microorganisms capable of infecting hospital patients, staff and the general public ”(WHO 2015). To remedy this dangerous situation, the Cameroonian State has taken political and financial measures.

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Editordisease, Africa, sociologyComment
Holistic Transformational Development through Surgical Care

by Dan Poenaru, M.D.

“I have a dream…” The iconic words, spoken by Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1963 resonate in the ears of all those who, like me, would like to see true transformational development be born and flourish through the church of Jesus Christ in global communities bound by poverty, sickness, injustice, and apathy. This is the dream which has led me to a more than decade-long health care career in Africa, and the dream which made me join, in 2000, BethanyKids, a small faith-based organization whose motto is “healing children in Africa, transforming lives.”

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Editorhealth, disease, education, transformation, spirituality, Bible, holism, poverty, evil, disability, church, Africa, development, shalom, communityComment
Book Review: AIDS, Behavior, and Culture: Understanding Evidence-Based Prevention

by Jim Harries

AIDS, Behavior, and Culture presents a bold challenge to the prevailing wisdom of “the global AIDS industry” and offers an alternative framework for understanding what works in HIV prevention. Arguing for a behavior-based approach, Green and Ruark make the case that the most effective programs are those that encourage fundamental behavioral changes such as abstinence, delay of sex, faithfulness, and cessation of injection drug use.

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EditorAIDS, Africa, disease, HIVComment