BUKOBA, Tanzania – Scientists have identified the mystery disease that has killed five people in the last week in Tanzania’s north-western Kagera region as the highly contagious Marburg virus, which is a filovirus like Ebola. Health Minister Ummy Mwalimu announced this on Tuesday but said that her government has managed to control the spread of […] Continue reading ->
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania – Twelve African nations pledged on Wednesday to end AIDS in children by 2030, focusing on ensuring that life-saving antiretroviral (ARV) medication reaches children. The pledge – known as the Dar es Salaam Declaration – was adopted at the first ministerial meeting of the Global Alliance to end AIDS in Children. […] Continue reading ->
IFAKARA, Tanzania – When you think of malaria, a swarm of mosquitoes flying against an orange sunset is a dangerous sight. As part of their mating ritual, the dreaded bloodsuckers brazenly hover for 30 minutes, males adroitly flapping their slender wings to produce a sound that lures female partners to join them. The mosquito proliferation […] Continue reading ->
For months, Sharifa Shomale suffered in silence from tuberculosis, not knowing what was wrong with her. Doctors suspected a viral infection. Then an unlikely hero made a life-saving discovery: a mischievous rat named Hamisi. DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania—Every evening, as the call to prayer from the mosque echoes in the twilight from Manzese—a tangled Dar […] Continue reading ->
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania – For Khadija Kambi, the country’s water shortage presents a tricky moral dilemma for her family: either she lets her children drink murky water and fall sick or she lets them suffer from extreme thirst. “I don’t have the money to buy clean piped water. Well water is the cheaper option […] Continue reading ->
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania – Issa Abdul’s desperate urge for solar power began when he realised a smoke-spewing generator at his barber shop was costing him too much. “Solar power is very cheap. I regret spending my money on this fuel-guzzling machine,” he told Health Policy Watch. The 32-year-old barber in Tanzania’s port city spent […] Continue reading ->
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania—At a smoky kitchen in the port city of Dar es Salaam, none of the customers jostling to place their orders knows that the irresistibly tasty roast chicken may be harbouring bacteria that could make them sick. “I don’t think poultry farmers would do anything likely to cause harm,” said 34-year-old Lilian […] Continue reading ->
DAR ES SALAAM -- As she walks through a narrow passage in Tandale slum in Dar es Salaam to work, Lulu Kambogi braves the taunts shouted at her: “Bonge, Bonge, Bonge.” (Fat woman) Continue reading ->
DAR ES SALAAM -- As rain sprinkled on the muddy soil, Patrick Nyembo and his wife Agnes waded on the mud-soaked pathway to a remote village in western Tanzania as they desperately try to reach a herbalist whose herbs are believed to treat a very embarrassing problem. Continue reading ->
TABORA, Tanzania -- At first glance, the village looks quiet and beautiful. Unfortunately, life has not been affirming for dozens of its inhabitants. They have leprosy—a least contagious and curable disease, except for its two worst characteristics — poverty and neglect. Continue reading ->