The ‘cities without slums’ initiative has resuscitated an old and dangerous term from the habitat vocabulary. Use of the word ‘slum’ will recreate many of the myths about poor people that years of careful research have discredited. The UN has employed the word in order to publicize the seriousness of urban problems and to improve its ability to attract funding with which to tackle the issue. Bu...

Access to and utilisation of quality healthcare promotes positive child health outcomes. However, to be optimally utilised, the healthcare system needs to be responsive to the expectations of the population it serves. Health systems in many sub-Saharan African countries, including Malawi, have historically focused on promoting access to health services by the rural poor. However, in the context...

Internationally, settlement informality (informal housing and informal settlements) is increasing, not decreasing. Thus, according to United Nations estimates, there are currently 924 million people living in various forms of slums and unauthorized or informal settlements (UN Habitat, 2003, p2). In Sub-Saharan Africa 71,9% of urban dwellers lived in slums (ibid). In South Africa, official gover...

Asia Pacific is experiencing multiple dynamics of urbanisation, economic growth, poverty and environmental deterioration. It is the largest region with more than 60 percent of the world population. About 43 percent of the total population in the region live in urban areas, of which 40 percent live in slums and substandard conditions. In the past 30 years, the urban population in Asia Pacific ha...

BACKGROUND Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease of global importance and often neglected as a public health problem due to lack of awareness, under-diagnosis and under-reporting. Animals serve as a source of transmission through the shedding of Leptospira in their urine. Because of their proximity to humans, dogs may play a role in human infections. In order to assess and mitigate leptospirosis ...

I 2008, the proportion of the world’s population living in urban areas crossed the 50% mark. The current rates of urbanization suggest that in China, 870 million people — more than half the population — will be living in cities within less than a decade, and the capital of Botswana, Gaborone, will grow from 186,000 to 500,000 inhabitants by 2020.1 Most observers believe that essentially all pop...

Background and aims: India has a high burden of tobacco usage and its related morbidity and mortality. Almost 30% of the above 15 years of age of the Indian population use some forms of tobacco. Men usually use smoked tobacco, while women more likely use smokeless (chewed) tobacco. Tobacco usage has been identified as a risk factor for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) among slum dwellers in urb...

BACKGROUND Salt iodization is the main strategy for reducing iodine deficiency disorders worldwide. Characteristics of families not using iodized salt need to be known to expand coverage. OBJECTIVE The objective was to determine whether families who do not use iodized salt have a higher prevalence of child malnutrition and mortality and to identify factors associated with not using iodized sa...