Scidev.net
SciDev.Net Podcast: Online wildfire fighters and more
- Author: Vários
- Narrator: Vários
- Publisher: Podcast
- Duration: 0:33:00
- More information
Informações:
Synopsis
Of the 16 million people worldwide who are injection drug users, 3 million are HIV positive and 10 million have Hepatitis C. In this month’s podcast we first look at an effective approach to reducing harm from drug abuse. Earlier this year, the city of Vancouver in Canada hosted a global conference on HIV to discuss options for treatment and infection prevention. Vancouver is one of the first cities in North America to trial a new approach to drug harm reduction. The strategy — of providing heroin addicts with a safe space and sterile needles to inject — reduces the likelihood of people contracting viruses such as HIV or hepatitis C through sharing needles. This approach isn’t new. But practical examples of this measure are still rare. The system is working in Vancouver, but could it be exported to the developing world? We then travel to Kenya to learn about simple rainwater harvesting systems called sand dams that are helping nomadic farmers adapt to climate change. As the weather in already arid regions b