Women leaders must fight gender bias in the system, says Nazhat Shameem Khan

13/09/2018 0 Comments read Climate Change, Gender

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 13.09.2018 (SciDev.Net): Women in high positions must change the system so that every girl and woman can experience equality of opportunity, says Nazhat Shameem Khan, Permanent Representative of Fiji to the UN in Geneva and the country’s ambassador to Switzerland.

Born in Suva to migrant parents of Indian descent, she has had a stellar career as a lawyer, a judge and a diplomat. In every position she worked to remove the barriers girls and women face, be it making the office of Fiji’s director of public prosecutions more inclusive or getting the Gender Action Plan passed as chief negotiator for Fiji’s presidency of the 23^rd annual Conference of Parties (COP23) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

She spoke to SciDev.Net about her sheltered childhood, her struggle to get a job despite having a law degree from Cambridge University, her experience with gender and racial bias as an Indo-Fijian woman and harassment and bullying at the workplace.

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HIV seeks refuge in immune cells to avoid full elimination

25/10/2017 0 Comments read Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 25.10.2017 (SciDev.Net): Genetically-intact HIV hides in the same cells of the human immune system that are supposed to attack and destroy pathogens, scientists at Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Sydney University, discover in a new study.

Previously, it was thought that HIV hides primarily in central memory T-cells during effective anti-HIV therapy. But, in the study published this month (19 October) in Cell Reports, the scientists show that replication-competent HIV persists in specific subsets of CD4+ immune memory T-cells.

HIV infects white blood cells known as T lymphocytes, particularly the CD4+ T cells that recognise infection and gets the immune system to respond. Following HIV infection, if anti-HIV therapy is not initiated, the number of CD4+ T cells in the blood begin to fall, though the process may be slow.

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Vaccine therapies need boost, say scientists

14/04/2008 0 Comments read Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 14.04.2008 (IPS): While millions of children’s lives have been saved as a result of a successful worldwide campaign to boost vaccination programmes, governments across the world are failing in following through on their commitments to health aid and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

‘’Wealthy countries such as the G8 members continue to content themselves with largely symbolic gestures. We have to make sure that the pledge made by governments (on MDGs) is followed,” eminent medical scientist Gustav Nossal told IPS.

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