Urban health
City Mayors investigates health issues affecting urban areas with an emphasis on health in cities in developing countries

Mexico City parliament votes decisively
for decriminalisation of early abortions
25 April 2007: Mexico City’s legislators have approved reforms to current abortion laws. Under the new legislation, abortions carried out during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy will no longer be a criminal offence. The new legislation focuses on the sexual and reproductive health of women and the prevention of unwanted pregnancies. City Mayors was told that the proposals are also designed to reduce mortality during pregnancy and childbirth as wells as death through back-street abortions. More

Nothing short of a complete overhaul
will cure America’s health care system
29 August 2006: The US is the only major industrialized country in the world without a national health program. The US health care system is market-based and relies primarily on private health insurers. Employers and individuals pay an insurance premium, to gain access to the network of health care providers. Employers in the US are not obligated to provide health insurance for their workers, and many do not because of rising costs. More

Number of women living with HIV
increases in all parts of the world
A new report released by UNAIDS and the WHO shows that the number of women living with HIV has risen in each region of the world over the past two years, with the steepest increases in East Asia, followed by Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In East Asia, there was a 56 per cent increase over the past two years, followed by Eastern Europe and Central Asia with 48 per cent. More

South Asians living in urban Britain
face increased risk of heart disease
Researchers at the British University of Manchester's Medical School, working with teams in India and Birmingham, have found that people moving from South Asia to UK cities significantly increase their risk of contracting cardiovascular disease (CVD). The British population has one of the highest rates of cardiovascular disease in the world, and people from the Indian subcontinent living in Britain are amongst the most susceptible to heart attacks and strokes. More

WHO calls for stronger cities to
help prevent Asian health crisis
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the health of city dwellers in the western Pacific region will suffer dramatically unless urgent measures are taken now to alleviate worsening environmental conditions. The western Pacific region includes countries such as Australia, Cambodia, China, Fiji, Hong Kong (China), Japan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Mongolia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore and Viet Nam. More

Rio de Janeiro to spend US$1 billion on
innovative slum improvement programme
Rio de Janeiro aims to invest a total US$1 billion in its internationally acclaimed ‘Favela-Bairro’ neighbourhood improvement programme, Rio city leaders told City Mayors at a seminar held at the Inter-American Development Bank’s Washington headquarters in October 2003. Favela-Bairro is the name given to a programme that brings basic infrastructure as well as municipal and social services to favelas, Rio's urban squatter settlements. More

Some 8,000 people
die of AIDS every day
It is estimated that 40 million people around the world are infected with HIV, and that the global AIDS epidemic shows no signs of abating. Five million people became infected with HIV worldwide and three million died in 2003 alone - that's 8,000 people every day. The World Health Organisation estimates that six million people worldwide are in immediate need of AIDS treatment. More

More than one billion people
call urban slums their home
More than one billion people live in slums, with the highest percentage of them found in Asia, Africa and Latin America, according to a new report by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme. More