Producer Gary Strieker reports from Ethiopia’s Amhara region where 60 percent of children suffer from trachoma.

For more on Worldfocus’ coverage on Ethiopia, click here.

Al Jazeera English’s Teresa Bo reports on the anger surrounding the deteriorating conditions in many of the Argentina’s hospitals.

The British National Health System is the world’s largest publicly-funded health care system. And while it’s free, it’s still controversial.

Now, Thailand’s efforts to combat AIDS — including its “100 Percent Condom Use” program and its creation of low-cost antiretroviral drugs — have helped reduce the prevalence of the disease from 140,000 new cases a year to fewer than 20,000.

However, because the disease now seems less urgent, infected mothers pass on the disease to their children — 15,000 Thai children are infected with AIDS. Stigma surrounding the disease persists.

Worldfocus correspondent Mark Litke travels to Thailand to assess the country’s progress and remaining challenges. He speaks with Mechai Viravaidya, or “Mr. Condom,” who has led the country’s fight against AIDS.

Blogger “Ciee” writes about the history of AIDS in Thailand, including the role of prostitution in spreading the disease, arguing that the country still has a long way to go.

Blogger “Katie Tibone” argues that the successes of Thailand’s fight against AIDS have allowed the government to slip into complacency, and urges local communities to take action.

The “American in Bangkok” blog visits an AIDS hospice in Lopburi, Thailand, that is working to combat social stigma.

Alex and Ann Oryschak with their son, Julien, who died in 2007.

Worldfocus editorial consultant Peter Eisner writes about his experience reporting on a Worldfocus signature story on the contamination of U.S. drugs: Contaminated drug imports threaten Americans.

As usual, after you do all the reporting and analysis, the human dimensions of a news story bring it all home.

Producer Ara Ayer and I interviewed a young couple, Alex and Ann Oryschak, for a number of hours in November 2008. Their infant son, Julien, was a sick little boy — but they think that the blood thinner heparin may have contributed to his death. He was eight months old.

We spoke to the Oryschaks on the one-year anniversary of Julien’s death on Nov. 19, 2007. The Oryschaks were willing to speak about this in hopes that their pain might lead to changes in the regulation of drugs. Perhaps, Ann Oryschak told me, another mother would not have to see her child suffer and die in the same way.

Perhaps the most surprising fact that emerged in our three months of reporting on contaminated heparin ingredients from China: The U.S. government has little ability to know whether the drugs we are taking are safe or not.

The Food and Drug Administration just doesn’t know how many people died as a result of the heparin problem. The FDA doesn’t have the staff to inspect more than a handful of the thousands of laboratories in China, India and other parts of the world.

The U.S. government doesn’t require doctors and hospitals to provide immediate information on unusual occurrences leading to injury and death. And medical professionals are often too busy and too worried about lawsuits to file such reports. We may not know about more than about 1 percent of the cases of people harmed or even killed by adulterated heparin.

As a result, doctors must take it on faith that the medicines they are prescribing are exactly what they are supposed to be. One physician I spoke to, Dr. Frederick Rickles, a hematologist at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., said that the heparin case is not isolated.

“We see on a regular basis evidence for manufacturing problems throughout the industry and it shouldn’t surprise anyone. It occurs with automobiles, it occurs with jet planes, why wouldn’t it occur with the production of…complex medications.”

- Peter Eisner

The majority of deaths are preventable, with access to sufficient medical care — a challenge for many Guatemalans, particularly those in remote areas.

Worldfocus special correspondent Lynn Sherr reports from the mountain community of Huehuetenango, Guatemala, where the “Casa Materna” center has helped 50,000 women and their children since opening — but tragedy lingers.

For more information on global maternal health, see below.

One of the United Nations’ Millenium Development Goals — a set of global goals to achieve by 2015 — is to improve maternal health and reduce maternal mortality by three-quarters.

Read about the state of maternal health in Latin American countries.

A chart, courtesy of PBS Wide Angle, details those countries with high and low rates of maternal mortality. Also, listen to public health experts discuss worldwide efforts to improve maternal care.