Latest KFF Health News Content

Opinion Piece, Editorial Respond To Parliamentary Report On India’s Drug Regulatory Agency

May 18, 2012 Morning Briefing

Below are summaries of an opinion piece and an editorial responding to a report (.pdf) from the Indian Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare on India’s drug regulatory agency, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO).

Opinion Pieces, Editorial Published In Anticipation Of G8 Summit At Camp David

May 18, 2012 Morning Briefing

Below are summaries of two opinion pieces and an editorial published in anticipation of the G8 summit at Camp David in rural Maryland from May 18-19.

International Community Must Organize, Commit Financial Resources To Win War On Polio

May 18, 2012 Morning Briefing

In this editorial in the International Herald Tribune’s “Express Tribune,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon examines the global push to eradicate polio, highlighting progress in the “world’s war on polio” since it was declared nearly a quarter century ago but warning that “we are in danger of falling victim to our own success,” as “the world is now populated by a generation which has either never been exposed to polio or has been inadequately vaccinated.” However, “[w]ith a determined push, the international community can wipe out polio once and for all,” Ban continues, adding, “To do so, … it must organize and commit the required financial resources.” Ban highlights two upcoming meetings — the G8 summit at Camp David this week, and a meeting of World Health Assembly in Geneva the following week — as opportunities for world leaders to push for polio eradication on the international agenda.

PRI Examines Challenges Of Hospital’s Charitable Legacy In Gabon

May 18, 2012 Morning Briefing

PRI’s “The World” profiles Gabon’s Albert Schweitzer Hospital, which “is struggling to achieve the goals of its founder while adapting to a new century and a different Africa.” The story recaps the hospital’s history and its board’s recent efforts to address what one board member described as locals’ “dependency” on historically European directors. However, Lachlan Forrow, a doctor at Harvard Medical School and Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the only American on the hospital’s board, recently became president of the board, and he has worked to establish “a new relationship between locals and outsiders — blacks and whites,” PRI reports. Forrow “found an experienced Gabonese hospital administrator — Antoine Nziengui –” who is now the Schweitzer Hospital director, an African “for the first time since the hospital was founded 99 years ago,” the news service writes, adding that the hospital “still faces huge obstacles: a million-dollar budget deficit, antiquated facilities, a rising burden of HIV and tuberculosis” (Baron, 5/17).

Modeling Data Shows Vaccine Can Build On HIV/AIDS Prevention Tools

May 18, 2012 Morning Briefing

In this post in USAID’s “IMPACTblog,” International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) President and CEO Margaret McGlynn discusses new modeling data from IAVI and the Futures Institute, with support from USAID, which “illustrates how a safe, preventive HIV vaccine that is accessible and affordable can help us end the AIDS pandemic.” The information, released in recognition of World AIDS Vaccine Day, also known as HIV Vaccine Awareness Day, “is available in a series of publications and an interactive web tool,” according to McGlynn. She writes, “The world must continue to scale up and improve the response to HIV by using powerful prevention tools that are currently at our disposal. … Our new models show that a vaccine can build on these existing tools and take us down the last mile to the end of the AIDS pandemic” (5/18).

Opinion Pieces Recognize World AIDS Vaccine Day

May 18, 2012 Morning Briefing

May 18 is World AIDS Vaccine Day, also known as HIV Vaccine Awareness Day, and the following summarizes two opinion pieces recognizing the event.

Afghanistan Breaks Ground On $30M Hospital For Treatment Of TB, AIDS, Malaria

May 18, 2012 Morning Briefing

“Afghanistan has begun work on a $30 million hospital for the treatment of tuberculosis [TB], a disease that health officials say kills more than 10,000 Afghans every year,” VOA’s “Breaking News” blog reports. “The Japanese government is paying for the 80-bed center in the Afghan capital, which will also treat malaria and AIDS patients,” the news service writes, noting, “Japan is the second-largest donor to Afghanistan, after the United States.” VOA adds, “During Thursday’s groundbreaking in Kabul, Afghan Health Minister Suraya Dalil said Afghanistan ranks in the top 20 worldwide for the most TB patients,” and she noted the country has 2,000 centers nationwide that can diagnose and treat the disease (5/17).

Loss Of U.S. Funding For UNFPA ‘Would Be Devastating’ To Family Planning Services In Developing Countries

May 18, 2012 Morning Briefing

“By voting to ban any U.S. contribution to UNFPA” in the FY 2013 State and Foreign Operations appropriations bill, the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday “made a judgment call that saving the lives of women and girls around the world is simply not a U.S. priority,” Valerie DeFillipo, president of Friends of UNFPA, writes in a Huffington Post “Global Motherhood” opinion piece. She notes that “[c]ommittee members voted against amendments that would permit funding to UNFPA for preventing and treating obstetric fistula, ending female genital mutilation, and providing family planning services and contraceptive supplies in nine sub-Saharan African countries with high rates of poverty and maternal mortality where USAID does not provide family planning assistance.”

Despite Contraception Controversy, Sebeilus To Speak Today At Georgetown

May 18, 2012 Morning Briefing

Criticism about Health and Human Services Sec. Kathleen Sebelius’ appearance at the Jesuit institution has mounted this week because of her role in the Obama administration’s rule on contraception requirements in the health care law.