Also In Global Health News May 4

The East African Reports on Senate Hearing of Obama's Nominee for Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs

According to the East African, President Obama's nominee for assistant secretary of state for African affairs, Johnnie Carson, "told the U.S. Senate that he will aim to strengthen democracy, prevent conflict, foster economic development, and partner with African states to combat global threats such as climate change and disease pandemics." Carson said that the Obama Administration remains committed to the President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, initiated by former President George W. Bush, which the East African describes as "one of the major success stories of American foreign policy in Africa in recent years, making available millions of dollars for HIV prevention and treatment" (Kelly/Kimani, East African, 5/2). 

Carson's testimony is available online.

Taiwan To Attend This Month's WHO Assembly

Taiwan has been allowed observer status at this month's World Health Assembly, the WHO's supreme governing body, ABC Radio Australia reports (Heydeman, ABC Radio Australia, 5/1). China "apparently gave a green light" for Taiwan's participation, a sign of thawing relations between the two countries, the Washington Post reports (Washington Post, 4/30). According to ABC Radio Australia, "Taiwan was expelled from the WHO in 1972, a year after losing the China seat in the United Nations to Beijing" (ABC Radio Australia, 5/1). The Washington Post writes, "The move comes as the WHO seeks international cooperation to combat a potential pandemic of swine flu. During a similar crisis in 2003, Taiwan complained that its exclusion from the WHO complicated its response to an outbreak of the virus responsible for severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS" (Rickards, Washington Post, 4/30).  

New York Times Examines Use of Trash for Building Material in Senegal

The New York Times reports from Senegal on the problems with garbage "as pervasive as the hot midday sun in which it bakes." In low-lying parts of the country near the Atlantic coast, residents pay pennies for trash to help prevent flooding in their homes and streets. The New York Times writes, "Garbage is a surrogate building material, a critical filler to deal with the stagnant water - cheap, instantly accessible and never diminishing. The plastic-laden spillover from these foul-smelling deliveries pokes up through the sandy lots, covers the ground between the crumbling cinder-block houses, becomes grazing ground for goats, playground for barefoot, runny-nosed children and breeding ground for swarms of flies. Disease flourishes here, aid groups say: cholera, malaria, yellow fever and tuberculosis" (Nossiter, New York Times, 5/2).