Archives: Morning Breakouts

In this post on the Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog," Bjorn Lomborg, author and director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, examines the issue of foreign aid in this time of austerity, writing, "Targeted financial assistance offers a middle path between the arguments for and against higher development spending." He adds, "A different way of focusing this spending would be to examine where we could do the most good

Since GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney chose former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt to be his transition chief, news outlets have re-examined Leavitt's policy positions when he was the Health and Human Services secretary in George W. Bush's presidential administration, his support for elements of the 2010 federal health law and his work as a health care consultant advising states on the measure's implementation.

Today's recall election in Wisconsin represents the "culmination" of a political firestorm that began when Gov. Scott Walker proposed ending most state workers' collective bargaining rights and requiring them to pay more for health insurance and pension benefits as a way to address the state's budget shortfall.

The Economist's "Graphic Detail" blog features an infographic depicting the probability of dying from a non-communicable disease, by country. "You are more likely to be killed by a non-communicable disease (NCD), like cancer or heart disease, than anything else," the blog notes, adding, "In 2008 they accounted for 63 percent of the 56 million deaths worldwide" (6/1).

In this Bloomberg Businessweek opinion piece, Charles Kenny, a fellow at the Center for Global Development and the New America Foundation, examines the global obesity epidemic, writing, "It may seem strange to be worried about too much food when the United Nations suggests that, as the planet's population continues to expand, about one billion people may still be undernourished," but "[g]rowing obesity in poorer countries is a sign of a historic global tipping point." He continues, "After millennia when the biggest food-related threat to humanity was the risk of having too little, the 21st century is one where the fear is having too much."

In this article in "Policy Review," a publication of Stanford University's Hoover Institution, Mark Dybul, co-director of the Global Health Law Program and the inaugural global health fellow at the George W. Bush Institute; Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; and Julio Frenk, dean of the Harvard School of Public Health, discuss the need for "a structural and philosophical shift" in the global health field, writing, "As we approach the post-[Millennium Development Goal] era, now is the time for a new framework to establish an accelerated trajectory to achieve a healthy world." The authors recount the history of global health work in recent years and outline several "conceptual foundations of a new era in global health and development." They conclude, "That is an audacious vision, but the recent history of global health and a long history of great human achievements teach us that what seems impossible can be done" (6/1).

"Bangladesh, a country crisscrossed with rivers and canals, has one of the highest drowning rates in the world," the Guardian reports. "More than 17,000 Bangladeshi children drown every year -- nearly 50 a day, according to the Bangladesh health and injury survey [.pdf], conducted in 2003," the news service writes. "A report by UNICEF and the Alliance for Safe Children (Tasc) has found that the cause of death in roughly one in four children who die between one and 10 years of age is drowning," making "drowning the leading killer of children in Bangladesh, overtaking diseases such as diarrhea and pneumonia," the Guardian adds.

"An international team of scientists has decoded the genome of one of the main vectors of Chagas disease, paving the way for more targeted vector control and new ways to prevent disease transmission," SciDev.Net reports. "Until now, scientists had only decoded the genome of the Chagas parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi, but lacked genome information about the insect vectors," the news service notes, adding, "[K]nowing the insect vector genomes should, in theory, improve control strategies through the development of traps, inhibitors of the Chagas parasite growth, and detection of insecticide resistance, among others."

Al Jazeera examines Afghanistan's health care system since the fall of the Taliban, writing, "Standards of health care in Afghanistan have improved significantly since the fall of the Taliban, but security continues to play a large role in determining access to and quality of care provided." According to the video report, Afghanistan's constitution mandates that health services be provided free of charge, which "leaves many small clinics reliant on foreign aid." The news service notes, "There's a big difference in the type of care you can get [in] rural areas and in urban areas," adding, "Many procedures still require patients to travel to city hospitals, putting them at risk from violence and grueling journeys on poorly maintained roads" (Smith, 6/3).

Half of New Yorkers say the proposal by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to limit the size of sugary drinks goes too far, but nalysts say legal challenges to the limits might not be able to stop the policy.