Archives: Morning Breakouts

Inter Press Service reports on the Fifth International Parliamentarians' Conference on the Implementation of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) program of action, taking place May 24-25 in Istanbul, Turkey. According to the news service, about 300 parliamentarians from six continents will meet to "discuss 'the progress the world's governments are making in their efforts to protect and empower women in their reproductive health and rights: a promise they made at the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994 in Cairo,' says the European Parliamentary Forum (EPF), which is co-organizing the event."

"Every year, millions of people die from preventable and treatable diseases, especially in poor countries," World Bank Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate, writes in this BusinessDay opinion piece. "In many cases, life-saving medicines can be cheaply mass-produced, but are sold at prices that block access to those who need them," and "many die simply because there are no cures or vaccines, because so little of the world's valuable research talent and limited resources is devoted to addressing the diseases of the poor," he continues, arguing, "This state of affairs represents a failure of economics and law that urgently needs to be corrected." Stiglitz continues, "The good news is that there are now opportunities for change, most promisingly through an international effort headed by the World Health Organization that would begin to fix the broken intellectual-property regime that is holding back the development and availability of cheap drugs."

"As representatives of the World Health Organization Member States arrive in Geneva this week for the 65th World Health Assembly, I feel a cautious optimism about the future, and the future health of Africa," Joy Phumaphi, co-chair of the Aspen Global Leaders Council for Reproductive Health, writes in this post in the Huffington Post Blog. "With two female heads of state in Africa - Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in Liberia and Joyce Banda in Malawi - women's health and gender equality are no longer marginalized, they have become central to a nation's potential for development and prosperity," she continues, adding the two "share a vision and passionate resolve to improve the lives of women in Africa -- and like me they are founding members of the Aspen Institute's Global Leaders Council for Reproductive Health."

"U.N. aid agencies are under attack from doctors working with refugees who have been displaced by fighting in Sudan, with claims that they are not doing enough to get medical supplies through to children in desperate need," the Guardian's "The Observer" reports. According to the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, some doctors working in the area say that UNICEF-provided supplies of vaccines against childhood diseases "dried up nearly a year ago in areas of conflict around the Nuba mountains," the newspaper writes.

In a Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security on Friday, President Barack Obama "announced a plan to accelerate investments in developing world agriculture to meet rising food demands and improve nutrition, calling the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition a moral, economic and security imperative," IIP Digital reports (Porter, 5/18). The new program, unveiled "in conjunction with African leaders from Ethiopia, Ghana and Tanzania, will parlay more than $3 billion in private assistance into a public-private partnership with an ambitious goal: lifting 50 million people from poverty over 10 years," according to USA Today's "The Oval" (Wolf, 5/18). The initiative "will constitute the next phase of a groundbreaking program begun during the 2009 G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy," Inter Press Service writes (Brion, 5/18). More than 45 companies have pledged to invest in the initiative, Devex notes (Ravelo, 5/10). A fact sheet on the New Alliance is available on the White House website (5/18).

"As Washington prepares for a major international AIDS conference this summer, developments on the drug front are once again elevating the subject of the continuing epidemic in the public eye," CQ HealthBeat reports. The article mentions an FDA panel's recent recommendation for the approval of Truvada for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV among healthy people at risk of contracting the virus and a bill (S 1138) introduced last week by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) aimed at reducing the cost of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs). The bill, which is focused on the cost of ARVs in the U.S., would "create a $3 billion 'prize fund,' through which [pharmaceutical] firms that bring a new HIV or AIDS medicine to market would get awards" in exchange for relinquishing patent rights to the drug, according to CQ (Norman, 5/18).

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs' "Global Food for Thought" blog on Sunday published several commentaries addressing food security issues. Commentators include Roger Thurow, senior fellow for global agriculture and food policy at the Council; Lisa Dreier, director of food security and development initiatives at the World Economic Forum USA; Gayle Smith, special assistant to the president and senior director at the National Security Council, and Rajiv Shah, USAID administrator; Danielle Nierenberg, co-project director of State of World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet for the Worldwatch Institute; Glynn Young, director of online strategy and communications for Monsanto Company; and Sam Dryden, director of the Agricultural Development initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (5/20).

The World Affairs Council of Atlanta, CARE USA, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) last week held a conference "on how the United States, even in the midst of fiscal austerity and political division, can best advance the world's health," CSIS' "Smart Global Health" blog reports (5/17). According to CSIS, "This Atlanta Summit addresses how the next U.S. Congress and presidential administration can best sustain United States leadership in improving world health, with a particular focus on the role of safe water and sanitation." A new report by the three sponsoring agencies, titled "The Atlanta Declaration: U.S. Leadership in Improving the World's Health," is available online (5/21).

The Hill's "Congress Blog" on Friday published two opinion pieces addressing global food security, the G8 summit, and the New Alliance for Food and Nutrition Security. The following are summaries of the pieces.

The Globe and Mail reports on "a massive resurgence of malaria [in the Democratic Republic of the Congo] that has baffled scientists and raised doubts about the global fight against the deadly scourge." "Malaria is already the single biggest killer in Congo, with nearly 200,000 people dying annually, and now the trend is worsening," the newspaper writes, noting that "the number of malaria patients has soared by a stunning 250 percent ... since 2009," according to data from Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

NPR reports on a study examining the relationship between the obesity epidemic and teen diabetes rates.