Archives: Morning Breakouts

In this post in USAID's "IMPACTblog," guest blogger Joanna Breitstein, director of communications for the TB Alliance, describes an event organized by the Critical Paths to TB Drug Regimens that took place on Monday, "heralding the launch of a new clinical trial that tests tuberculosis drugs in combination." During the event, "Robert Clay, deputy assistant administrator in USAID's Global Health Bureau, said that he wants researchers and those who oversee programs in countries to work more closely together," she writes. A link to video of Clay's comments is included in the blog (3/20).

This post in the AIDS.gov blog provides video of Ron Valdiserri, deputy assistant secretary of health for infectious diseases, interviewing Jonathan Mermin, director of the CDC Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, at the recent 19th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI). According to the blog, "They discussed some of the significant findings from the conference including advances related to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and the growing discussions of an AIDS-free generation" (Gomez, 3/20).

The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves "launched a campaign in Nigeria on Tuesday aimed at preventing deaths due to toxic smoke from rudimentary cookstoves, one of the developing world's worst public health threats," Agence France-Presse reports. In Nigeria, "an estimated 95,000 people die each year due to such toxic smoke, the highest number of deaths on the continent," the news service writes, adding the new Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves will aim to distribute "10 million clean cookstoves by 2020, beginning with half a million within the next 12 months." According to AFP, "U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria Terence McCulley said his government has committed up to $105 million over the next five years for the project" (3/20).

VOA News examines polio vaccination efforts in Pakistan, where "authorities say national pride is now at stake for polio eradication and they are hoping to overcome years of setbacks from natural disasters, misinformation and war." Though health workers hold eight nationwide vaccine campaigns each year, reaching each child is challenging because of fighting in some regions; migration; public mistrust of the vaccine; and inadequate clean water and sanitation, which allows the polio virus to thrive, according to VOA (Padden, 3/20).

"Political instability, civil strife and humanitarian crises in Africa have over the past decades reversed countless maternal health development gains on the continent, health experts warn," Inter Press Service reports. "'African countries with good maternal health statistics are generally those that have long-term political stability. This shows that stability is a fundamental basis for development. If it doesn't exist, other priorities overtake,' Lucien Kouakou, regional director of the International Planned Parenthood Foundation (IPPF) in Africa, told IPS," the news service writes.

"Africa has the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, with 48 percent of all global maternal deaths occurring in this region," Jotham Musinguzi, regional director of the Partners in Population and Development Africa Regional Office in Kampala, Uganda, writes in an Independent opinion piece. But "[i]f we provide girls, women and their partners with family planning information and services we can empower them to decide the number, timing and spacing of their children -- and whether they want to become pregnant at all," he states, adding, "Intended pregnancies are safer and healthier pregnancies."

Attorneys general from six states will sit in the Supreme Court to hear the oral arguments over the health reform law. In the meantime, Pennsylvania lawmakers may offer a constitutional amendment to ban laws mandating that people have health insurance.

USAID's website features a page dedicated to World TB Day, which will be commemorated on March 24. The page lists information on upcoming events, as well as links to several reports, such as the FY2010 Report to Congress on the Global TB Context (.pdf), stories, and features (3/19).