Archives: Morning Breakouts

The Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog interviews tuberculosis (TB) expert Lee Reichman, founding executive director of the New Jersey Medical School Global Tuberculosis Institute, in advance of World TB Day, to be observed on March 24. According to the blog, Reichman discusses "the spread of drug-resistant TB and what he thinks are the most promising advances coming down the scientific pipeline" (Mazzotta, 3/19).

"[O]ften seen in the wealthy West as a disease of bygone eras," Reuters examines rising rates of tuberculosis (TB) -- drug-resistant TB in particular -- among the world's rich and poor. "[R]apidly rising rates of drug-resistant TB in some of the wealthiest cities in the world, as well as across Africa and Asia, are again making history," Reuters writes. According to the news service, "London has been dubbed the 'tuberculosis capital of Europe,' and a startling recent study documenting new cases of so-called 'totally drug-resistant' TB in India suggests the modern-day tale of this disease could get a lot worse."

Guardian health editor Sarah Boseley examines why children have been excluded from WHO targets on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in this post in her "Global Health Blog," writing, "Children die from cancer, heart disease and other [NCDs] but they are in danger of being forgotten as global targets for action are drawn up, say health groups." Boseley discusses an analysis by advocate Kate Armstrong, which suggests "the targets now being considered by the [WHO] and others to reduce the impact of heart disease, cancer and other [NCDs] are in danger of being focused solely on adults," as "the targets under consideration aim to bring down the deaths of adults over the age of 30."

The TB Alliance on Monday announced it has launched a Phase II clinical trial "of a new treatment regimen for tuberculosis, including for patients with resistance to existing multi-drug programs," Agence France-Presse reports. "The new regimen being tested could shorten required treatment to as little as four months in both patients with TB and some forms of drug-resistant TB, compared with the current six to 24 months," the news agency writes, adding, "Costs will also be vastly reduced." The trial "will take place at eight sites in South Africa, Tanzania, and Brazil, the alliance said," AFP notes (Santini, 3/19).

In this post in the State Department's "DipNote" blog, Alyce Ahn, a foreign affairs officer in the State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) Office of Anticrime Programs, writes about the U.S. delegation's participation last week in the 55th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND). She outlines the delegation's work at the conference, concluding, "We're already beginning to see operational results from the CND. One country noted that, in response to a resolution, it plans to look into using a life-saving drug that can help prevent deaths from overdose. For its part, the United States looks forward to working with other states, as well as [the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)], in various joint projects and regional counter-narcotics initiatives addressed in the resolutions" (3/19).

"The use of cell phones by community health workers and other medical practitioners in low-income countries has been promoted as a potential revolution for health systems development," Sanjay Basu, a resident physician in the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, writes in this GlobalHealthHub.org post, then asks, "But is mHealth really going to improve health outcomes? Or is it just another technological bomb thrown at poverty and poor infrastructure?" Basu writes that though mHealth "sounds good in theory, the results in practice have been surprisingly mixed," and he discusses several reasons why "it's unlikely that we'll see mHealth generate mass mortality benefits in the near future" (3/16).

"About 900,000 cases of active tuberculosis (TB) were discovered and treated [in China] in 2011, including 423,000 infectious cases, the Ministry of Health (MOH) announced Monday at a press conference," Xinhua reports. "Xiao Donglou, a health inspector from the MOH, said at the press conference that China improved its ability to prevent and control TB last year, focusing on HIV/TB co-infections and cases of TB among the country's migrant population," noting "1,701 HIV/TB co-infections were reported last year, as well as 51,682 cases of TB among the migrant population," the news agency writes.

IRIN examines malnutrition in Chad, writing, "Hovering at around 20 percent in some places, Kanem Region in western Chad is well-known for having some of the world's highest continual severe acute malnutrition rates," and, "unless something is done to improve the country's 'dysfunctional' health system (as described by half a dozen interviewees), these malnutrition rates are unlikely to change significantly." The news service "spoke to Ministry of Health staff, aid workers, government officials and mothers to find out if anything can be done to wean Chad from its dependence on emergency nutrition interventions."

CNN examines nodding disease, a seizure disorder that has affected at least 3,000 children in Northern Uganda, as well as children in Liberia, Sudan, and Tanzania. Though the disease has no known cause or cure, "there are clues," the news service notes, writing, "WHO officials say 93 percent of cases are found in areas also with the parasitic worm Onchocerca Volvulus, which causes river blindness and is carried by the Black Fly. And many cases show a deficiency in Vitamin B6. Nutrition also seems to play an important role."

Birth control is turning out to be a fundraising boon for abortion rights groups that support women congressional candidates, and one prominent Republican says his party needs to stop talking about the birth control debate.