Archives: Morning Breakouts

While GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum says the health law could discourage marriage, first lady Michelle Obama is courting women to back her husband's re-election efforts.

Karen Grepin, assistant professor of global health policy at New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, describes the March issue of BMJ's Sexually Transmitted Infections in this post in her "Global Health Blog." The issue, edited by Alan Whiteside, Gary Brook, Till B

The New York Times profiles UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidib

"A recent government crackdown on Russian media, particularly online information portals specializing in health tips and harm reduction methods for drug users, has sparked widespread public opposition, with critics claiming that the 'draconian silencing' of public health advocates could worsen an already perilous health situation in the country," Inter Press Service reports. "Given that Russia currently has one of the largest populations of injecting drug users in the world as well as one of the fastest growing HIV epidemics, the dissemination of such information is essential to keep the spread of the virus under control," IPS writes. "The fact that the United Nations listed universal treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS as one of its most urgent millennium development goals (MDGs) -- with a deadline of achieving universal treatment by 2015 -- human rights and health advocates contend that Russia's failure to allow information or services helpful to drug users breaches international human rights and public health laws," according to the news service (Klomegah, 2/17).

In this post on USAID's "IMPACTblog," the agency describes its activities in "assisting communities and individuals impacted by the cyclones in Madagascar, Mozambique, and Malawi." USAID is "providing shelter, clean water, and health protection to those affected by the cyclones" and its "disaster response experts are on the ground working alongside local officials to identify needs and learn what additional U.S. assistance is needed," the blog notes (2/17).

PBS "Religious and Ethics Newsweekly" host Kim Lawton on Friday interviewed USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah, who spoke about the role of faith-based organizations in humanitarian relief efforts. "We want to do our work, which is about protecting people who are vulnerable around the world and expanding the reach of human dignity, as broadly as possible. And often it is communities of faith, faith-based organizations, that are there working when the rest of the world has forgotten about people who have no other place to turn," Shah said (2/17). An extended version of the interview also is available online (2/17).

The PBS NewsHour examines polio eradication efforts in India, which has gone an entire year without reporting a polio case. "For India, the challenge is to remain vigilant and polio free for two more years to officially fall off the list of endemic countries," according to the news service (De Sam Lazaro, 2/20). "The success in India has been achieved through a partnership between the Indian government, with support from the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary, UNICEF and with major contributions from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation," BBC News reports in an analysis of India's success. "The global effort to eradicate polio is the biggest public health initiative in history. It has cost billions and has already stopped a huge amount of disability and many deaths," but the disease remains endemic in three countries -- Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan, the news service notes (Walsh, 2/19).

A group of 22 public health and influenza experts reached a consensus on Friday at a WHO-convened meeting regarding the work of two research teams that created genetically altered strains of the H5N1 bird flu virus that are easily transmissible among ferrets, a laboratory model for humans, a WHO press release reports (2/17). "In December, the [U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity] asked two leading scientific journals, Nature and Science, to withhold details of the research for fear it could be used by bioterrorists," Reuters writes, adding that on January 20, flu researchers also imposed a 60-day moratorium on continuing research using highly pathogenic strains (Nebehay/Kelland, 2/17). At the meeting, the group agreed to "extending the temporary moratorium on research with new laboratory-modified H5N1 viruses and recogni[zed] that research on naturally occurring H5N1 influenza virus must continue in order to protect public health," the press release states, adding that they "also came to a consensus that delayed publication of the entire manuscripts would have more public health benefit than urgently partially publishing" (2/17).

In this video report, PBS NewsHour's "The Rundown" examines curable and preventable diseases such as measles and river blindness that countries are focusing more effort on fighting. Mark Eberhardt, a neglected tropical diseases expert at the CDC, and Stephen Cochi, a measles and polio expert from the CDC, "describe the diseases and why they still need attention." "'They are often ignored,' [Eberhardt] told the NewsHour's Hari Sreenivasan. 'There was often thought to be very little that could be done for them which has led to neglect from the scientific community and even the local population,'" the news blog notes (Rogo, 2/20).

IRIN examines "whether a new generation of social protection schemes, aimed at reducing poverty and often using cash transfers to the poorest, can be harnessed to bring down the rate of [tuberculosis (TB)] in developing countries." The news service writes, "TB is a disease often associated with poverty because latent infections are more easily activated by malnutrition and lowered immune systems, and more quickly passed on in badly ventilated, overcrowded living conditions."