Archives: Morning Breakouts

"The lives of thousands of HIV-positive people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are at risk as the country faces declining donor funding and a severe shortage of HIV treatment, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)," PlusNews reports. "'The problem is quite old in the DRC; the country has always been minimized by donors who have not seen it as a priority, mainly because HIV prevalence is relatively low at between three and four percent,' Thierry Dethier, advocacy manager for MSF Belgium in the DRC, told IRIN/PlusNews," and he added, "But look at the indicators: more than one million people are living with HIV, 350,000 of whom qualify for [antiretrovirals (ARVs)] but only 44,000 -- or 15 percent -- are on ARVs," the news service writes.

More than "50 food security officials from 30 countries, and international and regional organizations" are meeting at the State Department in Washington, D.C., this week to discuss the L'Aquila Joint Statement on Global Food Security, which was endorsed at the 2009 G8 Summit and "mark[ed] a turning point for international efforts to achieve sustainable global food security," according to a State Department media note. Participants "will discuss coordination efforts between partner and donor governments; investments in research to improve food security; tracking progress toward meeting the L'Aquila commitments; and using Managing for Development Results to enhance the impact of investments in food security," the media note states (2/2).

AllAfrica.com examines efforts by African researchers to develop a female-controlled HIV prevention method, writing, "[S]cientists searching for a gel or vaccine that can prevent HIV infection ride a rollercoaster of hope and disappointment." The article profiles efforts by researchers from the Centre for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa (Caprisa) to find a microbicide gel to protect women from HIV infection.

Following the announcement on Monday that 13 pharmaceutical companies, several large non-profit organizations, governments, and U.N. agencies are joining forces to fight neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), Al Jazeera's "Inside Story" interviewed several experts in the field, asking, "Why have these diseases been neglected for so long? And how effective will the new plans be to counter these diseases and, in turn, alleviate poverty? Is the target date of 2020 set by the initiative realistic to wipe out some of the world's deadliest conditions? And what is in it for them?" according to the show's summary. Host James Bays discusses these and other issues with guests Tido Von Schoen-Angerer, director of the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) Access Campaign; Lorenzo Savioli, director of the Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases at the WHO; and Mario Ottiglio, associate director of Global Health Policy and Public Affairs at the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (2/1).

Kenya has sufficient funds to support HIV/AIDS treatment programs through 2016, the head of the National AIDS Control Council (NACC) said in a statement on Wednesday after activists protested on Monday in support of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Star reports. The Global Fund had to cancel Round 11 grants because "the cash at hand was not in the bank by the time we wanted to disburse," according to the Fund's Deputy Executive Director Debrework Zewdie, a move that sparked fears there would not be sufficient funding to pay for existing treatment programs, the Star notes (Muchangi, 2/2). In his statement, NACC head Alloys Orago said, "Though the available fund cushions beneficiaries from immediate effects of donor withdrawal up to 2016, such a move calls for home grown and innovative ways of locally financing the disease," according to the Daily Nation (2/2).

"Famine conditions have ended in war-torn Somalia six months after they were declared, but the situation remains dire with a third of the population needing emergency aid, the U.N. said on Friday," Agence France-Presse reports (Vincenot, 2/3). "'Long-awaited rains, coupled with substantial agricultural inputs and the humanitarian response deployed in the last six months, are the main reasons for this improvement,' the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) Director-General Jos

In this PLoS Medicine editorial, the editors review progress toward the journal's goal of reflecting and addressing inequity in the burden of ill-health around the world as part of the Global Burden of Disease project -- a "comprehensive work studying the burden of ill-health and death resulting from specific conditions, injuries, and risk factors," a PLoS press release writes. "By prioritizing studies in areas that contribute most substantially to the global burden of ill-health and premature mortality, PLoS Medicine, as an open-access journal, can specifically ensure that this important research is disseminated and reused widely," the press release states (1/31).

This post on the Center for Strategic & International Studies' "Smart Global Health" blog reports on a presentation hosted by the Global Health Policy Center on Monday which "highlight[ed] the contributions faith-based-organizations (FBOs) make to global health, including the fight against HIV/AIDS." The post highlights quotes from several speakers at the event, provides audio footage of the event, and links to podcast interviews with Kay Warren, founder of the HIV/AIDS Initiative at Saddleback Church, and Ken Hackett, president of Catholic Relief Services (1/31).

In this Global Health and Diplomacy opinion piece, Tanzanian President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete examines efforts to meet Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets on maternal and child mortality in Africa, noting, "Although Africa has just 12 percent of the global population, it accounts for half of all maternal deaths and half the deaths of children under five." He writes, "Though global maternal deaths are in decline and women's health has at last become a global priority, our goal of reducing maternal mortality by 75 percent in 2015 is still a long way off. ... It is unacceptable to allow mothers and children to die when we have the knowledge and resources to save them."

In this New York Times opinion piece, Paul Farmer, chair of the department of global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School and a co-founder of Partners in Health, examines the importance of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as it faces a "serious financial shortfall," writing, "Beyond AIDS, the Global Fund is currently the largest donor in the world for tuberculosis and malaria programs. ... The question is not whether the Global Fund works, but how to ensure it keeps working for years to come."

Here's today's health policy haiku.

This report from the Center for Strategic & International Studies' Global Health Policy Center, titled "Protection of Health Care in Armed and Civil Conflict," examines how "action [last year] at the U.N. Security Council, the World Health Organization, and the U.S. Department of State, combined with a new campaign by the International Committee of the Red Cross and civil society mobilization, led to potential breakthroughs in three key dimensions of protection -- documentation, prevention, and accountability." The summary states, "The opportunity to better protect health services during conflict is palpable" (Rubenstein, 2/1).

The Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog describes a Capitol Hill briefing that was held Wednesday "to discuss the various evidence-based approaches to prevent HIV infection that the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program is implementing on the ground in the countries hardest hit by the AIDS pandemic." According to the blog, "The briefing was the first in a series that will be hosted by the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator in the months leading up to the International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C., in July. This briefing was co-hosted by the Center, the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), and PEPFAR (Mazzotta, 2/1).

In December 2011, the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) advised that two research teams that had genetically altered the H5N1 virus to be easily transmissible among ferrets redact some of the research details before publishing in the journals Science and Nature. The board's primary concern was that the altered virus could possibly be used as a bioweapon. Scientists in January voluntarily suspended bird flu research for 60 days, and the WHO is expected to hold a summit later this month to discuss the issue. The following are summaries of two opinion pieces on the topic.

"There have been 1,623 cases of all strains of flu in Mexico recorded so far for January, 90 percent of them H1N1 [swine flu]," compared to "about 1,000 flu cases in Mexico during all of last year," of which roughly 250 cases were swine flu, Health Secretary Salomon Chertorivski Woldenberg told reporters on Tuesday, the Associated Press reports. The news service notes, "Despite the spike, the number of cases is well within a normal flu season for Mexico, which can see from 5,000 to 11,000 incidents of all strains," Woldenberg said. "The low appearance of the H1N1 virus the past two years is one reason it's drawing so much media attention in Mexico," the AP writes, adding, "Public nervousness about H1N1 has been high since the first outbreak in spring 2009, when the virus initially appeared to have a high mortality rate and Mexican authorities closed restaurants, schools, museums, libraries, and theaters to stop its spread" (2/1).