Archives: Morning Breakouts

This report -- titled "The Race to Eradication," published on Friday by the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), and written by Jennifer Cooke, director of the CSIS Africa Program, and Farha Tahir, a program coordinator and research associate in the program -- examines efforts to eradicate polio in Nigeria, a country that "remains one of the most entrenched reservoirs of poliovirus in the world," according to the report summary. CSIS writes on its website, "The Nigerian experience has underscored the complexity of the eradication endeavor and vividly demonstrates the fragility and reversibility of gains made to date" (2/10).

"Current negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA) between the European Union and India are causing serious concern in many quarters over future access to cheap generic medicines used to treat some of the world's great public health threats: HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, and also cancer," Philippe Douste-Blazy, U.N. special adviser on innovative financing for development and chair of UNITAID, and Denis Broun, executive director of UNITAID, write in this post in the Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog." "Those fears are well founded: if the E.U. and India agree on stringent patent and border measures, India's role as the 'pharmacy of the south' could well come to an end," they add.

"Sahel states are bracing for a long, potentially deadly hungry season, many weakened by the return of people from Libya who are unemployed, armed and creating fresh strife in already-vulnerable countries," Agence France-Presse reports. "Crops have failed across a massive swathe of eight countries after late and erratic rains in 2011, and aid agencies have raised the alarm of a food crisis bigger than that which left millions hungry in 2010," according to the news agency (Blandy, 2/11). In an article examining hunger among children in Mauritania, Inter Press Service writes that "other countries in the Sahel ... are affected as well: Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger and the northern regions of Cameroon, Nigeria and Senegal," adding, "Twelve million people will soon suffer severe food insecurity and hunger in this region, aid agencies warn" (Palitza, 2/10).

Mobile phones are improving access to health care in the developing world, according to the series "The Future of mHealth" by Mobiledia, a Forbes contributor. "People in developing nations depend on mobile phones to access health services and prevent disease, as mobile technology creates a platform for improving health care in remote, underserved areas," the news service writes. The article highlights public health programs in Haiti and Kenya that utilize mobile technology and notes, "Mobile banking is on the rise in the developing world, presenting another opportunity for mobile health to grow."

"The World Health Organization warned Monday that the battle against the age-old scourge of leprosy is not yet over, with more than 5,000 new cases reported yearly in the Western Pacific, where the disease was declared eliminated in 1991," the Associated Press/Washington Post reports (2/13). "'Leprosy is still much alive in the Western Pacific,' said Shin Young-Soo, WHO regional director," at a meeting of national leprosy control program managers from the Western Pacific, Deutsche Presse-Agentur/M&C writes, adding, "Policymakers, health workers and the public should not be misled that the disease is totally gone and must continue to fight it, he said."

Pakistan and Afghanistan, "the world's two worst polio-affected countries," have "decided to form a joint block under the World Health Organization to eradicate the infectious disease -- which causes motor paralysis and the atrophy of skeletal muscles, often resulting in permanent physical disability or deformity -- by December 2012," Inter Press Service reports. "The decision was made last year by the Technical Advisory Board (TAG), which is responsible for developing new strategies to wipe out the disease globally," the news service notes.

Foreign Policy examines "India's flourishing fertility treatment business," a multi-billion dollar industry that "has earned India the dubious reputation of being the world's baby factory." While "regulation has not kept pace with the proliferation of clinics" and some "facilities have been accused of a litany of shocking abuses," "[t]he Indian government is gearing up to pass a new law to regulate the fertility business," the magazine writes. The article focuses on "one pressing issue [that] has remained beyond the purview of regulation: How old is too old to get pregnant?" and discusses post-menopausal aged women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) and other fertility treatments in order to become pregnant (Chopra, 2/10).

The announcement at the end of January of the largest coordinated effort to fight neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) provides "more reason to hope that we may soon see a future free of these diseases," Adetokunbo Lucas, former director of the UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, writes in a Daily Monitor opinion piece. "This new coordinated action will take these previous efforts to a whole new level," he writes, adding, "Together, these partners have pledged to increase the supply of existing drugs and invest and collaborate on research to accelerate the development of new and better drugs."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed a vote on the birth-control requirement while White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew said the compromise is the "right approach."

The Conference of Catholic Bishops said they have "grave moral concerns." The administration says they never expected an endorsement from the bishops.

Two prominent state attorneys general examined the health law case before the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Reuters reports that some senators are pushing to get television cameras in the Supreme Court.