Archives: Morning Breakouts

"On Friday, India marks a huge public health milestone -- a year since a case of polio was found in the country -- a critical step in being declared polio-free and an achievement that many experts long argued was impossible," the Globe and Mail reports (Nolen, 1/11). "The achievement gives a major morale boost to health advocates and donors who had begun to lose hope of ever defeating the stubborn disease that the world had promised to eradicate by 2000," the Associated Press/Seattle Post-Intelligencer writes (Nessman, 1/12).

In this post in the Department of State's "DipNote" blog, Jonathan Shrier, acting special representative for global food security, reflects on food security issues and accomplishments in 2011, writing, "These efforts leave us well situated in 2012 to lead the [L'Aquila Food Security Initiative (AFSI)] group, which aims to strengthen mutual accountability among participating governments in meeting food security commitments. ... Ultimately, our goal is to ensure that food security remains a high-level global priority through the U.S. presidency of the G8 and beyond" (1/10).

In this PLoS Medicine research article, Reed Beall and Randall Kuhn of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver provide an analysis of trends in compulsory licensing (CL) of pharmaceuticals since the Doha Declaration. "Almost 10 years after the Doha Declaration, we examined the subsequent occurrence of CL episodes, an important direct indicator of treaty impact," they write. Given that "compulsory licensing activity has diminished greatly since 2006, ... the researchers conclude, health advocates who pushed for the Doha Declaration reforms have had little success in engaging trade as a positive, proactive force for addressing health gaps," according to the article's Editors' Summary (1/10).

In the Huffington Post's "Impact" blog, Carolyn Miles, president and CEO of Save the Children, writes about the Frontline Health Workers Coalition's call on the U.S. government to train 250,000 new frontline health workers in developing countries, stating, "At a time when every dollar counts more than ever, the new Frontline Health Workers Coalition believes this focus is the most cost-effective way to save mothers' and children's lives around the world, address global health threats, and help advance strategic U.S. interests in a secure and prosperous world."

Exit polls from Tuesday's New Hampshire primary found the economy to be the highest ranking issue among voters. Meanwhile, as campaigns move on to South Carolina, GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich is set to run a new ad about rival Mitt Romney's abortion positions.

Researchers in this PLoS Medicine article examine the efforts necessary to reach the WHO goal of reducing mother-to-child HIV transmission (MTCT) risk to less than five percent in Zimbabwe. They conclude, "Implementation of the WHO [prevention of MTCT (PMTCT)] guidelines must be accompanied by efforts to improve access to PMTCT services, retain women in care, and support medication adherence throughout pregnancy and breastfeeding, to approach the 'virtual elimination' of pediatric HIV in Zimbabwe," according to the study (Ciaranello et al., 1/10). A Massachusetts General Hospital press release states the research "should help with the planning of expanded programs to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission in sub-Saharan Africa and other areas with limited health resources" (1/10).

"Roughly 42 percent of all Indian children under age five suffer from malnutrition, a sobering reminder of the persistence of poverty and hunger in the world's largest democracy, according to a major report released" on Tuesday by the Naandi Foundation, an independent charitable organization, the New York Times reports. "Levels of malnutrition, while still high, have fallen by 20 percent in the last seven years," the newspaper notes (Yardley, 1/10). "The Hunger and Malnutrition Survey monitored over 100,000 children in 112 districts across nine states in the country from October 2010 to February of last year," the Associated Press writes (1/10).

"In just over two decades, global health has gained a political visibility and status that some authors have called a political revolution," Ilona Kickbusch, director of the Global Health Programme at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, writes in a U.N. Chronicle opinion analysis. She reviews how the U.N. and its health agency, the WHO, have addressed global health issues, how funding for global health has increased but needs remain, and how the number of key players in the field has "increased considerably."

The Frontline Health Workers Coalition -- which consists of 16 major non-governmental organizations (NGOs) including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Family Care International, the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care, and RESULTS -- has launched "a new initiative to add one million health care workers in developing countries," VOA News reports, adding that the "Coalition says training more community-level workers is the most cost effective way to save lives, speed progress on global health threats and promote U.S. economic and strategic interests" (DeCapua, 1/11). "The Coalition, which launched today with the release of a new report (.pdf) focusing on the need for frontline health workers, is calling on the U.S. administration to train and support an additional 250,000 new frontline health workers -- and to better support the capacity and impact of existing workers where the need is greatest," a Coalition press release (.pdf) states (1/11).

"Responding to U.S. experiments that infected Guatemalans with syphilis and gonorrhea in the 1940s, the Obama administration announced Tuesday that it will spend $1 million to study new rules for protecting medical research volunteers," and "[a]n additional $775,000 will go to fighting sexually transmitted diseases in Guatemala," the Washington Post reports (Vastag 1,10). "President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius all have apologized for the research, hidden for decades until a Wellesley College medical historian uncovered the records in 2009," the Associated Press/Boston Globe notes (Pickler, 1/10).