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Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports that Republicans in Congress are advancing a plan to charge wealthy beneficiaries more for Medicare in order to cover the costs of the proposed payroll tax extension.
"The number of new HIV cases in Saudi Arabia declined by 9 percent to 1,121 in 2010 from the previous year, the official Saudi Press Agency said, citing a Health Ministry official," Bloomberg reports (Carey, 11/29). "The official Saudi Press Agency quotes deputy health minister Ziyad bin Ahmed as telling an HIV/AIDS conference Monday that the new cases include 439 Saudi citizens and 682 non-Saudis," the Associated Press writes, adding, "Bin Ahmed said that since 1984, 16,334 people have tested positive for HIV" (11/28).
In this Business Day opinion piece, Donald Gips, the U.S. ambassador to South Africa, examines progress made in the country's fight against HIV/AIDS, writing that, through the coordination of governments, civil society, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), educational institutions, and researchers from around the world, "we now have the tools that allow us for the first time to set the goal of achieving an AIDS-free generation -- when virtually no children are born with the virus; we have effective and comprehensive education and prevention strategies that help to reduce risk; and those who are infected with HIV have access to treatment that helps prevent them from developing AIDS and transmitting the virus."
Xinhua posted several articles examining HIV/AIDS in China. The first looks at HIV/AIDS among the general population. The article notes that 346,000 people are living with HIV in China, and the "number is predicted to hit 780,000 by the end of 2011, according to an expert panel ... [c]onsisting of members from China's Ministry of Health (MOH), the World Health Organization and UNAIDS," the MOH reported in a statement released on Tuesday (11/29). A second article discusses HIV/AIDS among the country's older population, especially men, and college students (11/30).
The Obama administration announced on Tuesday that nearly $220 million in new grants would be awarded to 13 states bringing the total that have been awarded such assistance to 29. The latest round of grantees includes seven of the states run by GOP governors that are suing the administration to overturn the health law.
News outlets report on the health issues and programs that remain on the Capitol Hill to-do list, as well as how some GOP lawmakers might look to the health law's insurance subsidies as a way to pay for a planned payroll tax cut extension.
"Thousands gathered in Senegal [Tuesday] for the opening of the second International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP), the largest meeting of its kind, which will run until December 2, 2011," the Foreign Policy Association blog reports (Clifford, 11/29). The meeting "will aim to push forward an agenda for broad family planning access and support around the world," according to the Accra Mail (11/29). "The historic four-day conference features more than 140 plenaries, sessions and panels that will share latest research, proven strategies, and lessons learned in addressing the massive need for contraception worldwide," the Foreign Policy Association blog writes, adding, "Participants will seek to galvanize greater political and financial support, hold governments accountable for their commitments, and champion contraceptive innovation and access" (11/29).
Speaking at the High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF 4) in Busan, South Korea, "U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that programs to help the world's poor should be treated as national security priorities as economic turmoil leaves millions struggling to find work and food," the Associated Press reports, adding, "Clinton, the first American secretary of state to participate in such an aid conference, said in a speech that development is as important as diplomacy and defense in creating a more peaceful world." Clinton also made remarks at the forum's Special Session on Gender, and the State Department provides a fact sheet related to her remarks. Inter Press Service examines how, as the HLF 4 "takes shape in Busan, one question is if women and children in Africa can expect any tangible results from the conference" (11/29).
"Global progress in both preventing and treating HIV emphasizes the benefits of sustaining investment in HIV/AIDS over the longer term," according to a new report from the WHO, UNICEF and UNAIDS, which also "indicates that increased access to HIV services resulted in a 15 percent reduction of new infections over the past decade and a 22 percent decline in AIDS-related deaths in the last five years," a WHO press release reports (11/30). The report, titled "Progress report 2011: Global HIV/AIDS response," notes that "[a]s capacity at all levels increases, programs are becoming more effective and efficient," but "financial pressures on both domestic and foreign assistance budgets are threatening the impressive progress to date. Recent data indicating that HIV funding is declining is a deeply troubling trend that must be reversed for the international community to meet its commitments on HIV" (11/30).
GlobalPost examines the "collision of scientific advances vs. economic realities" in the fight against HIV/AIDS in a special report as part of its "Healing the World" series. "Thirty years after the discovery of AIDS, scientists believe for the first time that they now have the tools to beat back the deadly virus. ... But the gloomy global economic situation, and recent scale-backs in HIV funding around the world, have cast great doubt as to whether policymakers will take advantage of the combination of new prevention tools to fight AIDS," the article states, noting that "President Obama is expected on Thursday -- World AIDS Day -- to talk about his administration's next steps on AIDS, ... his first major speech on AIDS as president" (Donnelly, 11/30).
In his ForeignPolicy.com column, Charles Kenny, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development and a Schwartz fellow at the New America Foundation, writes that despite an "abundance of tools to fight the global AIDS epidemic," including male circumcision and treatment as prevention, "the breakthroughs don't amount to a global reprieve." The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria's announcement it is postponing Round 11 grants, "on top of news that donor funding for HIV/AIDS leveled in 2009 and then declined 10 percent in 2010, should be a wake-up call to focus on cost-effective responses," he writes.
In this interview with GlobalPost's John Donnelly, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at NIH, discusses "his perspective of the fight against AIDS at this moment, and how discoveries by scientists can now be best used." Speaking about the "convergence of prevention approaches," Fauci said, "There is now an enthusiasm and an excitement if we can implement some of these scientific advances, we can have a major impact in turning around the trajectory of the epidemic. The bottom line is we are pushing these advances in implementation so that we see the light at the end of the tunnel" (11/30).
As the GOP presidential nomination races continues to bubble, various news outlets are looking into earlier statements by some of the candidates.
At issue, according to NPR, is whether the federal government is liable for damages when it violates privacy laws by disclosing that someone is HIV positive.
USA Today reports that a rising number of combat veterans are flooding VA hospitals with this illness. Meanwhile, ProPublica and NPR report on a brain injury testing program for soldiers that has proven to be problematic.
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