Archives: Morning Breakouts

In this Politico opinion piece, former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), who chairs the non-profit Hope Through Healing Hands, writes, "Continued investment in the fight to end global AIDS is more than an investment in the lives of families and communities in developing nations -- it is an investment in security, diplomacy and our moral image worldwide." He says the goals announced by President Barack Obama on World AIDS Day -- including providing antiretroviral treatment to a total of six million people by the end of 2013 -- "must have the support of Congress." Frist continues, "Under the current budget cuts, more than four million people will likely lack mosquito nets, a cheap way to prevent malaria. More than 900,000 children will lack access to vaccinations for measles, tetanus and pertussis." He stresses the "need for accountability, transparency and results," citing the Millennium Challenge Corporation as "a good example of promoting aid effectiveness from 'input to impact.'" He concludes, "Foreign aid is less than one percent of our national budget, so cutting it would have a miniscule effect on our deficit reduction" (12/14).

The BBC News audio program "Assignment" reports on the cholera epidemic in Haiti "and examines the controversy that surrounds it." Correspondent Mark Doyle traces the alleged origin of the disease in Haiti, which had not recorded a case of the disease in about a century, discusses the U.N. report on the situation, and talks about how "families of cholera victims are now demanding compensation" (12/16).

Pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences on Thursday submitted an application to the FDA asking the agency to approve its antiretroviral drug Truvada for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to reduce the risk of HIV infection among adults, a Gilead press release reports. "If the [application] is approved, Truvada would be the first agent indicated for uninfected individuals to reduce the risk of acquiring HIV through sex," the press release notes (12/15).

"Archaic agriculture practices and erratic rainfall in the recent planting period is expected to lead to an increase in food insecurity for most of Swaziland's 1.1 million people in 2012, says a government agriculture official," IRIN reports. "In the 1970s Swaziland was a net exporter of food, but since the early 1990s the country has been dependent on donor assistance to greater or lesser degrees. In 2010 about one in 10 Swazis depended on food aid," according to the news service.

Reuters reports that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said drug manufacturers will have until a final rule is published in 2012 to comply with new reporting requirements.

"Spending to improve health in developing countries has continued to grow during the three-year economic downturn, although at only half the blistering pace it did a decade ago," according to a report (.pdf) by researchers at the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), the Washington Post reports (Brown, 12/14). "The report details the trends in development assistance for health between 1990 and 2009 from aid agencies and governments in 23 developed countries, multilateral institutions such as the [WHO], and hundreds of non-profit groups and charities with preliminary estimates for 2010 and 2011," an IHME press release states (12/14). "Overall, spending on malaria and child health problems has grown more rapidly in the past few years than spending on AIDS and tuberculosis," according to the report, the Washington Post notes (12/14).

The Washington Post examines how "Pakistan's family planning efforts have lagged far behind those of other large Muslim-majority nations," despite rising population numbers. "In fits and starts, public and private agencies in Pakistan are advocating contraception to curb the country's surging population, prevent deaths during childbirth and help provide better lives for those who are born. But in this deeply conservative society, women themselves are often the least able to decide, and the people who can -- husbands, mullahs, mothers-in-law -- still prize many children, particularly boys," the newspaper writes. "The sixth most populous country ..., Pakistan has South Asia's highest fertility rate, at about four children per woman," but "[t]oday, just one in five Pakistani women ages 15 to 49 uses modern birth control," the newspaper notes (Brulliard, 12/14).

"In Pakistan, where the powerful military consumes a large chunk of the budget and development spending has stagnated, family-planning efforts have consistently fallen victim to tumultuous and weak governance," the newspaper notes, adding, "The bigger cultural hurdles, the workers say, are husbands and mothers-in-law, as well as the inability of many women to make decisions for themselves." It concludes, "Amid massive electricity shortfalls, failing schools, high unemployment and rising Islamist militancy, many here say the booming population is a ticking time bomb" (Brulliard, 12/14).