Archives: Morning Breakouts

In this post in Huffington Post's "Impact" blog, Orin Levine of the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) recounts recent progress in expanding vaccine access to the world's poor, writing, "From rolling out the first diarrhea vaccines in Africa, to doubling the number of low-income countries approved for vaccines against pneumonia, to announcing they will now assist countries [to] introduce vaccines for that prevent cervical cancer, the GAVI Alliance and its partners are tearing down the barriers to vaccine access that have historically divided rich from poor on our planet. To appreciate how far we've come you need to remember where we started."

"The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday said that Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad, who are in the 'meningitis belt' stretching across Africa, will this month introduce a new vaccine designed to eliminate a particular strain of the often deadly disease," Afrique en ligne reports (12/10). "Alison Brunier, a spokesperson for WHO, told journalists in Geneva that the three countries plan to vaccinate about 22 million people [among] them, focusing on the highest-risk demographic category -- those aged between one and 29 years" and that "the immunization campaign should be completed within a couple of weeks," the U.N. News Centre writes (12/9).

"An Afghan woman can expect to have an average 5.1 babies in her lifetime, the highest fertility rate in Asia," Reuters writes in the first of two articles examining childbirth and maternal mortality in Afghanistan. The news service adds that "giving birth a common, and frequent experience -- but mothers say it is too often also hard, lonely and frightening." The article recounts the experiences of several mothers giving birth in hospitals throughout the country (Kearney/Harvey, 12/12).

"Malawi is to review laws banning homosexuality in response to public opinion, according to reports," the Guardian writes. "The move comes just days after the U.S. announced it would" promote and protect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people through foreign aid and diplomacy, the newspaper notes, adding that the U.S. provides "Malawi about $200 million (

After experiencing a decline in the number of new HIV infections in the 1990s, Uganda's "HIV [incidence] rate is creeping back up again. New infections are increasing, and the sense of urgency has vanished," the Globe and Mail reports, adding that the country "has become an early warning signal to the rest of the world: If the fight against AIDS fades into complacency and neglect, the disease can roar back again." The article discusses how complacency among the general population, as well as government policies of Uganda and the U.S., "have contributed to the rise in HIV infections here, analysts say" (York, 12/9).

"The United Nations said on Friday it was seeking $268 million for aid efforts in Zimbabwe next year, with half the money to be used to buy food for more than 1.4 million people facing shortages" in 2012, Reuters reports. "The humanitarian situation in the country has continued to improve over the past couple of years. However, challenges still exist such as food insecurity" and lack of access to safe water, which has led to cholera and typhoid outbreaks, Alain Noudehou, country head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said, the news service notes (12/9).

"Unless African governments increase their funding for and engagement in HIV research, the continent cannot hope to attain equal status in determining its research agenda and priorities, speakers said at the 16th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) in Africa," PlusNews reports. "Donor-driven funding often means that research starts and ends on the say-so of funders, rather than being based on a country's needs," the news service writes. The article includes comments from researchers, funders, and representatives of research initiatives (12/9).

"Millions of people in Africa's Sahel region need urgent help to cope with food shortages brought on by erratic rainfall and drought, and at least one million children in the area face malnutrition next year, U.N. agencies warned," AlertNet reports. "The World Food Programme (WFP), which called for a new type of response to climate-related crises, estimates that between five and seven million people in the semi-arid zone just south of the Sahara need assistance now," and it "said the situation would worsen if nothing was done to help the countries in need -- as more people are expected to run out of food supplies by February and March next year," the news service writes (Fominyen, 12/9).