Archives: Morning Breakouts

"The [U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization] FAO index of global food prices hit an 11-month low in October, reflecting sharp falls in grain, sugar and oils prices, the U.N. food agency said on Thursday, Reuters reports (11/3). "The agency attributes the decline to an improved supply outlook for a number of commodities and uncertainty about global economic prospects," the U.N. News Centre writes (11/3). "Nonetheless prices still remain generally higher than last year and very volatile, FAO said," according to an FAO press release (11/3). On Tuesday, the World Bank Group released its Food Price Watch ahead of this week's Group of 20 (G20) summit, stating that "[w]orld food prices remain high and are hitting the poorest countries hard," according to Deutsche Presse-Agentur/M&C (11/1).

The Guardian profiles Brian Brink, chief medical officer at Anglo American, South Africa's largest private-sector employer, and the company's efforts to treat and prevent HIV among its employees. According to the newspaper, "HIV affects 12,000 of its employees, or 16 percent of its 70,000-strong permanent staff." The Guardian continues, "For Anglo, a healthy workforce is a more loyal and productive one," which is why it offers HIV testing and treatment free-of-charge to employees, runs HIV prevention programs, and promotes gender equality. "Not only is it a moral imperative to get on top of the AIDS problem, it's also good for business, and the wider South African economy. The prevalence of AIDS and HIV [the virus that leads to AIDS] probably lops one percent off the country's GDP," Brink said (11/3).

Health officials in the northern Angolan province of Uige are on high alert "after a 14-month-old boy tested positive for polio, which has made a resurgence in the country, UNICEF said Thursday," Agence France-Presse reports (11/3). "After eliminating new polio cases for three years in succession following its 27-year civil war, Angola saw a strain of the crippling virus reappear in 2005," the news service adds.

Insurers are on the lookout for what they view as the worse-case scenario. Meanwhile, some state attorneys general are watching developments surrounding this case to see if it might fuel other such state challenges to federal laws.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on Tuesday posted the results of several internal audits, showing "that 12 more probes had turned up an additional $20 million of mismanagement, alleged fraud and misspending," the Associated Press/CBSNews.com reports.

PlusNews reports on the results of the Zambia-South Africa TB and AIDS Reduction (ZAMSTAR) study released on Monday at the International Lung Health Conference in Lille, France, which show that "[h]ome-based tuberculosis (TB) education and testing reduced community TB prevalence by about 20 percent." Noting that "the trial cost US$27 million [and] the interventions it piloted cost about $0.80 per patient," the news service writes that while "the cost-effectiveness of household outreach has not yet been calculated, ... [t]his will be of particular interest not only to national policymakers but also donors, who continue to tighten purse strings amid a global economic downturn" (11/1).

In this Politico opinion piece, Brian Atwood and colleagues, all former USAID administrators in previous Democratic or Republican administrations and current advisers to the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, write, "Over [the last] half-century, USAID has had an extraordinary record of accomplishment. Using less than one percent of the U.S. budget annually, the American people have demonstrated their deepest values through USAID programs, saving tens of millions of lives worldwide with immunization programs, oral rehydration therapy, treatment for HIV/AIDS and work on other diseases." They add, "Because of the efforts of the American people, more than one billion people now have safe drinking water, smallpox has been eradicated and tens of millions have been saved through USAID's famine relief efforts."

In this Hill opinion piece, John Castellani, CEO and president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, writes, "Over the past three decades, more than 30 treatments have been approved to treat HIV/AIDS," but he adds, "While this is remarkable progress, it's not enough." He continues, "In order for scientific progress in these areas to continue, the substantial financial investments in medicines created in America's biopharmaceutical labs -- medicines that take years and billions of dollars to develop -- must be protected by international patent laws."