Archives: Morning Breakouts

SciDev.Net examines tuberculosis (TB) in India, which has the world's highest TB burden, and some experts' hopes that researchers in the country can develop accurate and affordable diagnostic test kits. "The recognition that no new anti-TB vaccine is expected before 2015 has prompted experts to pin their hopes on improving diagnosis," the news service writes. "One cause for worry in India is a plateau in the number of new cases being detected at 87 percent of actual infections, over the past five years," and another is the "slow rate of decline of the disease in India," SciDev.Net notes, adding, "Despite the drawbacks, global experts at [a recent TB] conference were optimistic that Indian diagnostic companies would soon form a world hub for high-quality generic diagnostics" (Padma, 11/3).

In his New York Times column, Nicholas Kristof writes that family planning is "a solution to many of the global problems that confront us, from climate change to poverty to civil wars," but that it "has been a victim of America's religious wars" and is "starved of resources." Kristof discusses the potential impacts of overpopulation as the global population surpasses seven billion and adds, "What's needed isn't just birth control pills or IUDs. It's also girls' education and women's rights -- starting with an end to child marriages -- for educated women mostly have fewer children." He concludes, "We should all be able to agree on voluntary family planning as a cost-effective strategy to reduce poverty, conflict and environmental damage. If you think family planning is expensive, you haven't priced babies" (11/2).

In a Nature News opinion piece, James Shelton, science adviser for USAID's Bureau for Global Health, discusses media coverage of recent findings from the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases showing that women's use of hormonal contraception (HC) may increase the risk of HIV acquisition or transmission. "Whether HC influences HIV risk is a serious concern, and has been the subject of numerous studies. But these studies have been observational and not randomized, and thus potentially biased by who chooses to use HC," Shelton writes. He uses "causality criteria laid down by British epidemiologist Austin Bradford Hill" to analyze the results, adding, "I find the evidence far from persuasive."

"Nicaragua is heading for presidential elections, and among the issues dividing people in this mostly Catholic country is abortion," with advocates marching in the streets of the capital Managua to show support for overturning a ban on therapeutic abortions that was instituted five years ago, Al Jazeera reports. "With one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Latin America, Nicaragua is one of the few countries in the world that bans therapeutic abortions," the news agency notes (Newman, 11/2).

"The cost of HIV/AIDS medicine is expected to drop by 30 percent in Kenya, enabling more people to access life-prolonging drugs, after the World Health Organization (WHO) gave the green light to a local company manufacturing generics, The Star newspaper reported on Wednesday," AlertNet reports. Universal Corporation received WHO prequalification status for its generic combination antiretroviral Lamozido, which "will enable the company to bid for international tenders to supply drugs to governments and non-governmental organizations, who in turn give them to people living with HIV/AIDS," the news service writes (Migiro, 11/2).

Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is expected to tell G20 leaders on Thursday that tightening foreign aid budgets amid the current economic crisis "is counterproductive and pointless," the Toronto Star reports. "'Aid is a small investment that generates a huge return. Those are precisely the investments we should spare when it's time to make cuts,' he says in prepared comments seen by the" Star, according to the newspaper.

"The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria announced on Monday that it will withhold $95 million from the $270 million in grants it had planned to give China" after "months of discussion between the charity and Chinese officials," China Daily reports (Shan, 10/31). Global Fund spokesperson Jon Liden "said ... that during recent discussions, China moved to take over most training expenses and other costs that allowed the saving of about $95 million from unpaid grants," the Associated Press writes (10/31).

"Unchecked environmental destruction will halt -- or even reverse -- the huge improvements seen in the living conditions of the world's poorest people in recent decades," the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) warns in its 2011 Human Development report, which was released on Wednesday, the Guardian reports (Carrington, 11/2). "[T]he annual report, titled 'Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All,' said that environmental sustainability can be 'fairly' reached if disparities in health, education, income and gender are addressed," Xinhua writes (11/2). VOA News adds, "It says inaction on climate change and habitat destruction is jeopardizing health and the pursuit of higher income in developing countries" (Schlein, 11/2.)