Archives: Morning Breakouts

"The Mayo Clinic, Johnson & Johnson and others are joining forces to try to snuff out smoking in the workplace throughout the world," the Wall Street Journal's "Health Blog" writes, adding, "Their global smoke-free worksite challenge, announced today at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York, calls on employers to ban smoking at offices and facilities worldwide." The blog notes, "Smoky offices seem like a thing of the past in much of the U.S. ... But globally, only about 11 percent of people are protected by comprehensive national smoke-free laws, the WHO says."

IRIN reports on "[t]he improved availability of essential medicines in Zimbabwe's public health sector" as a result of "a multi-donor program started in 2008 through collaboration between the government, the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) Zimbabwe, the European Union (E.U.), the U.K., Australia, Canada and Ireland." "According to a survey carried out by the E.U., 80 percent of essential medicines are now available at over 80 percent of health facilities compared to only 28 percent availability of vital drugs at public health institutions in 2008," IRIN notes. The news service writes, "To date, the Essential Medicines Supply Programme (EMSP) has received $52 million in funding, according to UNICEF," adding, "The money is used to buy drugs and medical supplies which are distributed to health centers by Natpharm, the supply arm of the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare" (9/20).

The Washington Post examines the influence of commercial interests on the "political declaration" that emerged from this week's U.N. High-level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in New York. NCDs "are the globe's biggest health problem, responsible for 63 percent of all deaths each year, with incidence growing steeply in the low-income, rapidly urbanizing nations of the world," but they "are deeply entangled with important global industries, not only tobacco but also food, pharmaceuticals, advertising, transportation and construction," the newspaper writes, adding, "The bigger issue in preparing the document, however, was how much to invoke the ... World Trade Organization's agreement on intellectual property, known informally as TRIPS" (Brown, 9/20).

The Nigerian government is expected to sign an agreement with UNESCO at the 36th session of the General Conference of UNESCO, which begins next month, for an international biotechnology center that will focus on strengthening food safety, tropical disease research and the conservation of bio-resources across Africa, SciDev.Net reports, adding that "UNESCO's executive board approved the establishment of the center earlier this year."

Politico Pro reports that the DOJ's decision, due on Monday, will provide a meaningful clue about when the Supreme Court may decide the question regarding the individual mandate's constitutionality.

Twenty aid agencies on Wednesday issued an open letter (.pdf) "urg[ing] the international community to change its approach to Somalia 'and enhance diplomatic engagement with the parties to the conflict, to ensure the unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid,'" particularly before the rainy season brings the threat of disease, IRIN reports (9/21).

GlobalPost's "Global Pulse" blog summarizes a recent forum on reproductive health issues during which panel members of the Global Leaders Council for Reproductive Health of Aspen Global Health and Development discussed how "reproductive health was intimately connected to the world's population boom, climate change, water and sanitation crises, economic downturns, educational rates, and development overall." The article continues, "And yet, reproductive health and family planning is generally not a focus on the world stage. In fact, the topic is often avoided."

PepsiCo on Wednesday announced a public-private partnership with the World Food Programme (WFP) and USAID to increase chickpea production in Ethiopia in order to secure access to the legume, which "play[s] an increasing role in its food products," the New York Times reports. If the project is successful in working with small farmers to increase chickpea production, the "increased yield would exceed PepsiCo's needs," therefore "some of the additional crops will be used to make a new, ready-to-eat food product that the World Food Programme has used to address famine in Pakistan," according to the newspaper (Strom, 9/20).

Speaking at a high-level meeting at U.N. headquarters on Tuesday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, while lauding the progress made under the Every Woman Every Child initiative since its launch one year ago, noted that millions of women and children "are still dying needless deaths and called for advancing the goal of saving 16 million lives by 2015," the U.N. News Centre reports. A one-year progress update launched at the meeting, Saving the Lives of 16 Million, "shows that in the first year of the effort, commitments have been implemented and enhanced, new partners have come on board, funding has been increased, policies improved and services strengthened on the ground," according to the news service (9/20).