Archives: Morning Breakouts

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has called on the Brazilian government "to ensure its state-owned drug company steps up production of the only drug for Chagas disease, which affects 10 million people in Latin America," Guardian Health Editor Sarah Boseley writes in her "Global Health Blog" (10/6). "Thousands of people with Chagas disease will go untreated in coming months due to a shortage of benznidazole, the first-line drug used in most endemic countries," according to a MSF press release and a related article published by the organization. According to the press release, MSF has stopped diagnosing Chagas in Paraguay and has suspended new projects in endemic areas of Bolivia due to the shortage (10/5).

Worldwide cereal production is expected to increase in 2011-2012, but "there is uncertainty about the improvement's impact on food security because of the global economic slump and increased risks for recession," according to a U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report released on Thursday, the Associated Press/Washington Post reports.

The Republican-led House Committee on Foreign Affairs voted Wednesday to approve a bill that would prohibit the U.S. government from providing funding to the U.N. Population Fund, an organization "that helps women and children in developing countries with reproductive health and family planning," Agence France-Presse reports (Cassata, 10/5). "House Republicans say they are pushing the legislation because the fund, known as the UNFPA, is complicit in China's controversial one-child policy, which enforces abortion and sterilization," the Huffington Post writes (10/5).

Meanwhile, a survey finds that Americans are open to new options for dental care to help address the high costs and shortage issues.

"The [U.S.] government has said it is hopeful that Zambia will be able to reduce maternal and child mortality, and has pledged to contribute" millions in funding to programs to help further that goal, the Times of Zambia reports. "Speaking during a meeting between U.S. government officials and the media, Global Health Initiative (GHI) Executive Director Lois Quam pledged her government's commitment to partnering with the Zambian government in order to address major health concerns in the country," the newspaper adds.

Also on the trail, a conservative group has launched ads aimed at derailing Mitt Romney's run for the GOP presidential nomination. One of their reasons: his record on health reform while governor of Massachusetts. Meanwhile, at a fundraiser, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius charges Republicans with turning back the clock on women's health.