Archives: Morning Breakouts

"A cholera pandemic that has swept poor countries in three waves over nearly four decades has been traced to a bacterial strain that first emerged in Bangladesh, scientists reported on Wednesday," Agence France-Presse reports. "The new probe, published in the British journal Nature, points to the likely role of modern travel in transmitting the bacteria -- and the importance of the Gulf of Bengal as a 'reservoir,' or source from which the germ can always be transmitted," AFP writes (8/24).

Talk is picking up regarding what exactly 'Perrycare' might look like and how much the nation's health care system will factor into his campaign messages.

"Conditions in Tripoli's hospitals could become catastrophic without a rapid improvement in security in the Libyan capital, the emergency coordinator of aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) told Reuters on Wednesday."

The African Union (A.U.) "held a rare fundraiser in Ethiopia Thursday in a bid to plug a $1.1 billion shortfall in aid for millions facing starvation in the Horn of Africa's worst drought in decades," Agence France-Presse reports. The A.U. has pledged $500,000 of an estimated $2.4 billion "required to assist the 12.4 million drought victims," according to AFP (Vaughan, 8/25).

ABC Radio Australia's "Connect Asia" features an interview with Christophe Benn, director of external relations for the Global Fund to Fight HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Benn said "it has become much more difficult to mobilize resources" since the 2008-09 economic downturn and "a great deal of mobilization, both of public and private donors" is needed to maintain ongoing projects that receive donations from the Global Fund (Cochrane, 8/23).

In a Huffington Post opinion piece, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah writes about the Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge in Development competition, which "called for groundbreaking prevention and treatment approaches for pregnant mothers and newborns around the time of birth in rural settings."