Archives: Morning Breakouts

Foreign Policy examines the HIV epidemic in Swaziland, where nearly one-fifth of residents are infected. Because of the country's high per capita infection rate, "[o]ne might expect HIV to slap you in the face. But there are no buildings collapsed by an HIV earthquake, no towns flooded by an HIV tsunami. No zombie-sick people dripping HIV from their eyeballs. You don't see obvious signs of it outside of the clinics and hospitals or the privacy of homesteads," the article states. While "Swaziland's HIV orphans present a frightening problem for the country's future," the piece describes one program, called Pasture Valley, that is helping a couple dozen orphans gain an education and health care (Raviv, 7/12).

Researchers at the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, this week described a device that collects water quality data to "chec[k] supplies in real-time, alerting users to possible infections," and "upload[s] the data, allowing scientists to monitor the location and movement of outbreaks," BBC News reports. The researchers said the device, called the Water Canary, "could prove invaluable for governments around the world keen to contain disease and environmental disasters," according to the news service (Wakefield, 7/13).

The Associated Press/Atlanta Journal-Constitution examines two research proposals

"Two new studies done in three African countries have shown for the first time that AIDS drugs taken daily can cut by more than half a person's chance of becoming infected with HIV through heterosexual intercourse," the Washington Post reports. One of the studies, carried out in Kenya and Uganda by the University of Washington, was halted a year and a half early because of positive results, while the other, conducted in Botswana by the CDC, ended as scheduled in the spring, according to the newspaper (Brown, 7/13).

The research looks at the effect when new untrained residents start working at hospitals. Also in the news, research exploring disparities in nursing home risk scores.

A selection of opinions and editorials from around the country.

During a Tuesday news conference with reporters in Geneva, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "called on countries to urgently support United Nations agencies in their efforts to respond to the crisis in the Horn of Africa, where more than 11 million people are in need of life-saving assistance as they face the worst drought in decades," the U.N. News Centre reports. U.N. agencies have called for $1.6 billion in aid for the region, but only half of that amount has been received, according to the news service (7/12).