Archives: Morning Breakouts

Senate Democrats need one Republican vote for the bill to pass.

Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.

"Some 80 health professionals and telecom operators [met last week for the mHealth Africa Summit] in the Ghanaian capital Accra to explore ways to use mobile phones for better healthcare delivery," IRIN reports in an article that details a variety of successful projects relaying health information through cell phones in Africa. The article describes how mobile phones are being used in Africa to educate populations about HIV/AIDS, TB and improve maternal health, as well as means to track medicines and other health supplies, including mosquito nets.

UNICEF is calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) so that polio vaccinators can access millions of children in an effort to beat back the re-emergence of the disease in several African nations, the Guardian reports. "We are calling on all parties to the conflict to respect the vaccination days and cease fighting," said Pierrette Vu Thi, UNICEF's representative in the DRC. "All children have the same right to health," Vu Thi said.

On Monday, a campaign started in Burkina Faso to "inoculate tens of millions of West Africans with a new vaccine in what scientists hope will be the beginning of the end of ravaging meningitis epidemics" across the continent, the New York Times reports. Burkina Faso marks the first country in a drive aimed at "bringing the disease under control and saving an estimated 150,000 lives by 2015 in a belt of 25 nations that girds the continent," according to the newspaper (Dugger, 12/4).

Privacy advocates question OPM effort to set up a research database with federal employees health records while Mass. officials are disappointed that cities are not signing up for a new program to help cover workers' insurance needs.

A new poll, by Planned Parenthood, finds that most voters don't trust Sarah Palin on abortion issues.

After 4 1/2 years with the company, CEO Jeffrey Kindler is abruptly replaced by Ian Read, the global head of pharmaceuticals.