Archives: Morning Breakouts

During the Women Deliver conference on Monday Melinda Gates announced that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation "will spend $1.5 billion over the next five years on maternal and child health, family planning and nutrition in developing countries, a pledge that signals a new focus for the foundation known for concentrating on vaccines and AIDS," the Wall Street Journal reports (Jordan, 6/7).

Bristol-Myers Squibb's plans this month to close its plant in Meymac, France, that manufactures "the last therapeutic option" for HIV-positive babies has drawn criticism from UNITAID, Reuters reports. In an open letter published in the Lancet (.pdf), UNITAID writes that "[c]losing this factory means that 4,000 to 7,000 babies currently enrolled in treatment plans in developing countries through UNITAID could be left without the medicines they need."

Governments worldwide should work with the U.N. on a joint action plan to significantly improve the health of women and children around the world by 2015, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a speech at the opening of the Women Deliver conference on Monday in Washington, DC, Agence France-Presse reports.

A final communique draft completed last month for the upcoming G8 summit states that leaders will agree on a maternal health initiative that focuses on improving access to sexual and reproductive health services, including family planning, in the developing world, the Globe and Mail reports. The draft leaves "G8 countries free to decide whether their programs on reproductive health will fund abortions" (Clark, 6/4).

The Senate may consider a bill this week to rollback a cut in Medicare payments to doctors. A provision to subsidize newly laid-off workers' health insurance payments is not in the bill. Lawmakers are wary of increasing the deficit.

News outlets report on recent statements by health care industry officials.

As the debate over the new health law continues, several news outlets explore the effects of the law and other health policies, including the question of whether a doctor shortage looms, insuring early retirees and stem cell treatments.

In a Guardian opinion piece, published on Thursday, British Prime Minister David Cameron says G8 and G20 nations should reduce maternal mortality in developing countries and set "an ambitious target" of saving three million more lives by 2015, the Guardian reports (Watt, 6/3).

The European Union on Wednesday sent $29 million worth of food and medical aid to help "millions facing hunger" across the drought-stricken Sahel region of West Africa, Reuters reports. "Failed rains have left over 10 million people at risk in Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso and other countries in the semi-arid belt stretching across the southern edge of the Sahara," the news service writes. "Niger last month forecast that 3.3 million people, or 22 percent of its population, would face severe food shortages, with a further 3.8 million vulnerable to a lesser degree" (John, 6/2).

Children in Bangladesh whose mothers died "had about a 24 percent chance of making it to age 10," while children with mothers had an 89 percent chance of surviving, according to a Lancet study published on Friday, the Associated Press reports.

"Key scientists behind World Health Organization advice on stockpiling of pandemic flu drugs had financial ties with companies which stood to profit," according to a joint investigation by BMJ in collaboration with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, BBC News reports (6/4).