Archives: Morning Breakouts

In this post in the Huffington Post Blog, Dagfinn Hoybraten, vice president of the Norwegian Parliament and chair of the GAVI Alliance Board, examines a nationwide vaccination campaign in Haiti, through which "[h]ealth officials are targeting measles, rubella and polio and [are] also introducing pentavalent vaccine, one shot against five diseases." He writes, "Questions have been raised, understandably, about whether the international community has done enough to help" after an earthquake devastated the country in 2010, but "the nationwide vaccination campaign is a powerful sign of Haitians helping themselves."

"This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the world's most powerful tool in the fight against the three pandemics," Jonathan Klein, co-founder and CEO of Getty Images, Inc., writes in this post in the Huffington Post Blog, adding, "Since 2002, the Global Fund has saved and improved millions of lives." Klein notes the Board of the Global Fund convened in Geneva, Switzerland, for its 26th meeting last week, where Board members "discussed progress to date on the current transformation of the Global Fund from emergency response to long-term sustainability."

"Malaria-carrying mosquitoes in Africa and India are becoming resistant to insecticides, putting millions of lives at greater risk and threatening eradication efforts, health experts said on Tuesday," Reuters reports (Kelland, 5/15). Experts fear resistance "could reverse the recent drop in malaria mortality credited to insecticide spraying in the home and coating of bed nets, which save about 220,000 children's lives each year, according to the WHO," Nature writes, adding, "Insecticide resistance could also result in as many as 26 million further cases a year, the organization predicts, costing an extra $30 million to $60 million annually for tests and medicines" (Maxmen, 5/15).

The U.N. is calling for $505 million in emergency aid for the people of South Sudan, with the bulk of the funding going "toward providing food to tens of thousands of South Sudanese, many of whom are returning home from Sudan," VOA News reports (Doki, 5/15). "It is uncertain whether the appeal will be fully funded, given the status of last year's humanitarian appeal," Devex writes, noting that "[o]nly one-third of the nearly $800 million appeal in 2011 has been funded as of May 16" (Ravelo, 5/16). Lisa Grande, the U.N. humanitarian aid program coordinator in South Sudan, "said the amount of food needed for the region has doubled compared to last year," according to VOA (5/15).

Meanwhile, the Obama campaign released a new Web video focusing on the president's record on women's health issues.

In a report (.pdf) released on Tuesday, the non-governmental organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, said a new $10 billion global vaccination plan "fails to address the 20 percent of babies -- some 19 million infants -- who never receive basic, life-saving shots," and that, "[r]ather than pushing for novel vaccines, the plan should focus more concretely on strategies to get existing vaccines to children," Nature's "News Blog" reports (Maxmen, 5/15). The "'Global Vaccine Action Plan' has been designed to implement the 'Decade of Vaccines' project and will be considered by health ministers gathering next week in Geneva for the 65th World Health Assembly," according to an MSF press release, which adds, "MSF welcomed the increased emphasis on vaccines stimulated by the 'Decade of Vaccines' but expressed concern that some key challenges are being glossed over" (5/15).

GlobalPost reports on the GBCHealth Conference, which took place in New York City on Monday and where "panelists at a session titled 'AIDS@30' were asked how they would fulfill U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's call late last year for an 'AIDS-free generation.'" According to the news service, "Ambassador Eric Goosby, the U.S. global AIDS coordinator, said the key will likely be a combination HIV prevention strategy" that "includes expansion of treatment to help prevent new infections; major scale-up of male circumcision; and treating all HIV-positive pregnant women to end the transmission of HIV from mother to child." GlobalPost adds, "Michel Sidibe, UNAIDS executive director, said the way to defeat AIDS had to include more financial contributions from developing countries." GlobalPost quotes several other conference attendees (Donnelly, 5/15).

Accretive Health, subject of a recent report critical of its billing practices, will convene a panel of top policymakers on collection standards in the industry, it said Tuesday.

Patrick said he is confident the commonwealth can slow the growth of health care costs, although he did not endorse either of two proposals before the legislature. He also defended the effort to provide universal health care.