Archives: Morning Breakouts

"Although the research for new HIV prevention technologies has indeed made some progress, ... a formidable way lies ahead to find enough money to finish the research and to make 'from discovery to delivery' a reality for those in need of protecting themselves from HIV," New Zealand's Scoop reports. "This issue of health financing of new HIV prevention technologies was in spotlight at the closing day plenary of the International Microbicides Conference (M2012) in Sydney, Australia," the news service adds.

UNAIDS on Thursday "called on all countries to implement new [WHO] guidelines that encourage couples to go together for HIV testing to ascertain their status" and recommend offering antiretroviral therapy (ART) to people living with HIV who have a partner without HIV, "even when they do not require it for their own health," the U.N. News Centre reports. UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe said, "I am excited that with the rollout of these new guidelines, millions of men and women have one additional option to stop new HIV infections. ... This development begins a new era of HIV prevention dialogue and hope among couples" (4/19). "Earlier treatment, of course, will need more money for more drugs for more people," Guardian Health Editor Sarah Boseley writes in her Global Health Blog, adding, "Campaigners will be looking anxiously to the reviving fortunes of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, as well as the prospects for more money for PEPFAR" (4/19).

"USAID and MASHAV, Israel's Agency for International Development Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have signed a memorandum of understanding [MOU] to increase cooperation on the topic of food security in Africa," Globes reports. "The agreement is part of USAID's 'Feed the Future' initiative" and will allow "for closer cooperation on the issue of food security in four countries: Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Rwanda," the news service writes (Dagoni, 4/19). The MOU is "the first of its kind, according to MASHAV head Daniel Carmon, though he stressed that 'this MOU is not the start of the relationship; it's the continuing and the strengthening of the relationship,'" according to the Jerusalem Post. "The assistance will include help with food production and crop cycles, as well as addressing environmental issues that go beyond the agricultural sector, Carmon said," the newspaper notes (Krieger, 4/19).

Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika, who died April 5, may be remembered for corruption and mismanagement, but his "positive legacy" is his creation of "an agriculture-led boom in Malawi, one that pointed a way for Africa to overcome its chronic hunger, food insecurity, and periodic extreme famines," Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, writes in a New York Times opinion piece. Despite "resistance" from the donor community, under Mutharika, "Malawi used its own paltry budget revenues to introduce a tiny [agricultural] subsidy program for the world's poorest people, and lo and behold, production doubled within one harvest season. Malawi began to produce enough grain for itself year after year, and even became a food donor when famine struck the region. Life expectancy began to rise, and is estimated to be around 55 years for the period 2010-15," he says.

This year's International Microbicides Conference, held this week in Sydney, "will be the last of its kind" because "[f]rom 2014 onwards, it is planned, a single biennial conference on all aspects of HIV prevention will be held," according to an aidsmap news story. In a closing plenary session, representatives of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the NIH Office of AIDS Research, the two largest funders of HIV prevention research, "said they were proposing an 'integrative prevention meeting' in recognition of the fact that no one HIV prevention method is likely to end the epidemic and that different methods can be synergistic," the news service writes (Cairns, 4/18).

"[W]hen facing a limited budget (as most low- and middle-income countries are) how can countries best sort multiple priorities into effective, sustainable policies?" Amanda Glassman, director of global health policy and a research fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD), and Kate McQueston, a program coordinator at CGD, ask in the CGD's "Global Health Policy" blog. They note CGD's "working group on Priority Setting Institutions for Health has been evaluating this question," and state, "There are substantial gains that can be achieved by shifting the current distribution of public funding to more cost effective interventions." The authors highlight several CGD papers on the topic and note the working group's final report will be released this summer (4/19).

Prompted by an inquiry from GlobalPost, U.S. officials have said the Obama administration called for a $550 million reduction -- an 11 percent cut -- for its global AIDS program in its FY 2013 budget request because the "government didn't need more money because there has been nearly $1.5 billion stuck in the pipeline for 18 months or more," GlobalPost reports. According to the news service, the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, headed by Ambassador Eric Goosby, "said this week it will immediately start a consultation period with Congress, its partners across the U.S. government and AIDS advocates to address a key question: What should they do with $1.46 billion?" GlobalPost reports that Goosby "explained that $1.46 billion designated to fight AIDS hasn't been used because of inefficient bureaucracies; major reductions in the cost of AIDS treatment; delays due to long negotiations on realigning programs with recipient country priorities; and a slowdown in a few countries because the AIDS problem was much smaller than originally estimated" (Donnelly, 4/17).

In this post in her Global Health Blog, Guardian Health Editor Sarah Boseley examines the potential impact of reform within the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on the organization's future. She writes, "It's been only seven weeks since banker Gabriel Jaramillo took over as general manager of the [fund], but it is already clear the worthy organization set up by Kofi Annan to channel money to treat and prevent diseases in poor countries is a leaner, meaner machine." She continues, "Jaramillo, former chair and chief executive of Sovereign Bank, brings a tougher attitude to the organization."

The April issue of USAID's "PRH Connect" e-newsletter features a round-up of top news articles; a partnership profile of the Alliance for Reproductive, Maternal and Newborn Health; notes from the field highlighting the DELIVER Project's new photo blog, and links to various resources, publications and research. Lastly, USAID provides a link to an interactive map of high-impact practices in family planning (HIPs), requesting that readers add information regarding their own programs (April 2012).

"A major milestone was achieved on April 12, when Honduras became the first country in the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region to officially launch an integrated national plan to combat neglected tropical diseases (NTDs)," the the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases' "End the Neglect" blog reports. "Mirian Yolanda Paz, vice minister of health, led the activities and laid out the path to end nine NTDs endemic to Honduras (soil-transmitted helminths, Chagas disease, leishmaniasis, leptospirosis, cysticercosis, neonatal and nonneonatal tetnus, congenital syphilis and rabies)," the blog writes, noting, "The plan includes a budget for proposed activities and is estimated at $20 million over a five year period" (4/17).

The Catholic Church hierarchy cracks down on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, a group of nuns who supported the 2010 health reform.

The Washington Post reports that this health insurer is the latest target in an aggressive campaign to force corporate disclosures regarding lobbying and political expenditures.

The measure, which was introduced in the Senate and has a House companion, would permit generic drug companies to update safety information about the drugs they manufacture, enabling patients to sue the companies for failing to issue warnings about risks. It aims to address a gap in the law that allows people to sue brand-name drug makers for insufficient warnings, but not generics manufacturers.