Morning Breakouts

GlobalPost Blog Reports On Roundtable Discussing Country Ownership Of Development Aid

January 17, 2012 Morning Briefing

GlobalPost’s “Global Pulse” blog reports on a roundtable held on Thursday and organized by the Ministerial Leadership Initiative for Global Health (MLI) — a “five-year project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation” — at which “U.S. officials, developing country leaders, and heads of non-governmental organizations that do tens of millions of dollars of work in health around the world” discussed country ownership with respect to development aid. According to the blog, “several senior U.S. officials said they were committed to building up country ownership, along with systems that closely monitor spending” (Donnelly, 1/13).

Bloomberg Examines Effects Of Financial Crisis On Global Health

January 17, 2012 Morning Briefing

Bloomberg examines the effects of the global financial crisis and a resulting stall in development aid for global health programs, writing, “Governments struggling to curb deficits from Spain to the U.S. have cut or slowed the growth of their contributions to the World Health Organization and disease-fighting funds that prop up health services in the world’s poorest countries, according to a report by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, a research unit at the University of Washington in Seattle.”

WHO To Take Lead Role In Addressing Controversial Bird Flu Research, Official Says

January 17, 2012 Morning Briefing

“The World Health Organization says it will take a role in helping sort through an international scientific controversy over two bird flu studies that the U.S. government deemed too dangerous to publish in full,” the Canadian Press/Winnipeg Free Press reports. Keiji Fukuda, the WHO’s assistant director-general for health security and environment, on Sunday in an interview with the Canadian Press “said the agency will pull together international talks aimed at fleshing out the issues that need to be addressed and then work to resolve them.” On the advice of the National Science Advisory Board on Biosecurity (NSABB), the journals Science and Nature “have grudgingly agreed to abbreviate the papers, leaving out the details of how the work was done,” according to the news service.

WHO’s Chan Urges New Approach To Preventing, Fighting NCDs At Executive Board Meeting

January 17, 2012 Morning Briefing

“Countries need to change their current mindset to successfully tackle non-communicable diseases (NCDs), the head of the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) said [Monday], adding that governments will need to explore new approaches to prevent and treat these diseases, which have quickly become one of the most pressing issues in public health,” the U.N. News Centre reports (1/16). “In an opening speech to the annual WHO Executive Board meeting, Director-General Margaret Chan … urged the 34-member board to tackle the root causes of non-communicable diseases,” VOA News writes (Schlein, 1/16).

U.N.’s Somalia Official Says ‘Tens Of Thousands’ Of Somalis Died From Malnutrition Over Last Year

January 17, 2012 Morning Briefing

Mark Bowden, the U.N.’s official in Somalia, on Sunday said “tens of thousands of people will have died over the last year” in the country’s famine, adding that the rates of malnutrition are “amazingly high,” BBC News reports. “He said a quarter of a million Somalis were still suffering from the famine,” and he “said malnutrition rates have begun to drop but the crisis was likely to continue for the next six or seven months,” the news service notes (1/15).

Chan Faces Financing Challenges In Second Term As WHO Director-General

January 17, 2012 Morning Briefing

The expected re-appointment of Margaret Chan as the WHO’s director-general “comes at a perilous moment for WHO,” a Lancet editorial states. Although “WHO is in crisis” and “[r]escue is needed,” the situation is not “a fair reflection of the director-general’s performance,” the editorial adds, noting several successes of her first term, including initiatives on women’s and children’s health and non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

Counterfeit, Substandard Drugs Threaten Progress In Controlling Malaria In Africa, Researchers Report

January 17, 2012 Morning Briefing

“Hopes of controlling malaria in Africa could be wrecked by criminals who are circulating counterfeit and substandard drugs, threatening millions of lives, scientists” said in a study published in the Malaria Journal last month, the Guardian reports. “They are calling for public health authorities to take urgent action to preserve the efficacy of the antimalarials now being used in the worst-hit areas of the continent,” the newspaper adds (Boseley, 1/16). “The counterfeit medicines could harm patients and promote drug resistance among malaria parasites, warns the study, funded by the Wellcome Trust,” BBC News writes (1/16).

Indian, WHO Officials To Meet To Discuss Managing Cases Of Highly Drug-Resistant TB

January 17, 2012 Morning Briefing

Health officials from India and the WHO are scheduled to meet in Mumbai on Tuesday to discuss how to manage the cases of at least 12 patients infected with a highly drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) strain, Bloomberg reports (Narayan, 1/17). “The ‘totally drug-resistant’ tuberculosis (TDR-TB) reportedly emerging in India is actually an advanced stage of drug-resistant TB, which researchers called totally drug-resistant for lack of a better term,” IRIN notes (1/17).

Congressional Delegation Visits U.S.-Funded Development Projects In Tanzania

January 17, 2012 Morning Briefing

A Congressional delegation traveling in Africa visited Arusha, Tanzania, on Wednesday “to see first-hand the impact of development projects” funded by the U.S., IPP Media reports, noting that the delegation included Senators Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.), John Thune (R-S.D.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Mike Johanns (R-Neb.), Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), and Rep. Kay Granger (R-Tex.). The delegation met with farmers who have used drought- and disease-resistant maize varieties, as well as “visited Ngarenaro Health Centre in Arusha, which receives support from private and U.S. government organizations,” including USAID, the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), and PEPFAR, the news service writes. According to a press statement, “the delegation also visited Ghana and South Africa, and would meet with the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) officials in Stuttgart, Germany, following their trip to Africa,” IPP notes (1/14).