Archives: Morning Breakouts

Many of his public statements indicate he has advanced policies that would give the government a "bigger hand" in the delivery of health care. Meanwhile, a new poll shows support for President Barack Obama is low and that opinions about the health law continue to be mixed.

A three-year study conducted by the WHO, Aga Khan University, and the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) "has identified key interventions to reduce maternal, newborn and child deaths," PANA/Afrique en Ligne reports. "According to the study

"The number of reported HIV cases has tripled in Indonesia in recent years, curtailing productivity and trapping affected girls and women, especially, in poverty, according to a recent U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) report," PlusNews reports. "Women, representing a quarter of all people living with HIV in Indonesia, shoulder family finances when their partners can no longer work, or when they face education and employment discrimination, said the report," the news service adds.

The Guardian on Thursday published several articles about people living with disabilities. One article reports on how "[a]ccess to HIV information, testing and treatment for people with disabilities was raised for the first time as a central theme at the International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA), held last week in Addis Abba, Ethiopia" (Powell, 12/15). A second article interviews 14 people with disabilities about the challenges they face in their respective countries (Cummins, 12/15). A third article presents an interactive graphic of the key data on global disability from the first WHO World Report on Disability, published in June (Cummins/Villani, 12/15). And a fourth article examines the stigma faced by those with disabilities around the world (Ford, 12/15).

"Medical schools in poor countries continue to produce doctors that they will eventually lose to more lucrative careers in cities or other countries," but some of these countries "are already showing bold efforts to meet the challenge" of retaining health care workers, Manuel Dayrit, director of the WHO Department of Human Resources for Health, writes in a SciDev.Net opinion piece. Dayrit discusses programs in Ethiopia, Sudan, and the Philippines that use community-based education and local service contracts to retain health care workers in areas where they are needed.

In this Politico opinion piece, former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), who chairs the non-profit Hope Through Healing Hands, writes, "Continued investment in the fight to end global AIDS is more than an investment in the lives of families and communities in developing nations -- it is an investment in security, diplomacy and our moral image worldwide." He says the goals announced by President Barack Obama on World AIDS Day -- including providing antiretroviral treatment to a total of six million people by the end of 2013 -- "must have the support of Congress." Frist continues, "Under the current budget cuts, more than four million people will likely lack mosquito nets, a cheap way to prevent malaria. More than 900,000 children will lack access to vaccinations for measles, tetanus and pertussis." He stresses the "need for accountability, transparency and results," citing the Millennium Challenge Corporation as "a good example of promoting aid effectiveness from 'input to impact.'" He concludes, "Foreign aid is less than one percent of our national budget, so cutting it would have a miniscule effect on our deficit reduction" (12/14).