Archives: Morning Breakouts

"The question of who is responsible for Haiti's cholera epidemic -- the first that the Caribbean nation, the western hemisphere's poorest, has seen in a century -- has raised tempers since the first case was detected in October 2010," TIME reports in an article examining a lawsuit filed against the U.N. claiming it is responsible for bringing the disease into the country and seeking damages for cholera victims and their families.

In this Scientific American "60-Second Health" podcast, journalist Katherine Harmon interviews Paul Farmer, a Harvard professor and co-founder of the non-profit Partners in Health, who is "famous for his health work in Haiti." Farmer discusses international health as an equity issue, stating, "If we don't have an equity strategy, then how can modern medicine and science participate meaningfully in responding to cancer in a globalized world? Same thing with cholera, same thing with AIDS, same thing with [tuberculosis], same thing with hunger, on and on it goes

"The past year has underlined how the dramatic growth of some of the world's most populous developing economies is propelling a remarkable shift in the global geopolitics of aid and development," the Guardian reports in an article examining how "non-traditional donors" contributed large amounts to several humanitarian crises this year.

Thirteen Democrats and one independent expressed disappointment in Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' decision to block younger teenagers from buying the emergency contraceptive known as "Plan B" without a prescription. Meanwhile, a federal judge says he will review the decision.

A federal judge in Brooklyn will hear arguments Tuesday afternoon on the constitutionality of the federal decision regarding the access teenage girls should have to morning-after contraceptive pills. Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the decision about Plan B's over-the-counter status was not a political one.

In this post in the Hill's "Congress Blog," Kaitlin Christenson, the coalition director of the Global Health Technologies Coalition; Jim Connolly, president and CEO of Aeras; and Mel Spigelman, president and CEO of the TB Alliance, respond to a recently released G-FINDER report that shows "overall global investment in the research and development (R&D) of [new global health technologies] has declined for the first time since 2007, when the tracking of such funding began," writing, "This decline is especially troubling given that there are more than 100 products in [the Product Development Partnerships' (PDPs)] pipelines."

"The intensity of light shining from cities at night could help identify hot spots where outbreaks of infectious disease are likely to take place," PBS NewsHour's "The Rundown" reports, adding, "A team of researchers tracked satellite images of three cities in Niger and found that fluctuations in nighttime brightness were strongly correlated to measles incidence, according to results published in this week's Science." According to the blog, "The same tracking of nighttime light could be used for other diseases as well, the team wrote, and could help public health officials plan for emerging epidemics and predict outbreaks."