Archives: Morning Breakouts

The WHO said Thursday that "it plans to recommend tighter nutritional standards in food aid for young children, a move activists say is necessary to improve donations from countries such as the United States," the Associated Press/Washington Post reports. "The new guidelines are likely to make food aid more expensive in the short term, but the improved formulas will be more effective at reducing moderate malnutrition in children under the age of five," the news service writes (10/13).

"Developing countries are making efforts to improve the health of women and children but more needs to be done, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said" at an awards ceremony in New York, United Press International reports. "'As of today, more than 60 countries have committed to step up efforts to improve women and children's health,' Ban said," the news agency writes (10/14).

"Women, girls and HIV were the focus of a panel discussion on the final day of the International Forum on [Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 6] in Eastern Europe and Central Asia," UNAIDS reports. "In Russia, HIV prevalence among young women aged 15-24 is two times higher than among men of the same age, according to government figures," UNAIDS notes, adding women's health advocates in Russia say, "Stigma and discrimination

In this post in USAID's "IMPACTblog," Kasey Channell, the acting director of the Disaster Response Team for USAID's Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, reports on the importance of preparing for future disasters as the world observed International Day for Disaster Reduction on Thursday, writing "Before the next disaster hits, now is the time to recommit to making smart investments that save lives, property, and money. Whether at home or abroad, measures to improve response, increase disaster management capacity, and plan and prepare, can have dramatic dividends."

IRIN reports on the issue of sexual violence against men as a in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), writing, "Sexual violence against men, including rape, is under-reported, poorly addressed and has a severe impact on both men and their families, according to a presentation at the annual Sexual Violence and Research Initiative (SVRI), held in Cape Town, South Africa." The news service writes, "The eastern DRC makes up most of the available research on sexual violence during conflict, according to Claudia Moreno, coordinator of the World Health Organization's Department of Gender and Women."

In this Lancet opinion piece, Ruchama Marton, president and founder of Physicians for Human Rights

"Cholera cases have risen in Haiti, but the number dying from the disease is down, according to researchers from the [CDC]," CNN's health blog "The Chart" reports. Robert Tauxe, researcher and deputy director at CDC said, "The number of deaths was initially way too high. But within a few weeks of the outbreak, we trained teams to treat the disease and increased access to supplies," according to the blog. The new CDC report "lay[s] out the lessons learned since cholera emerged in Haiti and what needs to be done to sustain the progress that has been made to treat the disease and prevent deaths," the blog notes, adding, "The most beneficial lessons may seem quite simple" and include training more health workers, educating citizens and improving sanitation systems (Dellorto, 10/13).

In this post in the Huffington Post's "Impact" blog, women's issues author and speaker Tabby Biddle writes, "There are over 150 million instances each year of sexual violence against girls. ... One major factor that perpetuates this cycle of violence is that the girls who have been raped can't speak up for themselves (because they are babies or very young children) and those who are old enough to speak up, are afraid to -- for many good reasons."

In this Christian Science Monitor opinion piece, Jim White, vice president of operations at Mercy Corps, and Matt Ellingson, director of program development at Samaritan's Purse, who "co-led a team from five U.S.-based aid organizations that traveled to North Korea to deliver flood relief supplies" last month, ask why the U.S. and South Korea continue to delay food aid to North Koreans affected by the country's food crisis despite the fact that "aid groups have a proven ability to monitor the way food is distributed in North Korea."

Pollution from indoor cooking stoves, typically open fires that that burn solid fuels such as wood, charcoal or dung, kills two million globally each year, scientists at NIH said in a study published in the journal Science on Thursday, Agence France-Presse reports. Smoke emitted from the stoves, used by three billion people worldwide, "causes pneumonia and chronic lung disease that particularly affects women and children who tend to spend more time in the home while men are outside working," AFP writes, adding that "little public awareness surrounds what the World Health Organization describes as the globe's top environmental killer" (Sheridan, 10/13).

Texas Gov. Rick Perry takes the media hot seat today as news outlets examine his state's uninsured rate, the success of Texas' malpractice award limits and the GOP hopeful's claims about rival Mitt Romney's health plan.

"The world has become more vulnerable to outbreaks of disease caused by contaminated food because of growing global trade, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday," Agence France-Presse reports. WHO officials say that "[i]nvestigating these outbreaks has also become more difficult because food can contain ingredients from around the world and is transported through a complex global supply chain," according to AFP. Speaking "at a conference in Singapore on improving preparedness against global health threats," WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said, "Problems nowadays can arise from any link or kink in a convoluted food chain" and governments worldwide are faced with the challenge of how to "reduce the health and economic consequences of foodborne diseases," the news service writes (10/13).