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U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Tells GlobalPost State Department Reviewing Nearly $1.5B In Unused PEPFAR Funding

April 19, 2012 Morning Briefing

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).

Reuters Examines Cancer In Africa

May 2, 2012 Morning Briefing

Reuters examines cancer in Africa, writing, “Most of Africa’s around 2,000 languages have no word for cancer. The common perception in both developing and developed countries is that it’s a disease of the wealthy world, where high-fat, processed-food diets, alcohol, smoking and sedentary lifestyles fuel tumor growth.” However, according to the news service, sub-Saharan Africa will see an estimated one million new cancer cases this year — “a number predicted to double to two million a year in the next decade,” and, “[b]y 2030, according to predictions from the [WHO], 70 percent of the world’s cancer burden will be in poor countries.”

Number Of People Worldwide With Dementia Expected To Triple By 2050; Caregivers Need Support, Report Says

April 11, 2012 Morning Briefing

The number of people living with dementia is expected to double to 65.7 million by 2030 and more than triple by 2050, with “the [current estimated] cost of treating and caring for those with the condition at $604 billion a year,” according to a report released Wednesday by the WHO and Alzheimer’s Disease International, Agence France-Presse reports (4/11). “Dementia affects people in all countries, with more than half (58 percent) living in low- and middle-income countries,” and “[b]y 2050, this is likely to rise to more than 70 percent,” according to a WHO press release.

Tentative ‘Doc Fix’ Deal Would Cut Health Law’s Prevention Fund by $5B

February 15, 2012 Morning Briefing

The proposal would also cut Medicare payments to hospitals, other providers and clinical labs as well as Medicaid payments to hospitals that serve the poor.

March Issue Of BMJ’s ‘Sexually Transmitted Infections’ Focuses On HIV, Health Systems

February 21, 2012 Morning Briefing

Karen Grepin, assistant professor of global health policy at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, describes the March issue of BMJ’s Sexually Transmitted Infections in this post in her “Global Health Blog.” The issue, edited by Alan Whiteside, Gary Brook, Till B

CNN Examines Nodding Disease Among Children In Northern Uganda

March 20, 2012 Morning Briefing

CNN examines nodding disease, a seizure disorder that has affected at least 3,000 children in Northern Uganda, as well as children in Liberia, Sudan, and Tanzania. Though the disease has no known cause or cure, “there are clues,” the news service notes, writing, “WHO officials say 93 percent of cases are found in areas also with the parasitic worm Onchocerca Volvulus, which causes river blindness and is carried by the Black Fly. And many cases show a deficiency in Vitamin B6. Nutrition also seems to play an important role.”