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20 Fragile, Conflict-Affected States Make Progress Toward MDGs, World Bank…

Kaiser GH Update — Thu, 02 May 2013 21:57:00 +0000

“Twenty of the world’s most troubled countries have made progress in efforts that range from reducing poverty to improving the education of girls and cutting down on the deaths of women in childbirth, the World Bank said on Wednesday” in a new report (.pdf), Reuters reports. Each country has met the requirements for at least one Millennium Development Goal (MDG), while “[a]nother six are on track to meet the goals by the deadline in 2015, with the progress visible in part due to better data collection and monitoring,” the news agency notes, adding, “Data gathered in 2010 and earlier had found none of these states had met any of the MDGs” (Yukhananov, 5/1). “The 20 fragile and conflict affected countries which have met one or more targets are Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Comoros, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Iraq, Kiribati, Liberia, Libya, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sudan, Syria, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tuvalu, and West Bank and Gaza,” according to a World Bank press release, which notes Nepal is the only country among the list to have met the MDG for maternal mortality. The analysis is based on the Global Monitoring Report’s data, the press release states (5/1).

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20 Fragile, Conflict-Affected States Make Progress Toward MDGs, World Bank…

PEPFAR Committed To Programs Aimed At Children To Reach AIDS-Free…

Kaiser GH Update — Thu, 02 May 2013 21:52:00 +0000

Citing data on how HIV/AIDS has affected children worldwide, whether directly or through the death of one or both parents, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Eric Goosby, who also heads the State Department’s Office of Global Health Diplomacy, writes in the agency’s “DipNote” blog that children are vulnerable “to the social, emotional, economic, and environmental effects that HIV and AIDS has on families, communities, and countries.” He continues, “This is why [PEPFAR] has set aside 10 percent of its funding to address the diverse, complex, and often critical needs of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). Thus far, nearly five million children worldwide have benefited from PEPFAR’s efforts.” Noting that “in July 2012, PEPFAR issued new guidance for OVC programming, and on World AIDS Day last year, we released a blueprint that outlines a global path toward achieving an AIDS-free generation,” Goosby writes, “The interventions outlined in these documents also support the coordinated objectives in the recently released U.S. Government Action Plan for Children in Adversity, a government-wide plan for vulnerable children, while maintaining PEPFAR’s important mandate to serve children in the epidemic and their unique needs.” He concludes, “OVC programs are vital to achieving an AIDS-free generation and preventing child deaths and lost opportunities. They are truly a smart investment in our future” (5/1).

Reuters Examines White House Proposal To Reform Food Aid Program

Kaiser GH Update — Thu, 02 May 2013 21:40:00 +0000

“A White House plan to modernize the major U.S. food aid program … is in trouble after fierce lobbying by farm groups, food processors, shippers and others who set out to sink the idea months before it was unveiled in President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2014 budget [request],” Reuters reports in an article outlining opposition and support for the administration’s effort to reform the Food for Peace program. One of the proposals set forth — “that at least 55 percent of aid spending, or nearly $800 million of the $1.4 billion requested, would be earmarked to buy and transport U.S.-grown food,” with the other 45 percent available as cash donations used to purchase local food or in the form of vouchers — “would still be the biggest change since the Food for Peace program was created in a mixture of Cold War ‘soft’ diplomacy, compassion for suffering overseas and a practical use of farm surpluses,” the news agency notes.

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Reuters Examines White House Proposal To Reform Food Aid Program

End Of Poverty May Be Within Reach, But ‘Bar Is Set Very Low’

Kaiser GH Update — Thu, 02 May 2013 21:30:00 +0000

“The end of extreme poverty might very well be within reach,” economics reporter Annie Lowrey writes in a New York Times Magazine opinion piece. “In part, this is because the bar is set very low,” she states, noting, “The World Bank aims to raise just about everyone on Earth above the $1.25-a-day income threshold.” She writes, “Of course, making it above the $1.25-a-day mark doesn’t guarantee a white picket fence and a Caddy in the driveway — indeed it doesn’t even guarantee a proper meal,” adding, “For that reason, some economists have criticized the bank for setting its targets too low.” She notes, “The 1.2 billion people living in such extreme poverty, according to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, might own land, but they are not very likely to own durable goods or productive assets — things like bicycles — that might help them raise themselves out of poverty. In such families, about half or three-quarters of income goes toward food.”

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End Of Poverty May Be Within Reach, But ‘Bar Is Set Very Low’

Stakeholders Must Work Together On U.S. Food Aid Reform

Kaiser GH Update — Thu, 02 May 2013 21:28:00 +0000

“Congress should put aside partisanship and turf protection as it considers bold changes to a decades-old and increasingly inefficient international food aid program,” former Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), who chaired the Agriculture and Foreign Relations committees, and former Sen. Thomas Daschle (D-S.D.), who served as Senate majority leader, write in a Washington Times opinion piece. Noting “[t]he Obama administration’s 2014 budget proposed overhauling the Food for Peace program, building on a similar reform proposal from the George W.

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Stakeholders Must Work Together On U.S. Food Aid Reform

IPS Reports On Taliban Attacks On Health Care Facilities In Pakistan’s FATA

Kaiser GH Update — Thu, 02 May 2013 21:27:00 +0000

Inter Press Service reports on Taliban-sponsored attacks on health care facilities in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The news service highlights a recent attack, adding, “With 26 hospitals, 10 rural health centers and 419 community health centers, FATA is well equipped to deal with all of its residents’ medical needs,” but “if the attacks do not stop immediately, Shaukat Ali [of the FATA Health Directorate] warned, the entire health system here will be rendered ineffective.”

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IPS Reports On Taliban Attacks On Health Care Facilities In Pakistan’s FATA

Five More Die Of SARS-Like Disease In Saudi Arabia

Kaiser GH Update — Thu, 02 May 2013 21:26:00 +0000

“Saudi Arabia said five more people have died of a deadly new virus from the same family as SARS, and two other people were in intensive care,” Reuters reports. “The seven cases were discovered in al-Ahsa governorate in the Eastern Province, the Saudi news agency SPA quoted the Saudi Health Ministry as saying in a statement late on Wednesday,” the news service writes, adding, “The novel coronavirus (NCoV) is from the same family of viruses as those that cause common colds and the one that caused the deadly outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) that first emerged in Asia in 2003″ (5/2). “Sixteen people have now died from 23 cases detected in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Germany and Britain. Riyadh has accounted for most of the deaths, with 11 people, including the five new fatalities,” Al Jazeera notes (5/2).

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Five More Die Of SARS-Like Disease In Saudi Arabia

Scientists Warn Of H7N9 Risks As Number Of Cases, Deaths Continue To Rise

Kaiser GH Update — Thu, 02 May 2013 21:23:00 +0000

“A new strain of bird flu that is causing a deadly outbreak among people in China is a threat to world health and should be taken seriously, scientists said on Wednesday,” Reuters reports (Kelland, 5/1). “The new H7N9 avian flu virus has been detected in one more patient in China, a finding that edges the number of cases in the outbreak to 128,” CIDRAP writes, adding, “The patient is a 69-year-old man from Hunan province” (Schnirring, 5/1). In addition, “[a] 55-year-old man in central China has died …, bringing to 27 the number of deaths,” Reuters notes in a separate article (Wee, 5/2). “The patient, a man surnamed Jiao, died after medical treatment failed to save him, according to an official from the provincial health and family planning department,” Xinhua notes (5/2).

U.K. To End Bilateral Assistance To South Africa By 2015

Kaiser GH Update — Thu, 02 May 2013 21:22:00 +0000

“The U.K. Department for International Development [DfID] has decided to end its bilateral assistance to South Africa by 2015, raising concerns among several non-governmental organizations,” Devex’s “The Development Newswire” reports. “DfID has pledged to finish active projects in the country. But by 2015, the United Kingdom’s role will solely focus on technical assistance as well as skills and knowledge sharing,” the news service notes (Ravelo, 5/1). “Charities have criticized the U.K

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U.K. To End Bilateral Assistance To South Africa By 2015

PEPFAR Reauthorization ‘Rests With Congress,’ OGAC Official Says

Kaiser GH Update — Wed, 01 May 2013 21:44:00 +0000

Speaking at a briefing on Tuesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C., Deputy Global AIDS Coordinator Julia Martin said “[t]he decision about whether to reauthorize [PEPFAR] ‘rests with Congress. … Whether we move in that direction is yet to be fully determined but PEPFAR will continue at the will of Congress,’” CQ HealthBeat reports. “Many advocates assume that lawmakers are preoccupied with other international priorities and will not focus on PEPFAR enough to move a bill,” the news service writes, adding, “Even without a reauthorization, the program can continue.” The briefing, co-sponsored by CSIS and the Kaiser Family Foundation, focused on the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) Evaluation of PEPFAR, which was released in February, the news service notes.

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PEPFAR Reauthorization ‘Rests With Congress,’ OGAC Official Says

MSF, GAVI Alliance Vaccine Discussion Shows Complications In Global Health…

Kaiser GH Update — Wed, 01 May 2013 21:41:00 +0000

Writing in the American Public Health Association International Health Section’s “IH-Blog,” Jessica Keralis, IH Communications Committee chair, highlights three recently released advocacy videos by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) discussing child vaccines and a subsequent conversation between MSF and the GAVI Alliance over vaccine pricing. “The last video … talks about how qualified governments are allowed to access GAVI’s low vaccine prices, but [non-governmental organizations (NGOs)] are not given access to them,” Keralis writes, and she includes MSF and GAVI statements responding to the video’s request to allow NGO access. “We often talk about issues of coordination (or lack thereof) and collaboration between different aid groups and funding organizations in the wake of natural disasters and humanitarian crises,” she writes, adding, “It is interesting to see this kind of friction between different groups who are trying to do exactly that because of how complicated it can actually be” (4/29).

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MSF, GAVI Alliance Vaccine Discussion Shows Complications In Global Health…

Blog Examines Drug Donation Programs, Big Pharma’s Role In Public Health…

Kaiser GH Update — Wed, 01 May 2013 21:40:00 +0000

“Drug donations, reinvestment of profits in developing countries and a more flexible approach to intellectual property have all signaled a more collaborative approach from industry with the likes of GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi, Johnson & Johnson and Merck all performing well in the 2012 Access to Medicine Initiative,” Adam Robert Green, senior reporter with the Financial Times’ “This is Africa,” writes in the Royal African Society’s “African Arguments” blog. “But while talk of a new era of friendship is appealing (not least to the companies), there are still unresolved debates about the role that companies play in shaping the public health agenda in developing countries. Even the most seemingly charitable acts have come under scrutiny,” he writes, noting some programs raise questions of sustainability, prioritization, and cost effectiveness. “No one should expect Big Pharma to act as a charity — for one thing, such behavior will be superficial and unsustainable,” he writes, adding, “The challenge is to establish where ‘corporate citizenship’ stops and the bottom line starts” (4/29).

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Blog Examines Drug Donation Programs, Big Pharma’s Role In Public Health…

Grand Challenges Canada Funds Innovative Ideas To Solve Global Health…

Kaiser GH Update — Wed, 01 May 2013 21:39:00 +0000

“Grand Challenges Canada just announced grants of $100,000 for 102 imaginative new ideas to tackle health problems in resource-poor countries,” Inter Press Service reports, noting, “Of these, 59 grants went to researchers in 13 low- and middle-income nations worldwide.” IPS continues, “Although the 102 ideas are selected through a peer-review process, at this early point they aren’t much more than inspired ideas. … If any of these raw ideas prove effective, the innovators will be eligible for an additional Grand Challenges Canada scale-up funding of up to $1 million.” The news service highlights some of the ideas, including “a test strip you touch with your tongue to see if you have a deadly disease,” “a mobile phone game to prevent HIV,” and a sanitation system that turns “untreated human waste from slums … into marketable products” (Leahy, 4/30).

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Grand Challenges Canada Funds Innovative Ideas To Solve Global Health…

To Reach ‘FP2020′ Goal, Targets Must Be Re-Examined

Kaiser GH Update — Wed, 01 May 2013 21:39:00 +0000

Participants at the 2012 London Family Planning Summit “pledged $2.6 billion dollars in additional funding to achieve a worthy goal: provide 120 million new women who have ‘unmet need’ with family planning products and services by 2020 in 69 of the world’s poorest countries,” a movement dubbed “FP2020,” Christopher Purdy, executive vice president of DKT International, writes in the Huffington Post’s “Global Motherhood” blog. However, he says “an analysis of available data on a country-by-country basis suggests that a majority of the women with unmet need for family planning are in the world’s middle-income countries.” Purdy describes his data analysis, stating, “Given that significant unmet need continues to exist in middle-income countries, it seems fair to assume that we will be hard-pressed to reach 120 million new women unless we invest in these countries.” He concludes, “Allocation of human and financial resources is underway but needs to be aligned with the realities of where the greatest chance for success can be achieved. It would appear that some re-orientation may be required to avoid falling short of FP2020′s ambitious target seven years from now” (4/30).

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To Reach ‘FP2020′ Goal, Targets Must Be Re-Examined

UNICEF, Partners Step Up Measles Immunization Campaign In Middle East; U.K….

Kaiser GH Update — Wed, 01 May 2013 21:38:00 +0000

UNICEF and its partners “have stepped up vaccination campaigns in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey amid measles outbreaks in a region already struggling to provide humanitarian assistance to millions of people affected by ongoing conflict in Syria,” the U.N. News Centre reports (4/30). According to VOA News, UNICEF “reports hundreds of cases of measles have broken out among children in [the five countries] over the past year.” UNICEF spokesperson Marixie Mercado said, “[T]hese outbreaks have been contained thus far in Syria and across the region. In large part, also because of an immunization campaign last year that reached 1.3 million children with measles vaccination and 1.5 million children with polio vaccination,” the news agency notes. However, she added, “[T]he concern is very real

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UNICEF, Partners Step Up Measles Immunization Campaign In Middle East; U.K….

PLOS ‘Q&A’ Blog Post Highlights PLOS Medicine Series

Kaiser GH Update — Wed, 01 May 2013 21:38:00 +0000

In the latest installment of the PLOS “Speaking of Medicine” blog’s Q&A series, Pamela Collins, director of the Office for Research on Disparities and Global Mental Health at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and “the corresponding author of a series of Policy Forum articles in PLOS Medicine that provides a global perspective on integrating mental health,” answers questions “about some of the topics discussed in the new series, which will be published in PLOS Medicine weekly for the next five weeks, starting with the publication [on Tuesday] of a Policy Forum article discussing integration in research, policy, and practice.” According to the Q&A, Collins discusses “[w]hy the integration of mental health care is so important,” her “main motivations for initiating the series,” and “the main barriers to moving this field forward,” among other topics (4/30).

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PLOS ‘Q&A’ Blog Post Highlights PLOS Medicine Series

Opinion Pieces Address Global Vaccine Summit

Kaiser GH Update — Wed, 01 May 2013 21:37:00 +0000

Project Syndicate last week published two opinion pieces addressing the Global Vaccine Summit, held in Abu Dhabi from April 24-25, which was hosted by His Highness General Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, in partnership with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The following is a summary of those pieces.

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Opinion Pieces Address Global Vaccine Summit

Editorial, Opinion Piece Address Emergence Of H7N9 Bird Flu Strain In China

Kaiser GH Update — Wed, 01 May 2013 21:35:00 +0000

The following is a summary of an editorial and an opinion piece addressing the emergence of a new strain of bird flu — H7N9 — in China.

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Editorial, Opinion Piece Address Emergence Of H7N9 Bird Flu Strain In China

U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Goosby To Visit India This Week

Kaiser GH Update — Wed, 01 May 2013 21:34:00 +0000

Ambassador Eric Goosby, head of the U.S. State Department’s Office of Global Health Diplomacy and the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, “is travelling to India this week to recognize the successful health partnership between the two countries, an official statement said,” the Press Trust of India/Business Standard reports. “During his India trip from May 1 to 4, Goosby will meet with key government officials in the health sector, development partners, donor agencies, non-government organizations, and academic institutions to see first-hand the important work being done to fight HIV/AIDS in India,” the news service notes (5/1).

The Guardian Examines New Reports On Nutrition Spending

Kaiser GH Update — Wed, 01 May 2013 21:33:00 +0000

The Guardian examines two new reports on nutrition spending. “Ambitions to eradicate world hunger will not be realized if aid for basic nutrition remains at only 0.4 percent of total official development assistance (ODA), according to the research group Development Initiatives (DI),” the newspaper writes. “Even though nutrition aid is rising, it remains far below what is needed, the DI report says,” The Guardian notes, adding, “The World Bank estimated in 2010 that an increase of $10.3 billion in annual resources would end undernutrition. But since these estimates, basic ODA for nutrition has increased by only $139 million (£90 million), according to DI.” The newspaper continues, “The research group acknowledges, however, the difficulty in identifying aid for nutrition,” as “[p]rograms in health, agriculture or education can have an important impact on nutrition, but the nutrition components are hard to identify and measure.”

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The Guardian Examines New Reports On Nutrition Spending