Reproductive Health News and Research

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January issue of WHO Bulletin available online

The January issue of the WHO Bulletin features an editorial examining universal health coverage and the right to health, a public health news roundup, a research article examining research priorities for adolescent sexual and reproductive health in low- and middle-income countries, and a systematic review examining the integration of antiretroviral therapy into antenatal care and maternal and child health settings, among others.

4 Jan 2013

Pushing 14 years for Philippines reproductive health bill took 'courage'

Jose "Oying" Rimon, deputy director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Ben de Leon, president of the Forum for Family Planning and Development, Inc., write in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog that the many people who worked for 14 years to pass a reproductive health bill in the Philippines are "profiles in courage."

4 Jan 2013

State restrictions on abortions slow in 2012, but still second most ever

A new Guttmacher Institute report finds that the number of new abortion restrictions passed by states in 2012 was down from 2011, but that the year still saw the second most new rules on the procedure ever.

4 Jan 2013

Longer looks: DIY abortions and the law; Helping other parents reach out to mentally ill children; Human growth hormone and Big Pharma

McCormack knew that an abortion would cost $400 to $2,000, depending on how far along she was. ... She couldn't come up with that kind of money. So she called her older sister, who owned a computer, and asked her to order abortion pills for her on the Internet.

3 Jan 2013

Philippine President signs family planning bill into law

"The Philippine President has signed into law a family-planning bill that was blocked by the Catholic Church for more than a decade," Al Jazeera reports (12/28). "President Benigno Aquino III signed into a law a bill that promotes contraception and sex education in schools," the Wall Street Journal writes.

3 Jan 2013

Molecular signals make some women prone to miscarriage

Scientists have identified molecular signals that control whether embryos are accepted by the womb, and that appear to function abnormally in women who have suffered repeated miscarriages.

3 Jan 2013

Youth advocates working to improve reproductive health education, services access in Latin America

In GlobalPost's "Global Pulse" blog, Mia Mazer, a media and communications intern with the International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region, writes about the formation of the Mesoamerican Coalition for Comprehensive Sexuality Education, a regional advocacy initiative of more than 40 different organizations that aims to hold governments accountable to a 2008 Ministerial Declaration, titled "Preventing through Education."

21 Dec 2012

Gates Foundation awards $28M in grants to Bloomberg School for Advance Family Planning

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has received $28 million in grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to continue and expand the Advance Family Planning advocacy initiative within the Bloomberg School's Bill & Melinda Gates Institute on Population and Reproductive Health.

21 Dec 2012

WaterAid report urges integration of menstrual hygiene issues into aid policies

"Menstrual hygiene issues should be integrated into programs and policies across sectors, including water, sanitation and hygiene, reproductive health, emergency management, and education, notes a new report" by WaterAid, IRIN reports.

20 Dec 2012

House, Senate pass Reproductive Health bill in Philippines

"Lawmakers on Monday approved legislation calling for government-funded contraception and sex education classes in the Philippines, a first in the heavily Catholic nation," CNN reports (12/17).

19 Dec 2012

Automatic U.S. budget cuts would hurt global health efforts

In a post on the PATH blog, Rachel Wilson, senior director for policy and advocacy at PATH, examines the consequences of budget negotiations and "what enacting billions of dollars in automatic spending cuts could mean for people living in poverty around the world.

19 Dec 2012

EMD Serono's L-BLP25 Phase III NSCLC trial does not meet primary endpoint

EMD Serono, a subsidiary of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, announced today that the Phase III STARTa trial of its investigational product L-BLP25 (formerly referred to as Stimuvax) in patients with unresectable, locally advanced stage IIIA or IIIB non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) did not meet its primary endpoint to demonstrate a statistically significant improvement in overall survival (OS).

19 Dec 2012

IRMA, Population Council and MTN release Rectal Revolution video project

International Rectal Microbicide Advocates (IRMA), the Population Council, and the Microbicide Trials Network (MTN) today released a collaborative video project called "The Rectal Revolution Is Here: An Introduction to Rectal Microbicide Clinical Trials." The jointly produced video, the first of its kind, is designed to educate communities affected by HIV about rectal microbicide development and the importance of participating in clinical trials to help speed the search for new HIV prevention options.

18 Dec 2012

Philippines passes Reproductive Health Bill on second reading

"After fourteen years of being stuck in Congress, legislators in the Philippines finally put to a historic vote and passed the Reproductive Health Bill before dawn Thursday," Inquirer.net reports.

14 Dec 2012

Reproductive Health Matters' supplement issue focuses on pregnancy decisions of HIV-positive women

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, announced today publication of Reproductive Health Matters' 2012 supplement issue "Pregnancy decisions of women living with HIV".

13 Dec 2012

International health, development groups meet to discuss London Summit on Family Planning

In the Management Sciences for Health's (MSH) "Global Health Impact" blog, Barbara Ayotte, director of strategic communications at MSH, reports on a luncheon discussion on the London Summit on Family Planning, held in Boston in November.

13 Dec 2012

Study shows how osteocalcin plays a significant role in bone strength

A new study from engineering researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute shows, for the first time, how the little-understood protein osteocalcin plays a significant role in the strength of our bones. The findings could lead to new strategies and therapeutics for fighting osteoporosis and lowering the risk of bone fracture.

11 Dec 2012

Examining the definition of neglected diseases

"There's no generally accepted definition" for what characterizes a neglected disease, Kaitlin Christenson, coalition director for the Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC), writes in the Results for Development Institute's "Center for Global Health R&D Policy Assessment" blog.

6 Dec 2012

Researchers examine impact of exercise on mare reproductive health and embryo transfer

In the latest issue of the Journal of Animal Science, researchers at Clemson University and the University of Florida examine the impact of exercise on mare reproductive health and embryo transfer.

6 Dec 2012

Moderna Therapeutics closes $40M in financing

Moderna Therapeutics announced today that it has closed more than $40 million in financing to date, led by Flagship Ventures and private investors, which will be used to advance multiple programs toward clinical stage development.

6 Dec 2012