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USAID blog to highlight agency's work in global health

"During the month of May, USAID's "IMPACTblog" "will be highlighting USAID's work in Global Health," the blog notes, adding, "From May 1-10, we will be featuring the role that science, technology and innovation plays in global health."

3 May 2013

With GPEI plan, polio eradication may finally be within reach

"After 25 years of remarkable achievements and sometimes harrowing setbacks, a successful conclusion to global polio eradication could finally be within reach," Nellie Bristol, a fellow with the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., and J. Stephen Morrison, senior vice president and director of the Global Health Policy Center at CSIS, write in a CSIS commentary.

3 May 2013

U.K. to end bilateral assistance to South Africa by 2015

"The U.K. Department for International Development 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.

3 May 2013

Public-private partnerships can help advance global health goals

"Three people die every minute from tuberculosis -- a treatable and largely preventable disease. Resistant forms continue to thrive, and increased travel makes the global threat very real. We face a public health emergency," Vince Forlenza, chair, CEO, and president of the medical technology firm Becton, Dickinson and Company, writes in the Harvard Business Review Blog Network.

3 May 2013

Hand Hygiene Day: WHO encourages patients, family members to practice good hand hygiene

On Hand Hygiene Day (5 May), the World Health Organization is encouraging patients and their family members to join health workers in their efforts to practice good hand hygiene.

3 May 2013

GlobalPost announces new initiative supporting reporting on global health, other development issues

On Wednesday, GlobalPost announced an initiative, dubbed "The GroundTruth Project," which is supported by multiple foundations and includes fellowships for young reporters in "under-reported corners of the world."

3 May 2013

Scientists warn of H7N9 risks as number of cases, deaths continue to rise

"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).

3 May 2013

PEPFAR committed to programs aimed at children to reach AIDS-free generation

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."

3 May 2013

IPS reports on Taliban attacks on health care facilities in Pakistan's FATA

Inter Press Service reports on Taliban-sponsored attacks on health care facilities in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

3 May 2013

End of poverty may be within reach, but 'bar is set very low'

"The end of extreme poverty might very well be within reach," economics reporter Annie Lowrey writes in a New York Times Magazine opinion piece.

3 May 2013

Reuters examines White House proposal to reform food aid program

"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.

3 May 2013

Five more die of SARS-like disease in Saudi Arabia

"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.

3 May 2013

20 fragile, conflict-affected states make progress toward MDGs, World Bank says

"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, Reuters reports.

3 May 2013

Weekend reading: Overweight doctors; ADHD diagnosis wars; States cut treatment for mentally ill; The war on breast cancer

Recently, a survey of three decades of screening published in November in The New England Journal of Medicine found that mammography's impact is decidedly mixed: it does reduce, by a small percentage, the number of women who are told they have late-stage cancer, but it is far more likely to result in overdiagnosis and unnecessary treatment, including surgery, weeks of radiation and potentially toxic drugs.

3 May 2013

Viewpoints: S.C. House race spotlights Dems' discomfort with health law; Cannon, Cohn offer contrasting views of Medicaid study

The media tittering over Mrs. Colbert Busch's decision to publicly slap the former Republican governor over his extramarital affair obscured the more notable political comment of the night.

3 May 2013

Subpoenas issued regarding last month's leak of Medicare decision that triggered stock market surge

The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued subpoenas to a firm and individuals in connection with the leak last month of a federal funding decision that appeared to cause a surge in stock trading of several major health companies.

3 May 2013

Roundup: Calif. regulator says insurer's proposed rate hikes are 'unreasonable'; Iowa lawmakers push to deny abortion funding in Medicaid

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said the nation's largest health insurer, UnitedHealth Group Inc., is imposing unreasonable rate hikes on about 5,000 small businesses. Jones said Wednesday that UnitedHealth couldn't justify the average annual increase of nearly 8 percent, which reflects both higher premiums and a reduction in benefits (Terhune, 5/1).

3 May 2013

Obama administration plans appeal of 'Plan B' ruling

The Obama administration signals that it will challenge a federal judge's order that would make an emergency contraception drug available over-the-counter to women of all ages. The move comes a day after the FDA said the contraception should be available in that way to anyone older than 15.

3 May 2013

High costs of cancer drugs may harm patients, say experts

The extremely high prices of recent cancer drugs "may be causing harm to patients," a large group of international leukemia experts warns.

3 May 2013

Medicaid expansion: Where do states stand?

Stateline reports that seven states could still go either way on pursuing this element of the health law. Kaiser Health News examines Arkansas' approach, viewed by many as a "deal-making compromise" for some states.

3 May 2013