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Governments should target aid towards households threatened with food poverty

Governments should target aid towards individual households threatened with poverty because of soaring food costs rather than intervene in the markets to try to lower prices, according to research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

12 Oct 2011

UCSF, Anacor to discover and optimize novel oxaboroles as antimalarial drugs

Anacor Pharmaceuticals announced today that the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) has been awarded $718,136 in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to discover and optimize novel oxaboroles as antimalarial drugs in collaboration with Anacor Pharmaceuticals. The NIH grant provides support for the period beginning September 30, 2011 and ending September 29, 2012.

12 Oct 2011

Food crises jeopardizing efforts to meet MDG of halving global malnutrition, report says

"Food crises are jeopardizing efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by 2015, United Nations (U.N.) food experts warned" on Monday, according to the Guardian.

11 Oct 2011

Potential vaccine against trachoma

An attenuated, or weakened, strain of Chlamydia trachomatis bacteria can be used as a vaccine to prevent or reduce the severity of trachoma, the world's leading cause of infectious blindness, suggest findings from a National Institutes of Health study in monkeys.

10 Oct 2011

Longer looks: A new life for Bart Stupak; The Komen Foundation and BPA; moving primary care out of the ER

Former Democratic congressman Bart Stupak is relishing the good life. After nine terms in the House of Representatives, the once obscure, pro-life, conservative legislator who became the flash point in last year's historic health care debate gave up his seat to become a gilded Washington operative - a partner in the Government and Legislative Affairs Group of Venable LLP. … Even before he negotiated a last-minute deal with President Obama to ban federal funding for abortion and provided the defining vote, he called his life "a living hell." "I was the face of health care. Whatever you thought about it, I was it," he says calmly. "I'm surprised I never got shot."

7 Oct 2011

Jimmy Carter calls upon donors to help eradicate Guinea worm disease

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is appealing to countries and donors to eradicate guinea worm disease from the world once and for all. The U.K. pledged $31 million over four years for the effort and has called upon other countries to match them.

6 Oct 2011

Person's insurance status determines nursing home hospitalizations

The decision by nursing homes whether or not to treat an ill resident on-site or send them to a hospital are often linked to that person's insurance status. A new study out this month shows that on average individuals enrolled in Medicaid are 27 percent more likely to be sent to the hospital than individuals with private insurance - decisions that often result in higher costs of care and poor health outcomes.

4 Oct 2011

Study explores factors that influence wellbeing among elderly populations in Brazil, South Africa

Contrary to belief, older people in South Africa and Brazil become happier as they age. New research suggests that, with the right policies in place, a developing country can significantly improve the wellbeing of its older citizens.

3 Oct 2011

Smoking worst among miners, hoteliers and construction workers: CDC report

A new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report reveals that miners, construction workers and people in the hotel and food service industry have the highest smoking rates, while those in education have the lowest.

2 Oct 2011

SANNI Foundation commits to finance education centre for HIV/AIDS affected children in Southern India

The parents of Susanne Schroff, Gunther and Ingrid Schroff, created the Schroff Foundation out of their private fortune in 1984. Their declared aim was to exploit entrepreneurial success for socially important scientific causes and in the interests of society.

1 Oct 2011

AHF protests J&J over AIDS drug prices

A group of committed AIDS activists and advocates are expected to participate in a protest and "die-in" hosted by AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) Friday, September 30th at 12:30 pm near the New Brunswick headquarters of Johnson & Johnson to protest the company's pricing of its HIV/AIDS medications.

1 Oct 2011

Literacy Bridge launches program to improve health of women, at-risk children across rural Ghana

Literacy Bridge is responding to the need for a comprehensive solution in global health and hunger by kicking off its Health & Agriculture Communication for Women & Children Program, which is designed to improve the health of 24,000 women and at-risk children in 75 low-literate communities across rural Ghana.

1 Oct 2011

Members of MAPRx coalition urge supercommittee to protect Part D program

Writing on behalf of millions of Medicare beneficiaries with chronic health conditions who rely on Part D for their essential medications, 26 members of the Medicare Access for Patients Rx (MAPRx) coalition sent a joint letter urging members of the joint deficit panel ("supercommittee") to reject proposals to increase Medicare beneficiary cost-sharing, raise coinsurance, and freeze income thresholds as they seek ways to reduce federal spending.

30 Sep 2011

NGOs, government face challenges in preventing fistula in DRC

Inter Press Service examines the challenges that non-governmental organizations and the government face in trying to prevent fistula among women in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where an estimated 12,000 cases are recorded annually because of sexual violence, early marriage and complications in childbirth, according to the Ministry of Public Health. Poverty, early pregnancy and marriage, sexual violence, and a lack of education and knowledge about the condition contribute to its prevalence, IPS reports.

30 Sep 2011

With ALMA scorecard, African leaders are taking responsibility in malaria fight

The African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA) is "spearheading the fight against malaria" in Africa, bringing together 40 heads of state and "offering a compelling example of what is possible through co-operation, leadership, commitment, and sound management of national and international funds," Tanzania President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete writes in a post on the Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog."

29 Sep 2011

Viewpoints: Lots of advice for super committee on Medicare, Medicaid

Obama partisans, you must consider at least two, possibly mixed results - a politically risky legal battle on the individual mandate in the middle of a presidential campaign, and added insurance that Obama administration lawyers will see the case through its final appeal.

28 Sep 2011

Peru hopes to continue fight against child malnutrition under new government

Despite a seven percent annual growth rate over the past five years and a prediction from former President Alan Garcia that Peru will meet the millennium development goals (MDGs), "chronic infant malnutrition has been difficult to stamp out, particularly in rural areas," the Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog" reports.

28 Sep 2011

Experts explore close link between sanitation, clean water supply and environment

The drought and famine once again blighting the Horn of Africa brings with it an unwelcome reminder that for all of mankind's achievements we are yet to eradicate the scourge of poverty or provide clean water, sanitation or basic health care for the world's most desperate people.

28 Sep 2011

High prevalence of NTDs in Central Asia after 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union

The open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases will publish an article emphasizing the rising burden of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) in Central Asia on Tuesday, Sept. 27th.

28 Sep 2011

Investing now in early child development will have long-term benefits

Gordon Alexander, director of the office of research at UNICEF's Innocenti Research Centre, writes in this post on the Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog" that a series published in Friday's Lancet on early child development (ECD) shows "that the payoff from concerted, integrated action around ECD would be enormous."

27 Sep 2011