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Four-year study to test effectiveness of WHO Safe Childbirth program

Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) has been awarded a $14.1 million, four-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to test the effectiveness of an innovative checklist-based childbirth safety program in reducing deaths and improving outcomes of mothers and infants in 120 hospitals in India.

27 Jul 2011

House Foreign Affairs Committee bill would cut U.S. aid, U.N. payments

"House Republicans sought to put their stamp on U.S. foreign policy Wednesday by advancing a bill that would slash federal payments to the United Nations and other international bodies and slap restrictions on aid to Pakistan, Egypt and others," the Washington Post reports.

22 Jul 2011

Social safety net programs also reduce childhood obesity

Social safety net programs that reduce psychosocial stressors for low-income families also ultimately lead to a reduction in childhood obesity, according to research by a University of Illinois economist who studies the efficacy of food assistance programs on public health.

22 Jul 2011

Study finds 37% of Michigan's seniors struggling to meet basic living expenses

Michigan's older adults are more likely to be poor and at greater risk of not being able to afford their basic living expenses than U.S. Census data indicate. According to a recent analysis by the Wayne State University Institute of Gerontology's Seniors Count! project, 37 percent of Michigan's seniors are living at or below a level of basic economic security.

21 Jul 2011

Kuroiler chicken can play a key role in fighting poverty, nutritional stress

In the fight to improve global health, alleviate hunger, raise living standards and empower women in the developing world, chickens have an important role to play.

21 Jul 2011

Proposed Medicaid cuts draw warnings, unexpected requests

As debt talks proceed, the request by California Governor Jerry Brown, a liberal Democrat, to cut Medicaid spending by 10 percent, is reportedly awkward for congressional Democrats and the White House. Meanwhile, some advocates warn that Latinos will be hit hard by proposals to cut the health insurance program for the poor.

21 Jul 2011

British PM Cameron should keep development aid pledge

The Millennium Development Goals program "looked for too quick a fix. Above all, it neglected the problem of fragile societies, putting the cart of poverty reduction, disease eradication and the like before the horse of good governance. And it failed to recognize that adding to the sum of resources in conflict-prone societies can have the effect of increasing internal conflicts rather than reducing them," a Guardian editorial states.

21 Jul 2011

European Commission resumes foreign aid to Niger to improve education, health

"The European Commission resumed aid to Niger on Tuesday, releasing 25 million euros ($35 million) after the west African nation returned to democracy this year following a coup," Agence France-Presse reports.

21 Jul 2011

Ban says U.N.'s top priority is sustainable development

During a speech to the World Trade Organization on Tuesday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon laid out his vision for his next term, telling "trade officials and diplomats that 'the United Nations' top priority for this year and many years beyond will have to be sustainable development' - lifting people out of poverty while working on environmental concerns," the Associated Press reports.

20 Jul 2011

Outliving one's resources, falling into poverty more common among senior citizens

Outliving one's resources and falling into poverty is an increasingly common experience among today's senior citizens, according to a new report produced jointly by the Heller School's Institute on Assets and Social Policy and the public policy research and advocacy organization Demos.

20 Jul 2011

Study looks at bed-sharing and effect on child behavior

According to a new study parents who let their toddlers sleep in the same bed as them are not slowing their learning and behavior development.

19 Jul 2011

Bedsharing in toddlerhood does not negatively affect children's behavior and cognition

A study led by Lauren Hale, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine, Stony Brook University School of Medicine, concludes that there do not appear to be any negative associations between bedsharing in toddlerhood and children's behavior and cognition at age 5.

18 Jul 2011

Eli Lilly makes charitable contribution to Patient Advocate Foundation

Eli Lilly and Company announced that it has made a charitable contribution to the Patient Advocate Foundation.

14 Jul 2011

Foreign aid helps lift families out of poverty

Britain's cutting of foreign assistance "is not … just a game of percentages; or a simple set of myths that can be countered to decide whether we spend 0.7 or 0.44 or even 0.01 percent of our national income on 'aid,'" Joe Cerrell, director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Europe office, writes in a "Foundation Blog" post.

14 Jul 2011

AIDS activists and advocates to protest against Gilead's drug pricing at San Francisco federal building

A small group of committed AIDS activists and advocates spearheaded by AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) will protest the Bay Area's own Gilead Sciences over its pricing and policies on its HIV/AIDS medications.

13 Jul 2011

New innovative device can eliminate malaria

Grand Challenges Canada announces a grant today to support further development of a new innovative device to attract and kill mosquitoes that can transmit malaria.

13 Jul 2011

Sexually transmitted diseases more common in women age 40

A Johns Hopkins infectious disease expert is calling for all sexually active American women age 40 and older to get tested for the parasite Trichomonas vaginalis after new study evidence found that the sexually transmitted disease (STD) is more than twice as common in this age group than previously thought.

12 Jul 2011

HIV patients with mental illness can benefit from APRN care management

In a four-year study, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have found that assigning adults with serious mental health illness who are HIV positive to the care of advanced practice nurses (APRN) to help navigate the health care system and maintain adherence to drug regimens reduced depression and improved their overall physical health, indicating that healthcare policy should be revamped to provide this support.

12 Jul 2011

'Vanishing' girl population in India

India must urgently tackle its "vanishing" girl population as the nation awaits the birth of the world's seven billionth baby, says child rights organisation Plan International.

11 Jul 2011

State roundup: Recurring SustiNet rumors in Conn.

The tentative concession deal negotiated between Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's administration and state employee unions is dead. But suspicions it was linked the SustiNet plan to create state-run insurance live on, complicating chances of striking a new deal to avert up to 6,500 layoffs. ... One simple, incontrovertible fact is that there is no SustiNet coverage plan into which state employees can be enticed or forced. But from there, the picture gets fuzzy.

11 Jul 2011