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Family planning summit next month 'could mark turning point for maternal health'

In this post in the Guardian's "Poverty Matters" blog, U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin discusses a family planning summit to be held in London next month, writing the UNFPA "is supporting the initiative so that it can gain traction and support among other donors and UN member countries."

8 Jun 2012

Battle to control malaria in Cambodia 'not over'

"Two years after some $22 million in donor funds were pumped into malaria control along the Cambodia-Thailand border to fight off suspected resistance to treatment, health workers say the battle is not over," IRIN reports, adding, "The government reported 103,000 malaria infections and 151 deaths nationwide in 2010.

8 Jun 2012

UNAIDS director calls for ARV production in Africa

"Executive Director of UNAIDS Michel Sidibe Wednesday called for the production of anti-retroviral drugs [ARVs] in Africa to make the life-saving medicines against AIDS accessible to patients and boost the medicines manufacturing sector on the continent," PANA/AfriqueJet reports.

8 Jun 2012

Kenya to distribute free syringes, needles to people who use injection drugs

"The Kenyan government will begin distributing free syringes and needles to more than 50,000 [injection] drug users (IDUs) across the country in the next month," PlusNews reports, adding, "Policy-makers and experts said the decision was reached following concerns over the spread of HIV and other blood-borne illnesses through injection drug use."

8 Jun 2012

30th UNAIDS Program Coordinating Board meeting concludes in Geneva

"If the vision of zero new HIV infections is to be achieved, a reinvigoration of HIV prevention is urgently needed," UNAIDS writes in a feature article on its webpage, adding, "This will be most effective if a combination prevention approach is adopted, where multi-faceted and tailored programs are implemented."

8 Jun 2012

Research roundup: Savings from electronic health records?

Does Health Information Exchange Reduce Unnecessary Neuroimaging and Improve Quality of Headache Care in the Emergency Department?

8 Jun 2012

First Edition: June 8, 2012

Today's headlines include reports that the House voted to repeal the health law's medical device tax.

8 Jun 2012

Focus on health care jobs 'misguided'

News outlets report on a New England Journal of Medicine piece that argues that providing access to affordable health care is more important than protecting health industry jobs.

8 Jun 2012

WHO identifies best targets for seasonal malaria treatment

"Pre-emptive treatment of children living in regions where malaria is prevalent only during the rainy season could avert 11 million cases and 50,000 deaths a year," the journal Nature reports, adding, "The estimates are based on the world's first guidance on seasonal malaria chemoprevention, issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March."

8 Jun 2012

Independent evaluation of PMI presented to U.S. Congress

The Center for Global Health and Development (CGHD) at Boston University on Thursday delivered its report on the President's Malaria Initiative (PMI), released in February, to the U.S. Congress, IIP Digital reports, noting the "independent evaluation team finds that the [PMI] has been 'very successful' in reducing children's deaths from the mosquito-borne parasitic disease, but also warns that the program must gear up if those gains are to be sustained."

8 Jun 2012

Group rates more than 2,600 hospitals with single letter grade

News outlets report on how their local hospitals were graded by a nonprofit organization that culled patient safety ratings from a variety of sources and assigned a single letter grade to more than 2,600 hospitals in the United States.

8 Jun 2012

Survey finds 1 in 10 new cases of TB in China are drug-resistant

"One in 10 cases of tuberculosis in China cannot be treated by the most commonly-used drugs, driven by a lack of testing and misuse of medicine, according to a national survey that showed for the first time the size of the drug-resistant epidemic," the Associated Press reports.

8 Jun 2012

Implementing the health law: HHS has missed nearly half of its deadlines

The Hill reports that, according to an analysis by the American Action Forum, the Department of Health and Human Services has missed many implementation deadlines in the last two years. Meanwhile, Politico Pro examines issues related to the health law's Medicaid expansion and exchange subsidies.

8 Jun 2012

CSIS publishes report on Advancing Health in Ethiopia

The Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) on Wednesday released a report called "Advancing Health in Ethiopia." The report examines what the U.S. can "realistically expect to achieve in its ongoing engagement in health in Ethiopia" and what the core considerations to guide future U.S. efforts should be, CSIS writes on its website.

8 Jun 2012

Experimental drug tested against multi-drug resistant TB

"Researchers who tested a novel type of antibiotic against multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis [MDR-TB] are reporting that nearly half of patients who got the new drug cleared the bacteria from their lung fluid in two months," according to a study published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, Reuters reports.

8 Jun 2012

Cardinal Health to launch new technology enhancements at SNM annual meeting

At the Society of Nuclear Medicine's (SNM) 59th Annual Meeting in Miami Beach, Fla., June 9-12, Cardinal Health will introduce new technology enhancements that make it possible for hospital nuclear medicine departments and imaging centers to seamlessly improve data integration and the overall efficiency of their operations.

8 Jun 2012

Politico examines implications of Senate's draft farm bill on maritime industry, food aid

Politico examines the implications of the Senate's draft farm bill on the maritime industry, noting the industry "makes much of its money on foreign-aid shipments, courtesy of the Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Agency for International Development," and writing, "The Senate's farm bill extends Food for Peace, the largest international food-aid program for the next five years but pulls $40 million a year from shipments to go toward cash grants and the purchase of food in local markets."

8 Jun 2012

More federal scrutiny for Minn. Medicaid program; Colo. Medicaid reforms signed into law

Minnesota's Medicaid program faces more federal scrutiny on its rates. In the meantime, new Medicaid payment reforms are signed into law in Colorado.

8 Jun 2012

Political will, health concerns, increased funding driving family planning in Africa, report says

The Nairobi-based African Institute for Development Policy on Tuesday presented a report called "Africa on the Move!" at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, VOA News reports, noting the report "says that in some African countries, political will, maternal and child health concerns as well as more and more funding are helping to develop effective family planning."

8 Jun 2012

Pneumonia and diarrhoea remain biggest killers of East Asia-Pacific children

A new report from UNICEF has highlighted the huge child survival gap between the richest and the poorest children by focusing on pneumonia and diarrhoea – the two primary killers of children under the age of five.

8 Jun 2012