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Fluarix seasonal influenza vaccine approved by the FDA

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved use of the seasonal influenza vaccine Fluarix for children ages 3 years to 17 years. Previously, this vaccine, which contains inactivated (killed) influenza A and B viruses, had been approved for use in adults, ages 18 years and older.

20 Oct 2009

Opinions: HIV vaccine; HIV resources help promote global disease control; U.S. fight against world hunger

Seth Berkley, president and chief executive of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, in a New York Times opinion piece examines how the "pessimism" over the recent controversy surrounding the results of an experimental HIV vaccine tested in Thailand "may ultimately thwart other efforts to develop an AIDS vaccine.

20 Oct 2009

FDA approves new oral medication for renal cell carcinoma

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Votrient (pazopanib), the sixth drug to be approved for kidney cancer since 2005.

20 Oct 2009

Morgan Stanley's global initiative to reduce childhood malnutrition and save lives worldwide

Morgan Stanley announced today that the Firm will launch “Step Up to the Plate,” a global initiative to reduce childhood malnutrition and save lives worldwide. This two-pronged approach is designed to address malnutrition by providing food to children most in need in developed nations, while also addressing the medical effects of children already experiencing malnutrition in the developing world.

19 Oct 2009

Campaign seeks to hold governments accountable to meeting MDG targets

Inter Press Service examines the Stand Up Take Action campaign, which took place October 16-18 to highlight the Millennium Development Goals' [MDG] 2015 deadline.

19 Oct 2009

World Food Day marked, Actionaid International releases hunger report

Today marks World Food Day, with the aim of bringing "awareness to the issue of hunger," as the world faces "more mouths to feed but fewer farmers to grow the needed crops," Deutsche Welle reports.

19 Oct 2009

Recent releases in global health

In light of a recent Guttmacher Institute report that indicated 70,000 women in developing countries die each year from unsafe abortion, a Lancet editorial outlines ways to reduce deaths, and says, "The current political climate is favourable, because the global-gag rule (the U.S. Government's policy on banning funding of foreign organisations linked to any type of abortion practice) is out of favour" (10/17).

19 Oct 2009

Gates Foundation to announce grants to promote agriculture at world food prize symposium

During a "keynote speech" Thursday at the World Food Prize Symposium in Des Moines, Iowa, Bill Gates, cofounder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is expected to announce $120 million in grants "to promote dynamic, home-grown, sustainable agriculture in Africa and India,"

19 Oct 2009

Opinions: Fighting hunger; property ownership, trade key to Africa's development

"For one billion people around the world, the daily effort to grow, buy or sell food is the defining struggle of their lives. This matters to them, and to all of us," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton writes in a Times of India opinion piece.

19 Oct 2009

New evidence indicates humans naturally regulate their salt intake

As the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans are currently under development and regulations surrounding sodium consumption are being considered, an analysis of evidence released online today in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN) questions the scientific logic and feasibility of the decades-long effort to limit salt intake in humans.

15 Oct 2009

New food reports highlight growing global hunger

Reforms are required to curb global hunger, which was already "growing" before the worldwide financial downturn, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) said in a report, released in Rome, ahead of World Food Day on Friday, the BBC reports (10/14).

15 Oct 2009

Heifer International's initiative to end poverty and hunger through gifts of livestock, education and training

How do you gift wrap a goat? Or a cow, a pig, or a water buffalo?

14 Oct 2009

Good nutrition and exercise vital to stay young and healthy

Keeping fit at a young age may be one of the secrets to living a long and healthy life, according to new research co-authored by researcher Oscar Franco, MD, PhD, Assistant Clinical Professor in Public Health at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom.

14 Oct 2009

News outlets examine East African drought

Sky News examines the drought in East Africa, focusing on its impact in Kenya. In "[o]ne of the worst-affected areas," 70 percent of the "herds of cattle and goats have died in the past year, threatening the survival of entire communities who depend on them for their food and income," according to Sky News (Hurd, 10/12).

14 Oct 2009

Massive mismanagement leads to catastrophic decline in freshwater biodiversity

The world will miss its agreed target to stem biodiversity loss by next year, according to experts convening in Cape Town for a landmark conference devoted to biodiversity science.

13 Oct 2009

AHA: Americans should reduce their calorie intake to combat obesity and cardiovascular disease

Reaching for that chocolate chip cookie? Think twice. The American Heart Association (AHA) just released the strictest guidelines ever for added sugars, recommending Americans limit their diet to 100 calories (6 teaspoons) for women and 150 calories (nine teaspoons) for men each day.

13 Oct 2009

Comprehensive weight management system from EIRO Research

EIRO Research, a Dallas-based nutritional company, launched EIROfit, a comprehensive and easy-to-use weight management system, at its launch convention on October 9, 2009.

13 Oct 2009

Opinion: Improving U.S. foreign assistance; revisiting U.S. food aid

"Bureaucratic sprawl has sapped the strength of many of [U.S.] aid programs. Our government's global development policies and programs are scattered across 12 departments, 25 different agencies and nearly 60 government offices. The organization chart looks like a haystack, and it needs new, clear lines of responsibility," Charles Raynal, a professor at Columbia Theological Seminary, writes in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution opinion piece.

12 Oct 2009

New U.S. agricultural research institute launched; global food aid examined

The Obama administration recently launched the National Institute of Food (NIFA), "a new agricultural research institute ... but farm lobbyists and others warned that its success depends on whether Congress agrees to substantially increase funding for farm research," Government Executive reports.

12 Oct 2009

House Dems seek health bill support from liberals, women, and even Republicans

House Democrats are enjoying a feeling of momentum on health care, despite divisions within their own party, and rigid partisan battle lines. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, told The Hill, "I'm encouraged that we're as far along as we have come and I think we're going to make it." Another senior lawmaker said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "has held dozens of meetings to assuage the concerns of liberal and centrist Democratic colleagues" (Bolton and Young, 10/8).

9 Oct 2009