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The perils of aid group over exaggeration

"The problem is that U.N. agencies, USAID, its European counterparts, and NGOs almost all think that to get attention for a given crisis, they must use apocalyptic language and err on the side of overestimating the death, damage, and displacement that has been caused," author David Rieff writes in a Foreign Policy opinion piece.

13 Jun 2011

VOA News examines U.N. Women in series of articles

VOA News has published a five-part series examining U.N. Women. The agency's "success depends on availability of resources and financial support. Member states have agreed to provide the new entity with an initial minimum budget of at least $500 million a year," the news service writes.

13 Jun 2011

MinuteClinic, OhioHealth enter affiliation to enhance high quality care services

MinuteClinic, the retail health care division of CVS Caremark, and OhioHealth, a nationally recognized not-for-profit, charitable health care organization based in Columbus, Ohio, have entered into a clinical affiliation that will enhance the high quality, affordable health care services they provide in central Ohio.

13 Jun 2011

Secretary of State Clinton travels to sub-Saharan Africa

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is embarking on a weeklong trip to sub-Saharan Africa, CNN reports.

13 Jun 2011

Risky behavior, psychiatric disorders and substance abuse contribute to opioid overdose

Deaths related to prescription opioid therapy are under intense scrutiny, prompting those in pain medicine-clinicians, patient advocates, and regulators-to understand the causes behind avoidable mortality in legitimately treated patients.

13 Jun 2011

New swine flu variant shows some resistance to drugs, report says

A new variant of H1N1 (swine) influenza that is easily spread and retains some resistance to the two major drugs used to treat flu has been detected in Singapore and Australia, according to a report from the WHO's influenza research group published in the journal Eurosurveillance, Bloomberg reports.

13 Jun 2011

German officials again claim sprouts as source of E. coli outbreak

"After days of confusion, German authorities finally concluded on Friday that an E. coli infection, which has claimed at least 29 lives, unsettled the nation and thrown European agriculture into disarray, had been caused by contaminated bean sprouts and not, as first was feared, by other produce," the New York Times reports.

13 Jun 2011

Low-cost meningitis vaccine cuts cases in African countries, data show

Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger recorded the lowest number of meningitis A cases in an epidemic season this year after the MenAfriVac vaccine was introduced, data from the WHO show, the nonprofit that helped develop the shot, Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP), said on Thursday, Reuters reports.

13 Jun 2011

Hanwha, Merck partner to develop and commercialize HD203

Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, and Hanwha Chemical Corporation today announced that they have entered into an exclusive global agreement to develop and commercialize a candidate biosimilar form of Enbrel.

13 Jun 2011

HSS to host international Osteoarthritis Summit on June 17, 18

Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most pressing health care challenges of our time, affecting 27 million Americans. In an effort to elucidate the latest information in diagnosis, treatment, research and prevention, Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) will host an international Osteoarthritis Summit on June 17 and June 18.

13 Jun 2011

Climate change to reduce water available for agriculture, report says

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) "on Thursday warned climate change will restrict the availability of water for farming in decades to come, including in the Mediterranean region, and urged governments to take action," Agence France-Presse reports.

13 Jun 2011

Two champions of children's health care to receive CHF award at annual benefit

Children's Health Fund (CHF) will honor two champions of children's health care at its annual benefit June 13. Artists Bette Midler and Paul Simon will perform during the event.

13 Jun 2011

UNAIDS, PEPFAR announce campaign to eliminate MTCT of HIV by 2015

A team led by UNAIDS and PEPFAR on Thursday at the U.N. High Level Meeting on AIDS announced a plan to virtually eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV by 2015 by "ensuring that all women, especially pregnant ones, have access to quality life-saving HIV prevention and treatment services - for themselves and their children," BBC News reports.

13 Jun 2011

Unique approach improves discharge disposition and older patient's outcomes

The rehospitalization of senior patients within 30 days of discharge from a skilled nursing facility (SNF) has risen dramatically in recent years, at an estimated annual cost of more than $17 billion.

13 Jun 2011

Dominican Republic health workers strike over sanitary conditions in hospital

Medical workers at a hospital in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, went on strike Thursday after a nurse was suspected of contracting cholera, the Associated Press/Kansas City Star reports.

13 Jun 2011

National, continental health center coordination lacking in E. coli outbreak response

During the handling of the E. coli outbreak in Germany, "coordination of the German public health response seems to have been utterly absent," a Lancet editorial states, adding, "But one should also ask: where was the European Centres of Disease Prevention and Control? … From the public's point of view, no visible collaboration seems to have taken place."

13 Jun 2011

S. African government program reduced MTCT HIV transmission rate to 3.5%, study shows

The South African government's program to prevent mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV has reduced the rate of virus transmission to about 3.5 percent, "potentially sparing some 67,000 babies from HIV infection," according to research presented on Wednesday by the Medical Research Council at the 5th South African AIDS Conference in Durban, Health-e/allAfrica.com reports.

13 Jun 2011

Huffington Post AIDS commentaries

The Huffington Post has several commentaries about the 30th anniversary of AIDS and other issues surrounding the epidemic.

13 Jun 2011

Governments need to address disability to achieve MDGs, WHO/World Bank report says

More than one billion people worldwide live with a physical or mental disability, with 80 percent of those people living in developing countries, according to the first world report on disability, published by the WHO and World Bank on Thursday, the Guardian reports.

13 Jun 2011

The U.S. and the GAVI Alliance

This fact sheet from the Kaiser Family Foundation examines the GAVI Alliance and the role the U.S. government plays in supporting the partnership. Created in 1999, GAVI began operations in January 2000 and by the end of 2010 had received over $5 billion in donor financing and disbursed over $2.8 billion to support immunization programs in 76 low- and middle-income countries.

13 Jun 2011