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Uganda launches PEPFAR-supported mobile male circumcision clinic

U.S. Ambassador to Uganda Jerry Lanier on Friday in Kampala launched a Mobile Medical Male Circumcision clinic, a project of the PEPFAR-supported Makerere University Walter Reed Project, New Vision reports.

17 May 2011

Ugandan Parliament fails to debate legislation criminalizing homosexual acts

Legislation that criminalizes homosexual acts in Uganda did not, as expected, make it to the floor of the country's Parliament on Friday, meaning "the bill is essentially dead, for the moment," PRI's "The World" reports.

17 May 2011

NY election may offer view of voters' take on GOP Medicare plan

Just as this New York special congressional election approaches, news outlets analyze how public opinion is breaking in regard to the plan, as included in the budget advanced by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. Other elected officials are also offering their own responses to the approach.

17 May 2011

States struggling with Medicaid costs look for innovation

Florida wants to be the first state in the nation to charge most of its Medicaid recipients a monthly premium as well as $100 for using the ER for routine care. But even supporters acknowledge that the new fees, passed recently by the state legislature as part of a sweeping Medicaid measure, face long odds getting federal approval.

17 May 2011

Antiretrovirals important to protect HIV-positive children from measles

Scientific American looks at the possible link between HIV prevalence and a recent increase in the number of children dying from measles in sub-Saharan Africa. "Studies show that infants with HIV do not respond well to the measles vaccine even when given a second dose at nine months, as the World Health Organization currently recommends," the article notes.

17 May 2011

ONE report examines G8 follow through on development assistance to Africa

The G8 nations have "delivered only 61 percent of the increased aid they promised to sub-Saharan Africa by 2010 in their 2005 summit" in Gleneagles, Scotland, an annual report by ONE shows, Reuters reports.

17 May 2011

AP reports on Global Fund's release of information on corruption, fund responds

After an Associated Press story on Friday reported that the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria "will make public more detailed information about money it has lost to corruption and mismanagement, but won't release other information critics have sought that might have made it possible to calculate how much of the money investigated is lost to corruption, or what percentage of the fund's overall disbursements are misspent".

17 May 2011

Critics say program offering money for contraception to HIV-positive Kenyan women is illegal

IRIN/Plus News reports that "the Kenyan government and rights groups have expressed outrage at a project in western Kenya that is paying HIV-positive women to undergo long-term contraception."

17 May 2011

Researchers discover bed bugs with MRSA in lower-income area residents

As if the recent resurgence of bed bugs wasn't bad enough, Canadian researchers have found some of the little blood-sucking critters carrying methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, the potentially deadly superbug known as MRSA.

17 May 2011

WFP resumes food aid operations in South Sudan

The World Food Program (WFP) has resumed food aid operations in South Sudan after operations were suspended last month because of violence, Reuters reports.

17 May 2011

LDC conference ends with 10-year action plan

The Fourth U.N. Conference on Least Developed Countries closed in Istanbul on Friday "with a number of recommendations seeking to halve, from 48 to 24, the number of LDCs during the next 10 years," the Guardian's "Global Development" blog reports.

17 May 2011

Business trends shape medical practices

Minnesota Public Radio reports that independent practices increasingly face an uphill battle while the Minneapolis Star Tribune notes that the "company doctor" is making a comeback in workplaces across the nation.

17 May 2011

World Health Assembly begins in Geneva

As the 64th World Health Assembly gets underway in Geneva, the body will consider "an array of subjects pertaining to reforms of the organisation and its financing, vaccines, fake medicines, and influenza pandemic preparedness, as well as communicable and non-communicable diseases," Intellectual Property Watch reports.

17 May 2011

Obese patients undergoing colon surgery more likely to develop costly surgical-site infections

Obese patients undergoing colon surgery are 60 percent more likely to develop dangerous and costly surgical-site infections than their normal-weight counterparts, new Johns Hopkins research suggests.

17 May 2011

Gingrich calls GOP Medicare voucher plan radical

Now that he is officially in the running to be the Republican nominee for president, Newt Gingrich made his opinions very clear while appearing on Sunday morning talk shows.

17 May 2011

Sanofi hopes to launch dengue vaccine in 2014

France's Sanofi-Pasteur, the world's largest vaccine maker, said Friday it hopes to introduce a dengue vaccine in 2014 to some high-risk nations, AlertNet reports. The vaccine is in the last stage of clinical testing in Australia, and the company said it hopes to produce 100 million doses of the vaccine annually, according to the news agency.

17 May 2011

WHO releases annual World Health Statistics report

The WHO on Friday released its annual World Health Statistics report, which includes data on more than 100 indicators - such as life expectancy, mother and child mortality, disease prevalence and health expenditures - from the agency's 193 member states, the Associated Press reports (5/14).

17 May 2011