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Cholera confirmed in Florida woman who traveled to Haiti

"The first known case of cholera in the United States linked to the outbreak in Haiti was confirmed Wednesday by health officials who said a southwest Florida woman contracted the disease while visiting family in a region at the heart of Haiti's epidemic," the New York Times reports.

19 Nov 2010

Cholera case confirmed in Dominican Republic; Haitian protestors blame U.N. peacekeeping troops for cholera outbreak

Officials on Tuesday said they had confirmed the first case of cholera in Haiti's neighbor, the Dominican Republic, the Associated Press/Forbes reports

18 Nov 2010

Reuters reports on PLoS medicine series on water, sanitation

Nearly 20 percent of the world's population still defecates in the open, and action to improve hygiene, sanitation and water supply could prevent more than 2 million child deaths a year, health experts said" on Monday, following the release of a series of papers on water and sanitation published in the journal PLoS Medicine, Reuters reports.

16 Nov 2010

Bioethics in pharmaceutical industry, regenerative medicine, and public health

To celebrate 40 years of pioneering bioethics publication, the Hastings Center Report, the world's first bioethics journal, looked to the future, asking young scholars to write about what the next generation of bioethicists should take up. Out of 195 compelling submissions, four of the best essays were selected for publication in the November-December issue.

12 Nov 2010

Brass products in plumbing systems leach high levels of lead into drinking water

A new research study co-spearheaded by Virginia Tech researchers highlights problems with some brass products in plumbing systems that can leach high levels of lead into drinking water, even in brand new buildings - and suggests that such problems may often go undetected.

12 Nov 2010

Regional workshop to discuss diarrheal disease solutions for Asia

Each year, diarrheal disease claims the lives of 1.3 million children under five worldwide and hospitalizes millions more. The vast majority of these deaths occur in developing countries of Asia and Africa, but fortunately, interventions exist that can greatly reduce deaths and save lives. To bring attention to the solutions available today for defeating diarrhea, the Vietnam Ministry of Health, the National Pediatric Hospital of Vietnam, and PATH are hosting a two-day regional workshop where they will present the evidence and lessons learned from initiatives currently underway.

10 Nov 2010

'New framework' needed to reduce slum expansion, new UN-HABITAT head says in speech outlining priorities

Joan Clos, the newly elected executive director of the U.N. Human Settlements Program (UN-HABITAT), on Tuesday urged the international community to focus on improving the lives of slum dwellers worldwide and take steps to reduce the expansion of slum areas, Xinhua/People's Daily Online reports.

8 Nov 2010

Electrolytic Ozone completes Series A funding

Electrolytic Ozone Inc. (EOI) today announced completion of Series A funding. EOI develops and manufactures ultra-compact, safe and reliable ozone generators that harness the benefits of ozone to improve the safety and quality of the human environment. EOI ozone cells enable innovative sanitization, deodorization and preservation applications of ozone for consumer, food safety, health and medical uses.

4 Nov 2010

Guardian's Katine project coverage concludes

The Guardian concluded its three-year Katine project in north-eastern Uganda, which "tracked the implementation of a development project focusing on five aspects of deprivation: health, education, water and sanitation, livelihoods and governance," the newspaper writes.

3 Nov 2010

Media outlets look ahead to Obama's trip to India

Several media outlets looked ahead to President Barack Obama's scheduled visit to India later this week, as part of his Asia-Pacific tour.

2 Nov 2010

H. pylori infection reduces severity of Salmonella-induced colitis: Research

Helicobacter pylori, a common stomach bacterium, reduced the severity of inflammation of the colon caused by Salmonella in mice, according to research from U-M Medical School scientists.

2 Nov 2010

Recent releases in Global Health

Global Fund Will Make 'Every Possible Effort' To Raise Additional Resources: Although pledges to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria at its recent replenishment meeting did not meet "the lowest estimate of demand," the Fund "will make every possible effort to raise the additional resources that we expect countries to request in the years ahead" through new donor recruitment and "innovative financing approaches," writes Executive Director Michael Kazatchkine in a Lancet comment

30 Oct 2010

CNN reports on recent uptick in cholera cases worldwide

CNN's "the chart" blog examines the rising number of cholera cases around the world. In addition to the cholera outbreak in Haiti, "[a]s of this month, four African nations - Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger - have reported more than 40,000 cases of cholera and more than 2,000 deaths. And Pakistan, a country that is still suffering from the effects of horrific floods, also is reporting 100+ cases of cholera since last month."

29 Oct 2010

Mundus studies potential for VTOL UAV against Malaria

Mundus Group Inc., studies potential for VTOL UAV to provide increased capabilities in fight against Malaria and disease spread through mosquitoes with precision aerial laser eradication treatments.

26 Oct 2010

Cholera epidemic in Haiti persists despite slow down in fatalities

"A multinational medical response has slowed deaths in a Haitian cholera epidemic that has killed more than 250 people so far, but the outbreak is likely to widen, a senior U.N. official said on Sunday," Reuters reports. The U.N., Haitian government and aid partners "have launched a major effort to try to contain the epidemic" of more than 3,000 cases in the country so far (Delva, 10/25). The New York Times reports that the death rate, according to the Haitian government, has "declined - from 10.6 percent of known cases three days earlier to 8.2 percent now."

26 Oct 2010

World Vision increases response in cholera affected Haiti

As the cholera outbreak continues to spread in the Artibonite region of Haiti, World Vision is increasing its response in affected areas, pre-positioning much-needed health supplies and preparing residents in its displacement camps in Port-au-Prince with critical, life-saving health and hygiene messages.

25 Oct 2010

West, Central African floods kill 377; situation in Benin especially worrying, U.N. says

Floods in west and central Africa have killed 377 people and affected almost 1.5 million people since the start of the rainy season in June, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said on Tuesday, Agence France-Presse reports.

21 Oct 2010

Also in Global Health News: Foreign aid in Ethiopia; Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation; Health in Myanmar; Poverty in Zambia; Rwanda's progress on MDGs; Men involved in PMTCT of HIV

Ethiopia's government has been restricting access to food and other types of foreign aid among opposition supporters, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report on Tuesday, Reuters reports (Malone, 10/19). The report is based on more than 200 interviews, conducted over a six-month period in 2009, of people in 53 villages across three regions of the country, according to an HRW press release (10/19).

21 Oct 2010

Dengue cases in Western Pacific doubled in last 10 years; WHO says disease needs higher profile

The number of dengue cases has more than doubled in the last decade in the Western Pacific, according to the WHO, BBC reports.

19 Oct 2010

Importance of handwashing highlighted through events in 80 countries

Noting that Friday is Global Handwashing Day, the Los Angeles Times writes, "Every year, diarrhea and acute respiratory infections cause the death of more than 3.5 million children under age 5. These figures could be cut dramatically if handwashing with soap were widely practiced, experts say."

18 Oct 2010