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FDA approves the 100th antiretroviral drug in association with PEPFAR

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today marked the recent approval of the 100th antiretroviral drug in association with the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), aimed at the prevention, treatment, and care of people infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS worldwide.

28 Oct 2009

Gateses to appeal for ongoing U.S. funding of global health

Bill and Melinda Gates are expected to ask Washington officials on Tuesday to "continue funding global health initiatives despite the recession and to commit to nearly halve the number of child deaths worldwide by 2025," the Washington Post reports.

27 Oct 2009

Recent releases in Global Health

"The spread of dengue virus throughout the tropics represents a major, rapidly growing public health problem with an estimated 2.5 billion people at risk of dengue fever and the life-threatening disease, severe dengue," write the authors of a Lancet Infectious Diseases review that examines what is known about the virus and progress in the development of a dengue vaccine (Webster et. al, 11/09).

24 Oct 2009

Melinda Gates shares thoughts on U.S. global health efforts

During a recent interview with The Hill's "Blog Briefing Room," Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, praised former President George W. Bush for the enactment of PEPFAR and commended the Obama administration's commitment to global health issues and for "being very open minded [and] saying we don't have to go back and reinvent the wheel."

24 Oct 2009

As HIV vaccine conference opens, experts appeal for sustained commitment to global fight against disease

Experts, gathered for the start of a four-day conference on HIV vaccines in Paris, called upon donors to maintain their funding support for the fight against HIV/AIDS despite the global economy, Agence France-Presse reports.

20 Oct 2009

Human Rights and Oversight to hold a hearing on international violence against women

On Wednesday, October 21 at 2:00 p.m. in Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2172, Chairman Delahunt (D-MA) of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight will hold a hearing titled International Violence Against Women: Stories and Solutions.

20 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

FDA approves 100th antiretroviral for PEPFAR

HHS recently announced the FDA's 100th approval of an antiretroviral drug for PEPFAR, PharmTech.com reports. Seventy-one of the more than 100 drugs reviewed by FDA for PEPFAR were generic products.

19 Oct 2009

Opinions: Pragmatic vs. moral approach to health care access; Pres. Bush's PEPFAR

"[T]he global campaign to equalise access to healthcare has had a surprising result: it has made global healthcare more unequal," William Easterly, a professor of economics at New York University and co-director of its Development Research Institute, writes in a Financial Times opinion piece.

15 Oct 2009

VOA News examines U.S. global health funding

VOA News examines how the recession will be a factor in U.S. funding decisions about PEPFAR and other global health initiatives. According to VOA, the Obama administration's proposed funding for HIV, tuberculosis and malaria in 2010 is "higher than the current fiscal year. However, the proposed increase is lower than in some years past."

9 Oct 2009

U.S. should provide more leadership in finding TB vaccine, opinion piece says

Tuberculosis deserves an effort as "substantial" as the one mounted against swine flu "to develop a new vaccine," David McMurray, a TB expert at Texas A&M University System Health Science Center, writes in a Houston Chronicle opinion piece.

9 Oct 2009

HHS and PEPFAR approve the 100th HIV/AIDS antiretroviral drug

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today marked today marked the recent approval of the 100th antiretroviral drug in association with the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), aimed at the prevention, treatment, and care of people infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS worldwide.

7 Oct 2009

Also in Global Health News: U.S. aid to Somalia; Nigerian health workers strike; male circumcision in Swaziland; PEPFAR in Uganda

The U.S. State and Treasury departments together with USAID have reached an agreement that will allow several aid agencies in Somalia to receive humanitarian grants upon meeting several conditions, "unlock[ing] millions of dollars in relief resources that had been on hold due to US anti-terrorism rules," IRIN reports.

7 Oct 2009

BBC examines 'huge imbalance' between funding for HIV/AIDS, other health needs in Uganda

The BBC examines the balance between funding for HIV/AIDS and for the broader health system and other diseases in Uganda.

6 Oct 2009

Also in global health news: Drought in East Africa; improving food processing in Africa; Hajj pilgrims must take polio vaccine; fighting insecticide-resistant mosquitoes

"A severe and persistent five-year drought" is pushing "[m]ore than 23 million people ... towards severe hunger and destitution across East Africa, international aid agency Oxfam has warned as it launches a £9.5 million [about $15 million] emergency appeal," the U.K. Press Association reports (9/29). According to Reuters/New York Times, "Malnutrition is now above emergency levels in some areas and hundreds of thousands of valuable cattle are dying" (Wallis, 9/29).

30 Sep 2009

Lecture to focus on the increasing need to fund and develop methods of contraception

On October 2nd, 2009, Henry Gabelnick PhD, Executive Director of The CONRAD Program, will give the prestigious Alan F. Guttmacher lecture at the 2009 Association for Reproductive Health Professionals conference being held in Los Angeles, California.

29 Sep 2009

Living Proof Project showcases U.S. government's efforts to improve health around the world

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today launched the Living Proof Project: U.S. Investments in Global Health are Working, a multi-year awareness campaign to highlight the extraordinary success of the U.S. government's efforts to improve health around the world.

24 Sep 2009

Opinions: Reforming U.S. aid; delivering health care in developing countries

To change the U.S. foreign aid system, we must "[d]o what the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) did: break the rules and then rewrite them," Mark Dybul, former U.S. global AIDS coordinator, writes in a Foreign Policy opinion piece examining the development and implementation of the program.

24 Sep 2009

Also in Global Health news: HIV/aids in Zambia; Ugandan medical workers; Obama administration officials' Q&A, speech; South African health care reform efforts; texting to combat drug shortages in Africa

The Post of Zambia examines the findings of a recent report revealing "the devastating effects" the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Zambia is having on the country's ability to meet the U.N. Millennium Development Goals. The article also looks at the relationship between HIV/AIDS and nutrition, maternal health and education (Chackwe, 9/21).

21 Sep 2009

President Obama's commitment to global AIDS and health is in doubt: GAA

Later today, Ambassador Eric Goosby will be sworn in as the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator. "While we welcome Ambassador Goosby to his new post, and look forward to working with him on a broad range of issues that affect the health and well-being of the world's vulnerable populations, there are a number of as-yet unanswered questions about the true commitment of the Obama Administration to global AIDS and health, including PEPFAR [President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief]," said Dr. Paul Zeitz, GAA executive director.

18 Sep 2009