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Blog examines success of community-led sanitation program in Afghanistan

In this post in Management Sciences for Health's (MSH) "Global Health Impact" blog, Abdul Qawi Qadiri, WASH coordinator for Baghlan Province in Afghanistan, writes about how a community-led program in the village of Baghalak has helped to reduce the incidence of infectious illnesses, particularly diarrheal diseases.

10 Aug 2012

VOA examines impacts of U.S. drought on global food security

VOA News examines the impacts of drought in the U.S. on global food security. "More than half the United States is experiencing the dual problems of too little rain and temperatures that are too high," the news service writes, adding, "Shenggen Fan, head of the International Food Policy Research Institute [IFPRI], said that's not only driving up prices, but contributing to price volatility as well."

10 Aug 2012

Plausible way to manipulate beneficial microbes in purified drinking water

Contrary to popular belief, purified drinking water from home faucets contains millions to hundreds of millions of widely differing bacteria per gallon, and scientists have discovered a plausible way to manipulate those populations of mostly beneficial microbes to potentially benefit consumers. Their study appears in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology.

10 Aug 2012

Sustaining focus on global hunger critical to improving transparency, accountability in fight against malnutrition

"Malnutrition is easily neglected by parents, communities and governments," Lawrence Haddad, director of the Institute of Development Studies, writes in the Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog," adding, "The signs are not visible until very acute, the impacts are felt long after the food and infection cycle has played out -- and far beyond electoral cycles -- and the causes are often mistakenly attributed to something else."

10 Aug 2012

Philippines appeals for aid following widespread flooding in Manila

"Philippine authorities appealed Thursday for help in getting relief to two million people affected by deadly floods in and around the capital, warning that evacuation centers were overwhelmed," Agence France-Presse reports (Morella, 8/9).

10 Aug 2012

New technology for healthcare based on aviation security system

Researchers in the North West are investigating whether tools pioneered in aviation security can be used to help prevent complications after surgery.

10 Aug 2012

New York Times blog examines gap in surgical care in developing world

In this post in the New York Times' "Opinionator" blog, journalist Sarika Bansal reports on a gap in surgical care in developing countries, writing, "It is conservatively estimated that 56 million people in sub-Saharan Africa -- over twice the number living with HIV/AIDS -- need a surgery today," but, "across the developing world, surgical care often does not reach those who need it."

10 Aug 2012

Boys are little more susceptible to both bad and good exposures

A new study is the first to find a difference between how boys and girls respond to prenatal exposure to the insecticide chlorpyrifos. Researchers at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH) at the Mailman School of Public Health found that, at age 7, boys had greater difficulty with working memory, a key component of IQ, than girls with similar exposures.

10 Aug 2012

African leaders, international community must act on commitments made at London family planning summit

In this UNFPA opinion piece, Babatunde Osotimehin, U.N. under-secretary-general and UNFPA executive director, and Sharon Camp, president and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute, reflect on last month's London Summit on Family Planning, where "leaders from 18 African countries made unprecedented commitments -- financially and politically -- to strengthen their family planning programs,"

10 Aug 2012

Breakthrough vaccine against deadly Nipah virus

A major breakthrough in the development of a highly effective vaccine against the deadly Nipah virus has been reported by a team of federal and university scientists. The results of their study, "A Hendra virus G glycoprotein subunit vaccine protects African green monkeys from Nipah virus challenge," will appear in Science Translational Medicine online.

10 Aug 2012

In Colorado, Obama focuses on women's health issues

Campaigning in the western swing state, President Barack Obama said his opponent, GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, would take women's health care back to the 1950s.

10 Aug 2012

Less sleep leads to more offspring in male pectoral sandpipers

During the breeding season, polygynous male pectoral sandpipers that sleep the least sire the most young. A team of researchers headed by Bart Kempenaers from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen has now discovered this extraordinary relationship.

10 Aug 2012

Even during August break, congressional health policy concerns draw headlines

Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., is working to build support for new legislation to expand Medicare's nursing home coverage while Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., notes problems within the Indian Health Service. All the while, the health law's contraception coverage mandate continues to trigger disputes.

10 Aug 2012

IOM panel examines the promise and reality of telemedicine

Institute of Medicine experts find that the continued integration of telemedicine into the health care system will face challenges in the years ahead.

10 Aug 2012

BMJ authors challenge pharma's concerns about 'innovation crisis'

For the past decade or so, we've been hearing repeatedly about an "innovation" crisis in pharmaceuticals. Big Pharma and its friends in government and elsewhere have claimed that research into new drugs is slowing down, primarily, they say, because of onerous regulatory demands

10 Aug 2012

FDA approved drug to treat Ph- acute lymphoblastic leukemia

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Marqibo (vincristine sulfate liposome injection) to treat adults with a rare type of leukemia called Philadelphia chromosome negative (Ph-) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). ALL is a rapidly progressing form of blood and bone marrow cancer that is more commonly diagnosed in children than adults.

10 Aug 2012

Senegal working to improve contraceptive supply

In a post in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog, Perri Sutton, an associate program officer on the family planning team at the foundation, discusses Senegal's history of contraceptive stock-outs and Minister of Health Awa Marie Coll-Seck's plan to "fix the problems that result in stock-outs and ensure that women have access to the full range of contraceptive options."

10 Aug 2012

NGOs call for full implementation of human right to water, sanitation in letter to U.N. member states

At the end of last month, the international community commemorated the second anniversary of a July 2010 U.N. General Assembly resolution declaring water and sanitation a basic human right, but "there was hardly any political rejoicing either inside or outside the U.N.," Inter Press Service/Guardian reports.

10 Aug 2012

Nanofibers and VEGF hold promise for cardiovascular repair

A National Cheng Kung University research team has made a breakthrough in the regeneration of new blood vessels in cardiovascular therapy by using nanofibers and vascular endothelial growth factor.

10 Aug 2012

As flap continues over pro-Obama PAC's ad, Romney aide praises Mass. health law

The ad, which highlights the death of a steelworker's wife after Bain closed his plant, triggered criticism from Republicans. But a Romney aide's comments about how that family would have benefited from the Massachusetts health reforms signed into law by then-Gov. Mitt Romney was not well received in conservative circles.

10 Aug 2012