The close of the 62nd World Health Assembly included a resolution on combating drug-resistant tuberculosis, a particularly welcome development given that TB almost got knocked off the WHA agenda because of a heavy focus on the influenza A(H1N1) virus. The WHA meeting of health ministers and officials from the World Health Organization member states ended […]
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In its much-anticipated report on America’s role in addressing global health, the Institute of Medicine called on President Obama to appoint a sort of global health czar and urged both the administration and Congress to invest $15 billion in global health by 2012. “Especially during this time when the global economy is under pressure, attention […]
The economic stimulus bill is paying more public health dividends—allowing universities to seize on student interest in global health programs. Four universities have qualified for new funding, made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, from the National Institutes of Health to bolster global health programs. Dartmouth College, for example, won money to help […]
Well, we may not like President Obama’s budget too much. And we’re more than a little worried about his global health proposal. But at least Obama is putting good policy folks in place to combat infectious diseases, here and abroad. Today, the president picked Dr. Thomas Frieden as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, […]
An editorial due out next week in the Annals of Internal Medicine raises a provocative new question about the recent study of PEPFAR’s effectiveness. The initial study, by Stanford researchers Eran Bendavid and Jayanta Bhattacharya, found that while PEPFAR decreased the HIV/AIDS death toll in targeted countries by more than 10 percent between 2004 and […]
Zimbabwe’s health care infrastructure had been in a state of slow decline for more than a decade, and then experienced a near-total collapse over the last year, said Dr. James Hakim, chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Zimbabwe, College of Health Sciences. This comes as the strife-torn country has […]
Yesterday we received more information about the budget proposal from President Obama. There are some new details, such as his proposal to flat-fund US backing for the Global Fund. His proposal does not add up, I am sorry to say, and it is not consistent with the Hyde-Lantos legislation the President co-sponsored last year. Why […]
This week the Obama Administration seemed to take a page from George Bush’s old playbook as the new Administration announces a very big sounding figure, $63 billion, for global health programs that help poor countries — when, in fact, the proposal obscures the real facts about the Obama budget, especially for FY 2010.
HIV
While plan will target 48 “hot spots” with services, and people at high risks with PrEP, will it change policies that fuel HIV? More details are […]
Tuberculosis
With the release of a “pre-final text” of updated guidelines for treatment of multidrug- and rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis, the World Health Organization made official substantial changes to […]
Research & Development
A trial to test the safety of, and immune response prompted by, the latest candidate for a vaccine to protect against Zika virus infection has begun […]
Policy
Drawing on previously published findings and on-the-ground interviews, a report from Planned Parenthood details damage to global health gains, including in closed programs, weakened civil society, […]