The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recognizing next week’s World TB Day with a report documenting continued progress against tuberculosis at in the United States, along with an troubling trend. The progress: the 3.0 cases per 100,000 people reported in 2013 (9,588 new cases) represents a more than 4 percent drop from 2012. […]
Along with three new grants targeting neglected diseases carried by “kissing bugs” “snail carrying worms” and “gender-bending bacteria,” a second round of grants from the private-public partnership of the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund will continue to target a familiar foe, with an added $5.65 million to develop a vaccine against tuberculosis, The GHIT fund […]
But ribbon cuttings are under consideration . . . Four days after the President Yoweri Museveni signed Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill into law, USAID Uganda Mission Director Leslie Reed sent a memo to the contractors, nonprofit organizations and government agencies with which the mission works advising “that all external events, ribbon cuttings, workshops, launches and/or program […]
HIV treatment history offers proof it can be done, authors highlight It is a disease that an estimated 150 million people worldwide live with, that causes the deaths of at least 1,000 people a day, and that affects virtually every country of every income level, many of them without accessible diagnostic tools. The current standard […]
“It is possible,” Dr. William Foege told an audience this morning, “To plan a rational future.” Foege, a former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director credited with heading the strategy that eradicated smallpox, was speaking to a gathering of CDC country post leaders planning to improve disease responses worldwide. He remembered earlier days in […]
Sometimes, comparing two countries can tell you more about what you don’t know, than about what you do. Take one country, for example, where the average age of first sexual experience for young people is a little more than 16, fewer than 36 percent of young women used a condom during their last sex act, […]
When Luiz Loures saw his first AIDS case in 1982, treatment didn’t exist, and discrimination against LGBT people was rampant. He faced weeks when he could not leave the hospital because he could not count on his stigmatized patients receiving care. Today, medical responses have progressed, but the impact of homophobia remains: “We know how […]
More than 900 physicians, researchers, nurses and other health care workers from institutions, facilities and organizations tackling HIV around the world sent a letter to President Obama today expressing horror over anti-homosexuality laws recently passed in Uganda and Nigeria and urging the president to follow words condemning the laws with action. The new laws in […]
“I do believe we’ll be able to meet the target and meet our goals,” Secretary of State John Kerry told a House subcommittee Thursday, answering a question about global health provisions in President Obama’s fiscal 2015 budget. In a hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, Kerry lauded U.S. aims and […]
Returning from a CROI presentation on the critical role of data and evidence, we’re reading about the continuing toll of homophobia “Know Your Epidemic: From Data to Action,” was the title of a CROI symposium last week. The session, with presentations on population surveys, as well as on data gathered in England and Swaziland, showed […]
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, […]