Progress, Challenges In Curbing Neglected Tropical Diseases: “The effect of 30 years of neglect for these diseases in research and development of new diagnostics and drugs, and, crucially, in investing in training and education in vector-borne diseases, is evident. Most current drugs for neglected tropical diseases are old, and the spectre of drug resistance cannot be ignored,” but “much progress” has also been made in the past decade, a Lancet editorial states, noting the WHO’s recent report on Neglected Tropical Diseases (10/23).

Sex Workers’ Involvement In The HIV Conversation: The Economist’s “Banyan’s Notebook” blog examines HIV prevention models in Asia and the inclusion of sex workers in prevention conversations. “In the past they have tended to be excluded from such international gatherings, partly because of language difficulties … and partly out of an attitude of official condescension, which saw the sex-workers more as the problem than as an important part of the solution.” The post also looks at laws that criminalize sex work (10/20).

U.S. Role In Global Fund Replenishment: Nandini Oomman, HIV/AIDS Monitor at the Center for Global Development, writes on the center’s “Global Health Policy” blog what she thinks are the two “important” but overlooked takeaways from the Global Fund replenishment meeting: “The Global Fund needs dedicated partners and continuous replenishment to be an effective financing model” and “U.S. calls for the Global Fund to work more ‘effectively and efficiently’ raise questions about PEPFAR” (10/20).

CDC Director Discusses Global Health: The Center for Strategic and International Studies has video on its website of a recent discussion – “A New Twist on an Old Concept: Prevention Interventions in Global Health” –featuring CDC Director Thomas Frieden, who spoke about a “new strategy for altering the course of the global HIV epidemic,” shared “data showing the effectiveness of combination prevention interventions, and discuss[ed] the implications for high-prevalence countries and the U.S. Global Health Initiative” (10/20).

Improving Maternal Health Through Equity: UNICEF’s proposal that maternal health can be improved through an “equity focus,” concentrating on the lowest quintile of women and children, is “a refreshing new idea” because it speaks to the “need to renew the value proposition that equity lies at the core of global health; of making strategic use of responding to the considerable recent accumulated experience of what interventions work best; and of responding to increasing budgetary pressures and the need to demonstrate efficiency and prove concrete impacts through select, core steps, better data and better measurement,” J. Stephen Morrison, director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies writes on the “Smart Global Health” blog (10/19).

World Food Day Blog Roundup: Noting World Food Day, a roundup of posts compiled by Liz Ford on agriculture and climate change are available on the Guardian’s “Poverty Matters Blog,” including comments by economist Jayati Ghosh, Andrew Mitchell, international development secretary, Olivier De Schutter, the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, Christine Peacock, CEO of Farm-Africa (10/19).

Clean Water And Sanitation Partnerships: Examples of collaborative efforts to provide clean water and improve sanitation, such as the World Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), and the Raising Clean Hands initiative, “underscore the importance of developing and strengthening cross-sectoral sanitation partnerships involving governments, universities, NGOs, the private sector, and communities,” Katherine Bliss, deputy director of the Global Health Policy Center, writes on the Center For Strategic and International Studies’ “Smart Global Health” blog (10/19).

Health Insurance For The Poor: Making health insurance available to the poor has barriers including cost, operational complexity and lack of infrastructure but programs insuring children under five have succeeded in several countries including Mali, Senegal and Colombia, Erin Schiavone of Abt Associates Inc. writes on the Global Health Council’s (GHC) “Blog 4 Global Health” after attending a GHC and Health Systems 20/20 talk on the subject (10/19).

African Medical School Pledge Good Step, Not Enough: The Obama Administration’s recent $130 million funding pledge to African medical schools “won’t translate into all that much money, in particular where the challenges to scaling up medical education are so great. It will require new teachers, new classrooms, new teaching infrastructure, and many other investments.” But it “seems like a really good step in the right direction,” states a post on “Karen Grepin’s Global Health Blog” (10/14).

State Of Global Vaccines: Global Health Magazine focuses on vaccines, including stories on the “stagnant state” of global vaccines, the need for a dengue fever vaccine, the use of new technology for delivery, funding and distribution, and the challenge of developing an AIDS vaccine (Fall 2010).