Associated Press: Eastern Congo has new Ebola case in city of 1.4 million
“Congo health officials say that a case of Ebola has been discovered in Butembo, a city … in the country’s northeast…” (Maliro, 9/5).

HuffPost: World Health Organization: After Ebola Death In City, ‘No One Should Be Sleeping Well Tonight’
“…This first urban death, combined with ongoing violence in the northeastern outbreak area in DRC and some community resistance, is worrying experts that the slowing outbreak could still escalate…” (Weber, 9/5).

Reuters: Congo records first Ebola death in major eastern trade hub
“…Health officials say they have made progress slowing the virus’s spread with experimental vaccines and treatments. But they cannot be sure the situation is under control due to difficulties accessing some areas…” (Mahamba et al., 9/5).

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Global Health NOW: Inside the Mind of Tedros: A Q&A with WHO’s Director General
“…In this first of a 2-part series, [David Peters, chair of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,] probes [WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus] in an email interview on the biggest challenges: his signature initiative — universal health coverage, health equity, and WHO’s work with nonstate actors…” (Peters, 9/4).

Global Health NOW: What Motivates Tedros: Part 2 of a Q&A with WHO’s Director General
“…In this second part of their Q&A, David Peters, chair of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a longtime health systems researcher, and WHO adviser, quizzes Tedros in an email interview on his leadership challenges, Ebola’s 2014 lessons for WHO, and what schools of public health could be doing better…” (Peters, 9/4).

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NPR: What Kills 5 Million People A Year? It’s Not Just Disease
“…A new report published in The Lancet on Wednesday finds that when it comes to health, quality — not quantity — seems to be more important. The study estimates that five million people die every year because of poor-quality health care in low- and middle-income countries. That’s significantly more than the 3.6 million people in those countries who die from not having access to care…” (Schreiber, 9/5).

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Abacus: Bill Gates urges Africa to learn from China in People’s Daily op-ed
“People’s Daily, the main mouthpiece of China’s ruling Communist Party, has a special columnist. Microsoft founder-turned-philanthropist Bill Gates wrote an article published in Chinese on Monday, hailing China as a model of success for African nations. … The piece comes just before the start of the triennial China-Africa summit in Beijing, with Gates highlighting two areas where he thinks African countries could learn from China. ‘The first is how to eradicate the diseases and poverty that still exist in many regions in Africa. The second is how to unleash African countries’ potential in agriculture,’ he explained…” (Ye, 9/3).

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Devex: Q&A: The obligation to find, foster, and invest in innovation (9/4).

STAT: For the first time, researchers will release genetically engineered mosquitoes in Africa (Swetlitz, 9/5).

Wall Street Journal: Romania’s Deadly Measles Outbreak Spotlights Widespread Rejection of Vaccines (Lombardi, 9/5).

Xinhua News: Interview: Senior U.N. official highly evaluates China’s work to fight AIDS (9/5).

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Health Affairs: How The U.S. Elevates Corporate Interests Over Global Public Health. And How The World Can Respond
Lawrence O. Gostin, O’Neill professor of global health law and director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University; Neil R. Sircar, Fogarty global health fellow and human rights lawyer affiliated with Georgetown University Law Center and the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law; and Eric A. Friedman, institute associate and project leader for the Platform for a Framework Convention on Global Health (FCGH) at the O’Neill Institute

“…[I]t is not just through the aggressive elevation of corporate interests that the [Trump] administration is undermining international norms developed over generations. Such efforts are but one piece of its broader disregard for international cooperation to resolve global health, environmental, security, and other threats. … [S]olidarity and resistance … should form the international response to U.S. efforts that promote industry interests over public health, that disregard global norms aimed at promoting health and human rights, that seek to undermine global institutions, and that dismiss solid science. … And international negotiators should be willing to break with norms of consensus if that is what is necessary for health and human rights to win out. It may not always be possible for countries to stand up to the United States, particularly in bilateral negotiations, but wherever possible, that should be the international community’s approach. There will come a time when the U.S. returns to the international fold. Until then, the administration should be shown that bullying will not work” (9/5).

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Devex: Opinion: U.K.’s ambition to invest in Africa is an opportunity for blended finance
Christopher Clubb, managing director at Convergence

“This week, the United Kingdom announced its ambition to become the largest G7 foreign direct investor in Africa by 2020. To make this happen it aims to generate up to £8 billion ($10.26 billion) of U.K. public and private investment in Africa. … [H]ow can the U.K. government mobilize £4 billion of private sector financing to African countries when they’re considered high risk and there is such a mismatch between the countries’ investment needs and the investment criteria of private investors? The answer to these challenges is blended finance — the use of development capital from development agencies and philanthropic foundations to attract commercial capital from private-sector investors. Blended finance makes it possible to create investments that meet the criteria of most private investors by (i) reducing risk to an acceptable level and (ii) bridging the huge gap between perceived and realized risk in developing countries. … In the last few years, there has been a surge of interest and optimism in the potential of mobilizing private capital toward the Sustainable Development Goal[s]. Blended finance offers a unique opportunity to channel this optimism into real-world impact” (9/5).

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The Tyee: Ebola in the DR Congo? That’s Not the Real Tragedy
Crawford Kilian, contributing editor at The Tyee

“…[The Democratic Republic of Congo’s] really bad luck is that its Ebola outbreaks are not the real story. Not when millions of Congolese have died by Kalashnikovs, old-fashioned machetes, and starvation in the past 20 years, while the rest of the world ignored them. … West Africa, recovering from a couple of ruinous civil wars, was at peace when Ebola hit. So was the DR Congo’s Equateur province. In the eastern provinces of North Kivu and Ituri, however, a violent anarchy has prevailed for 20 years. … If this is news to you, you’re not alone. The western media tend to go comatose about the sorrows of Central and Southern Africa. … Over five million deaths might not catch our attention, but Ebola’s sheer grossness did … If Ebola does begin to spread, … we can’t blame the Congolese or the bandits. We can blame ourselves, for allowing a vast, rich country to fall into the hands of both domestic and foreign predators. And even if the DRC and its allies do suppress this outbreak, the underlying anarchy we have tolerated will remain, condemning scores of millions to needless misery and early deaths from much less dramatic deaths than Ebola” (9/5).

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Aidspan: Global Fund Observer
Aidspan, an independent watchdog of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, published Issue 341 of the ‘Global Fund Observer.’ The newsletter includes articles on various topics, including news articles on findings from the Global Fund’s Office of the Inspector General, an analysis on innovative finance instruments, and “a curated catalogue of some of the most useful and interesting resources and articles emanating from the International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam this past July” (9/5).

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IntraHealth International’s “Vital”: Young and HIV-Positive? We See You
Casey Bishopp, communications and advocacy specialist with IntraHealth International, discusses the importance of empathy and communication in HIV/AIDS care, particularly for those who are marginalized, including children. Bishopp writes, “There was a loud call at AIDS 2018 for empowering churches, families, and community groups to be open with youth about sexual and reproductive health issues. It seems like a natural piece of that strategy is empowering frontline health workers to do the same — especially for those orphans living with HIV, who don’t necessarily belong to a family or community group…” (9/5).

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IDSA’s “Science Speaks”: Signs of Ebola control, cautious optimism reflect lessons, missed opportunities, continuing gaps
Antigone Barton, senior editor and writer at “Science Speaks,” discusses the Democratic Republic of Congo’s efforts to control its most recent Ebola outbreak, writing, “[T]he current outbreak continues to tell the story of challenges that remain unknown, and unmet” (9/5).

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World Food Programme: U.N. to launch new progress report on achieving Zero Hunger
“On 11 September 2018, the new edition of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World will be launched by five U.N. agencies — the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), and the World Health Organization (WHO). The report gives an updated estimate of the number of hungry people in the world, including regional and national breakdowns, and the latest data on child stunting and wasting as well as on adult and child obesity…” (9/5).

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CDC’s “Our Global Voices”: Rapid Detection Accelerates India’s Response to Nipah Outbreak
Kayla Laserson, director of CDC India, discusses India’s response to a recent Nipah outbreak and notes, “India’s commitment to [the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA)] and enhanced detection and response represent a significant gain in the world’s ability to address disease threats” (9/6).

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