Advocates at the World Social Forum in Dakar, Senegal, “launched a campaign Tuesday to end financial secrecy in tax havens by multinationals they say deprive developing countries of enormous sums of money,” Agence France-Presse reports (Boutreaux, 2/8).

Oral Vaccine Alone Cannot Eradicate Polio “No one denies” that the oral polio vaccine “has considerable merits. It’s cheap to make. It’s easy to administer; you don’t need a trained nurse with a clean syringe [like the inactive vaccine needs], just a volunteer with a dropper. And it gives excellent immunity. ……

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Monday issued an alert warning that “floods and heavy rains have significantly damaged whole areas of agricultural land across southern Africa and that the livelihood and food security of farmers and their families are at risk,” the Associated Press reports (2/7).

“Obesity rates have doubled worldwide since 1980,” according to a study published Friday as part of a series in the Lancet that also looked at global blood pressure and cholesterol trends, ABC News reports (Carolo, 2/4). “The data show that in 2008 one in three adults in the world was overweight (BMI ≥25 kg/m2) and one in nine adults was obese (BMI ≥30 kg/m2). Since 1980 the average body mass index (BMI) has increased in all regions, but now middle income countries have caught up with high income countries,” BMJ News writes.

Here is a sampling of opinions about recent media reports of corruption and fraud in some Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria grants: The Lancet: Supporting the Global Fund to fight fraud (2/5). Nature: Tough on truth (2/3). Huffington Post: Why We Must Protect the Global Fund (Zeitz, 2/1).…

A shortage of healthcare workers in developing countries may hold developing countries back from achieving the U.N. Millennium Development Goal to achieve universal access to HIV/AIDS treatment by 2015, according to a report by the WHO/Global Health Workforce Alliance, IRIN/PlusNews writes.

On the sidelines of the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Monday, the General Assembly of the Organization of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA) gathered to discuss the continent’s progress against HIV/AIDS, Walta Info reports.

Health Officials To Press For National Insurance Policy For People Living With HIV/AIDS “India could soon see a national medical insurance policy for people living with HIV,” Times of India reports. Though HIV coverage is currently “excluded from all insurance policies available in the country … Union health ministry officials…

On the final day of the two-day African Union (AU) Summit taking place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday called for greater efforts to reduce sexual violence, particularly during armed conflicts, Ezega.com reports (Barea, 1/31).

Also In Global Health News: Germany To Withhold Global Fund Contribution; Protecting Pregnant Women From Malaria; FAO Food Price Warning; Polio In Angola.