Later this month, “[f]our former heads of State and other high-level African leaders who are the champions for a HIV/AIDS-free generation project” will travel to Zambia at the request of Zambian President Rupiah Banda for a meeting to discuss ways to strengthen the HIV/AIDS response in Africa, Times of Zambia/allAfrica.com reports.

Lancet Infectious Diseases Examines Funding In Relation To Disease Burden: In response to two recent papers on neglected tropical diseases, Nicola Dmitri of the University of Siena in a Lancet Infectious Diseases Reflection addresses “how research funds could be guided by [the global burden of disease] GBD.” The results show, for example,…

“A record 1.2 million people in low- and middle-income countries started antiretroviral therapy for HIV/AIDS in 2009” – a 30 percent increase from the previous year and a 13-fold increase in six years, according to a joint report released Tuesday by the WHO, UNICEF and UNAIDS, Reuters reports. In total, the report found that 5.25 million people received antiretroviral therapy (ART) in 2009, three-quarters of them living in Africa (Migiro, 9/28).

Chan Defends WHO’s Response To H1N1 On Tuesday, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan defended her agency’s response to the H1N1 flu pandemic saying, “I personally do not believe that WHO exaggerated the threat,” and that “[a] new disease is, by definition, poorly understood as it emerges,” Reuters reports. Chan continued, “Had…

Reuters AlertNet examines reactions by development experts and advocates to the U.N. Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which wrapped up Wednesday, after world leaders adopted a declaration that “promised intensified efforts by the 192 U.N. member states to achieve the eight goals by 2015.”

“African leaders said on Tuesday they could do more to meet U.N. goals to slash extreme poverty and urged stronger leadership among developing countries to tackle hunger and disease and attract investment,” Reuters reports in an article that examines the leaders call for African nations to take greater ownership of their development.

“Ten years after world leaders set the most ambitious goals ever to tackle global poverty, they are meeting again to try to spur action to meet the targets by the 2015 deadline – which the U.N. says will be difficult, if not impossible, in some cases,” the Associated Press reports. More than 140 world leaders are scheduled to participate in the three-day U.N. Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which kicks off Monday.

Ahead of next week’s U.N. Millennium Development Summit, “[t]he United Nations and International Monetary Fund said Thursday that the global financial crisis has dealt a critical blow to aid for poor countries with billions of dollars needed to meet shortages,” Agence France-Presse reports. “Both institutions said that the world must…

“Doctors and AIDS activists on Friday urged African governments to fulfill a decade-old pledge to spend more of their own money on health if they want international help in fighting AIDS,” the Associated Press reports.

Lancet Editorial Makes Recommendations For Health-System Strengthening “There is strong consensus in the global health community, among donors, recipient countries, and policy makers, about the need for health system strengthening in low-income and middle-income countries,” write the authors of a Lancet Comment. The article recommends areas in health-system strengthening that…