Associated Press: U.N. health agency: Dengue vaccine shouldn’t be used widely “The World Health Organization says the first-ever vaccine for dengue needs to be dealt with in ‘a much safer way,’ meaning that the shot should mostly be given to people who have previously been infected with the disease…” (Cheng,…

Devpolicy Blog: Tools of the trade: Australia’s new investment in global health R&D Blair Exell, ambassador for regional health security and acting deputy secretary for the Development Cooperation, Development and Partnerships Group of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT) and Trade, and Robin Davies, head of the Indo-Pacific Centre…

BBC News: Malaria experts fear disease’s resurgence “For the first time in 10 years, global malaria cases are no longer falling, sparking concerns about a resurgence of the too often deadly disease. Experts, and philanthropist Bill Gates, are urging country leaders gathering at the Commonwealth summit in London to pledge…

Reuters: Novo Nordisk, Red Cross team up to tackle chronic diseases in conflict zones “Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk and aid agency Red Cross have teamed up to try to improve the treatment of chronic diseases among the millions affected by conflicts and humanitarian crises in countries such as Syria and…

Daily Mail: Britain should be ‘proud’ of the country’s £14billion aid bill, says new foreign aid minister Penny Mordaunt “…[Mordaunt] underlined her commitment to the target of spending 0.7 percent of national income on foreign aid, currently £14billion a year. … Mordaunt said: ‘We have a moral duty to both…

The Guardian: Non-profit’s $300 hepatitis C cure as effective as $84,000 alternative “An affordable hepatitis C treatment has been shown to be safe and effective, with very high cure rates for patients including hard-to-treat cases, in interim clinical trial results that offer hope to the 71 million people living with…

Diplomatic Courier: What a Difference 70 Years Can Make in Global Health Thomas Cueni, head of the IFPMA “…The WHO has a clear plan to put to the world’s governments at this 70th birthday World Health Assembly in May. The watch words of the 13th WHO Program of Work: ‘Promote…

STAT: Innovative ways to pay for new antibiotics will help fight superbugs Kevin Outterson, executive director of Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) “…[W]hy are we facing what has been called a post-antibiotic apocalypse? … [W]hen it comes to antibiotics, the most innovative ones are put on the shelf,…

Brookings Institution’s “TechTank”: Less than four percent of private investment in health R&D targets the developing world Liz Sablich, director of communications for governance studies at Brookings, discusses findings from a report on private sector investments in overall health R&D, which found “an exceedingly small share was dedicated to the…

Devex: What the Facebook scandal means for ‘data for good’ “As Facebook responds to a public relations nightmare — the fallout from news that a political consulting firm violated its rules for third party apps — organizations that have worked with the social media giant to use its data for…