GlobalPost: Southern African countries commit to address mineworkers’ TB “…To mark World TB Day, ministers from southern Africa met in Johannesburg on Tuesday to develop a regional strategy for reducing TB among mineworkers. Leaders from South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique and Swaziland — the four countries home to the largest share…

The Center for Global Health Policy’s “Science Speaks” blog reports from a Capitol Hill briefing that took place on Wednesday examining the progress and challenges surrounding TB efforts. Speakers at the event recounted stories “of how illness as well as responses around the world are interconnected, when effective treatments for…

The Center for Global Health Policy’s “Science Speaks” blog summarizes several items released recently, including the Treatment Action Group’s “TAGline” publication examining research and policy on HIV/AIDS; Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) FY 2015 budget resolution; a report from the Global Commission on Drug Policy titled, “The Negative Impact of the…

In a post in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s “Impatient Optimists” blog, Richard Hatzfeld, communications director at the Sabin Vaccine Institute, discusses a Kenyan family affected by neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and “captured in a short video from END7, a campaign of the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases.”…

A post in the Center for Global Health Policy’s “Science Speaks” blog discusses a study and commentary published last week in The Lancet that evaluated the long-term outcomes of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) patients in South Africa. “…Both the report and commentary call for policymakers and national control programs to…

News outlets report on the spread of an Ebola outbreak that continues to claim lives in West Africa. Agence France-Presse: West Africa Ebola outbreak among ‘most challenging’ ever: WHO “West Africa’s Ebola unprecedented outbreak is among the ‘most challenging’ for health workers since the deadly disease emerged elsewhere in Africa…

Katherine Bliss, senior associate at the Global Health Policy Center of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), writes in the center’s “Smart Global Health” blog about this year’s World Health Day, the theme of which was “preventing vector-borne diseases.” She writes, “With more than one billion people globally…

The Independent: Battling AIDS: Former health secretary claims Russia is causing setback in efforts to defeat the virus Norman Fowler, former British health secretary “…One of the unwelcome first results of the Russian takeover of Crimea has been a radical change in policy on the treatment of injecting drug users.…

Healthline: U.S. Pumps Billions of Dollars into HIV Care Worldwide “…[W]hat does it cost to keep so many people alive as well as clamp down on a public health crisis across the globe? And how is greater access to [antiretroviral therapy (ART)] being financed? The United States is footing a…

The Guardian: Cuba’s condom shortage raises fears of imminent health crisis “From potatoes to deodorant, toilet paper and bottled beer, Cubans have come to accept chronic shortages as an inevitable part of life after more than half a century of communist rule. Now a shrinking supply of condoms has upset…