Mail & Guardian Examines Sexual Abuse Of Children In Zimbabwe The Mail & Guardian examines how the “economic collapse” in Zimbabwe has contributed to rising numbers of children falling victims to sexual abuse. “A single clinic in the capital, Harare, says it has treated nearly 30,000 girls and boys who…

In this post in the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases’ “End the Neglect” blog, Helen Hamilton, policy adviser for neglected tropical diseases at Sightsavers, reflects on the Rio+20 conference, “which took place last week in Brazil to discuss how the world can develop more sustainably.” She writes, “Following three long days of discussions on water, climate change and other sustainable development topics to advocate for this group of debilitating diseases, I left feeling there were some hopeful signs.” She discusses the final outcome document from the conference, titled “The Future We Want,” (.pdf) and writes that “with 2.5 billion people not having access to adequate sanitation it was the evolution from just discussing the right to access water to discussing water AND sanitation that was so refreshing” (6/28).

The draft conclusions for the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) summit in September were distributed to governments last week and call upon world leaders to follow through on promises of aid money to help countries reach the benchmarks established in 2000 , Reuters reports.

WHO Advisory Committee To Discuss Whether To Declare H1N1 Pandemic Over “A panel that advises the World Health Organization on pandemics will meet on Tuesday to decide whether to declare the H1N1[swine] flu outbreak over,” Reuters/New York Times reports (5/31). “The WHO’s latest update on Friday said the most active…

“Toilets: A Simple Solution to World Health Issues,” Los Angeles Times (Koss, 6/9). “Making the G8 maternal health campaign meaningful,” Globe and Mail editorial (6/8).

Rescue efforts continue in Haiti after a major earthquake hit the country last week, CNN reports (1/18). While teams still search for survivors under the rubble, the priority is shifting to relief for those who survived the quake, Nicholas Reader, spokesperson for the U.N.Offices for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, TIME reports (Newton-Small,1/18).

Zimbabwe Wants To Boost Access To ART By End Of 2010, Health Minister Says Zimbabwe’s government plans work with international organizations to increase the number of people receiving anti-retroviral therapy (ART) to 300,000 by the end of the year, up from the 180,000 who currently get the drugs, Henry Madzorera, the country’s health…

$60M USAID Waste Management Project In Afghanistan USAID will spend $60 million through 2012 on “waste management, drainage channels and roadside ditches, the rehabilitation of city parks and sports fields, and other greenery programmes in Kabul,” Afghanistan, IRIN reports. The article also looks at the health effects of unmanaged waste in…

The world is on track to meet the poverty reduction target of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but sub-Saharan Africa still lags behind, according to the World Bank’s World Development Indicators 2010 report, released Tuesday, VOA News reports (Hennessey, 4/20).

Demand For Drugs In Developing Countries Will Continue to Grow, Report Finds “Drug sales may grow at least 5 percent worldwide in each year through 2014 as increasing demand in developing countries offsets price drops tied to generic competition, according to [the research company] IMS Health Inc.,” Bloomberg/Business Week reports.…