Bill Gates, Colin Powell To Participate In Twitter Fundraiser For Malaria Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, on Wednesday will join former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Queen Rania of Jordan and a host of other Hollywood celebrities for the launch of a Twitter campaign…

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).

China Could Soon Lift HIV Travel Ban, State Media Reports “China could lift a longstanding ban on HIV-positive foreigners entering the country as early as this month, state media reported Wednesday,” Agence France-Presse reports. The country first introduced the ban in late the 1980s, the news service notes (4/20). “Insiders said…

Reuters reports on the recent efforts by India’s government to expand welfare programs throughout the country: “Since helping the Congress party win re-election last year, welfare has fast become the government’s knee-jerk answer to policy dilemmas as it tries to ease food inflation, help growth trickle down to the poor, and win hearts and minds in” the country, the news service writes.

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.…

A supplemental spending bill that is expected to include earthquake relief aid for Haiti will be considered by the full House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee during the week of April 26 and will not be written this week as several aides and members had anticipated, C.W. Bill Young, the committee’s ranking Republican from Florida, said, CQ Today reports.”We were going to try to go to the full committee next week,” Young said on Thursday, noting, “I think that’s slipped a week.”

Dallas Morning News Examines UT Southwestern Medical Center TB Research The Dallas Morning News reports on the research of Tawanda Gumbo, a tuberculosis researcher at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. “Gumbo’s latest search has focused on the emergence of drug-resistant TB strains that require different medications to control…

“The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved legislation [by voice vote] Tuesday launching a government effort to provide 100 million people in the world’s poorest countries with first-time access to safe drinking water and modern sanitation,” CongressDaily reports.

Online Map, Twitter Could Be Used To Predict, Warn Against Spread Of Infectious Diseases The “Supramap” application, which is an online map that shows the spread of pathogens and significant mutations across time, could be a helpful way for scientists to monitor and predict infectious disease outbreaks, according to a…

Better Living Conditions Can Improve Health Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Habitat for Humanity CEO Jonathan Reckford write in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution opinion piece about the need to “address the constant crisis families face daily in deplorable living conditions.” The authors reflect on several health problems associated with unsanitary and crowded living…