Venezuela To Void Some Pharmaceutical Patents Commerce Minister Eduardo Saman on Saturday said Venezuela plans to void some pharmaceutical patents and allow domestic manufacturers to produce licensed medicines, the AP/Buffalo News reports. “Saman said the measure is aimed at making the interests of powerful drug companies secondary to the needs…

U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson on Thursday “launched a call for urgent action to end the crisis of 2.5 billion people without basic sanitation, and to change a situation in which more people worldwide have mobile phones than toilets,” the U.N. News Centre reports (3/21). Noting “[t]he move is part…

Study Examines Toll Of Neglected Tropical Diseases On Populations In Sub-Saharan Africa UPI reports on a recent review article in the journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases that analyzed the toll of neglected tropical diseases on populations in sub-Saharan Africa. “Researchers said helminth (parasitic worm) infections account for approximately 85 percent…

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently awarded a $4.8 million grant to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to study and improve sanitation systems in the developing world, the Seattle Times’ blog, “Business of Giving” reports.

The U.N. World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Monday opened the World Climate Conference – a week of talks in Geneva aimed at establishing a better global weather surveillance system to provide countries with “earlier, more accurate warnings about hurricanes, droughts and floods,” the Associated Press reports.

U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for the Palestinian Territories Maxwell Gaylard “urged Israel to ease its embargo of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip and allow in materials urgently needed to repair water and sanitation services,” Agence France-Presse reports.

Health ministers from 11 member states in the WHO’s South East Asian region on Tuesday at the 62nd session of the WHO Regional Committee for South East Asia adopted the Kathmandu Declaration on Protecting Health Facilities from Disasters, which commits them to make health facilities better prepared for health emergencies, Republica reports.

Several news outlets continued to cover the health impact of the recent spate of natural disasters around the globe.

A clinical trial of an Indian-made “modified killed-whole-cell” oral cholera vaccine “that meets WHO standards” has found that the vaccine is safe and effective in children living in parts of India where the disease is endemic, Reuters reports. The researchers, who reported their findings in the Lancet, hope to soon introduce the vaccine into other cholera endemic settings.

Sky News examines the drought in East Africa, focusing on its impact in Kenya. In “[o]ne of the worst-affected areas,” 70 percent of the “herds of cattle and goats have died in the past year, threatening the survival of entire communities who depend on them for their food and income,” according to Sky News.