KFF Daily Global Health Policy Report
In The News
- Dialogue Between Private Sector, Global Health Groups Will Help Boost Defense Against Future Disease Outbreaks
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Devex: How ‘financial savvy’ can prevent future pandemics
“…The Ebola outbreak in West Africa highlighted not only the weakness of health systems, but also the lack of dialogue between global health professionals, risk analysts, and private sector actors, according to World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim. ‘There was not a lot of financial savvy in the global health community,’ Kim told Devex Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar on the sidelines of last week’s World Bank spring meetings in Washington, D.C….” (Tyson, 4/21).
- Data Gaps Hinder Governments From Measuring Poverty Accurately, Report Suggests
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The Guardian: Number of people in extreme poverty could be greatly underestimated — report
“Hundreds of millions more people could be living in extreme poverty than official estimates suggest, according to a study about how global development is being hindered by a lack of data about the world’s poorest people. The Data Revolution: Finding the Missing Millions, a report published by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), warns that poorer countries have no way to adequately measure their progress in areas such as poverty, health, and education…” (Kirk, 4/21).
- Catholic Church Faces Challenges In Continuing HIV/AIDS Treatment Programs In Africa
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Christian Science Monitor: In Africa’s battle against AIDS, a key player hits a crossroads
“The Catholic Church administers 25 percent of all AIDS treatment worldwide, especially in hard-to-reach rural areas. But it’s facing new obstacles as funding declines and African governments are under pressure to provide services themselves…” (Brown, 4/21).
- Yemen's Health Care System Faces Supply Shortages, At Risk Of Collapse, WHO Warns
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Deutsche Welle: Yemen’s health care system at risk of collapse
“Yemen’s health services were on the brink of collapse with life-saving medicines and key medical supplies running out, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday. ‘Power cuts and fuel shortages also threaten to disrupt the vaccine cold chain, leaving millions of children below the age of five unvaccinated,’ the WHO declared in a statement…” (4/21).U.N. News Centre: Yemen: U.N. agency warns of deteriorating health situation amid ongoing fighting
“…Briefing reporters in Geneva [on Tuesday], WHO’s Tarik Jašarevic said sources within Yemen’s Ministry of Health were warning about the possible collapse of health services as clinics and hospitals around the country struggle to function while facing medicine and health supply shortages…” (4/21).
- Niger Shutters Schools In Capital Region To Vaccinate Children Against Meningitis To Stem Outbreak
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Reuters: Niger shuts schools and vaccinates children to fight meningitis outbreak
“Niger has shut all schools in the region around the capital Niamey and launched a campaign to vaccinate children aged 2 to 15 in an effort to halt a meningitis outbreak that has killed at least 85 since January…” (4/22).
- Mysterious Outbreak In Nigeria Linked To Methanol-Contaminated Homemade Alcohol
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International Business Times: Nigeria’s Mysterious Epidemic Linked To Contaminated Alcohol And Methanol Poisoning, Not Ebola
“A mysterious outbreak in western Nigeria, which residents say is more deadly than Ebola, has been linked to contaminated alcohol and methanol poisoning, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Nigerian Health Ministry said in a joint statement Tuesday. The strange sickness has ravaged an Ikale community in Ondo state, killing at least 18 people in the past two weeks…” (Winsor, 4/21).
- Scientists To Make Real-Time Genetic Data On Ebola, MERS Freely Available
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Reuters: Scientists to share real-time genetic data on deadly MERS, Ebola
“Genetic sequence data on two of the deadliest yet most poorly understood viruses are to be made available to researchers worldwide in real time as scientists seek to speed up understanding of Ebola and MERS infections…” (Kelland, 4/21).
Editorials and Opinions
- China Can Provide Important Lessons, Serve As Partner To Africa On UHC
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Devex: China and UHC in Africa
Cheng Feng, chair of the China Alliance for South-South Health Cooperation Research and professor at Tsinghua University Research Center for Public Health“…The success that China is beginning to have in expanding health coverage at home is particularly fertile learning territory for Africa, given that both regions are tackling these issues now; it also makes it a particularly valuable partner for African countries. … As the Ebola crisis has demonstrated, the entire world is vulnerable when weak health systems are allowed to persist. China and Africa’s partnership has the potential to drive real progress on this vital issue, as they work together to develop resilient systems across continents and contexts” (4/21).
- Upcoming Series To Examine Global Disease Outbreak Preparedness
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GlobalPost: Placing a dollar figure on health, following Ebola
Caelainn Hogan, GroundTruth fellow“…I was in Washington for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s annual Spring Meetings, a marathon of talks centered on developments in global finance with experts and heads of state from around the world. This year, in the wake of the Ebola crisis, there was a strong focus on global health and how to finance better responses to health emergencies. For more than a month, I have been researching the lessons learned by the global health community from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and investigating how the world can prepare for the next big infectious disease epidemic for an upcoming GroundTruth series [that will be published in the coming months and presented in partnership with the Kaiser Family Foundation]…” (4/21).
From the Global Health Policy Community
- PMI Releases 9th Annual Report To Congress
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President’s Malaria Initiative: Ninth Annual Report to Congress
The President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), led by USAID and implemented together with the CDC, released its ninth annual report to Congress, which describes the U.S. government’s contribution to efforts to end malaria globally (April 2015).
- Panel Discusses Addressing HIV Among Adolescent Girls, Young Women
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Center for Global Health Policy’s “Science Speaks”: Young women and HIV: What makes this time different? Panel reflects on failures, ‘DREAMS’
Antigone Barton, writer and editor at “Science Speaks” and senior communications officer at the Center for Global Health Policy, reports on a panel discussion about the Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-Free, Mentored and Safe (DREAMS) initiative and a new Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) report on addressing HIV risk in adolescent girls and young women (4/21).
- Global Fund Seeks Input On 2017-2021 Strategy Through Online Platform
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Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria: Global Fund Launches Online Platform for Strategy Development
“The Global Fund partnership has launched a consultation as part of a process to engage a wide range of stakeholders in developing its 2017-2021 strategy. Through a web platform launched [Monday], the Global Fund seeks to involve a broad spectrum of participants from government, civil society, people affected by the diseases, multilaterals, private sector, and other interested parties to collectively shape the future of the partnership through contributing to the making of the new strategy…” (4/20).
- Input From Local Communities Critical To Developing Effective Disease Prevention, Control Strategies
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Global Health Governance Blog: Global Health Governance: The Role of Feedback
Sara Gorman, an MPH candidate at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, discusses the importance of feedback from local populations in strengthening global and local health systems to prepare for future disease outbreaks. “…It is critical to include considerations of local culture, geography, sociology, and economics in the implementation of treatments in the developing world, but these considerations often do not lend themselves to the traditional research designs like the randomized controlled trial…” (4/21).
- Providing Subsidies, Information For Latrine Building More Effective Than Either Alone, Study Shows
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Humanosphere: To get people to build toilets, turn to subsidies
Humanosphere reporter Tom Murphy discusses “[r]esearch published in Science Magazine last week show[ing] that providing subsidies for the construction of latrines in northwest Bangladesh was more effective than information and motivation programs. Putting the two together produced even better results…” (4/21).
- Climate Change Requires More R&D Into Neglected Infectious Diseases
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Global Health Technologies Coalition’s “Breakthroughs”: Could climate change lead to chikungunya? Examining the link between climate change and health
Kat Kelley, GHTC’s senior program assistant, discusses the relationship between climate change and infectious diseases, writing, “Mitigating the risk of climate change will require investment in research and development for neglected, infectious diseases, particularly those that are sensitive to climate change…” (4/22).
- Frontline HCWs Need More Protection In Efforts To Eradicate Polio
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Global Health Council: Eradicating Polio Requires Protecting Vaccinators
As part of the #ProtectingKids blog series curated by PATH for World Immunization Week, Global Health Council Executive Director Christine Sow discusses the importance of protecting frontline health care workers who provide polio vaccinations, saying polio will not be eradicated “without stronger efforts to protect those without whom the war on polio could not be waged” (4/20).
- Gates Foundation Introduces New Grand Challenge To Address Newborn, Infant Gut Health
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Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s “Impatient Optimists”: Understanding How Gut Microbiota Affect Child Health
Alexis Katsis and Brad Zamft of the Gates Foundation write, “We are … excited to introduce one of our new Grand Challenges Explorations topics: Addressing Newborn and Infant Gut Health Through Bacteriophage-Mediated Microbiome Engineering. In this call we ask researchers to send us their best ideas on using bacteriophages to modify gut microbiota, so that we can understand better its impact on gut function…” (4/21).