Agence France-Presse: Longer schooling brakes AIDS spread
“Longer schooling seems to be an effective and affordable way to cut the risk of HIV infection in AIDS-endemic countries, according to the results of a study in Botswana published Monday. Data collected among 7,018 people in Botswana found that an extra year of secondary schooling lowered the risk of HIV infection over the following decade by eight percentage points — from about 25 to 17 percent…” (6/28).

VOA News: Study: Tenth-grade Education Cuts HIV Risk
“…The study, its authors say, is evidence that education is cost-effective HIV prevention, not even counting all the other benefits. … Writing in the journal The Lancet Global Health, the study found the risk of infection overall fell more than eight percentage points, from 25.5 percent to 17.4 percent. The effects were even larger for women: 11.6 percentage points…” (Baragona, 6/28).

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Devex: Invest in health to end AIDS by 2030
“The movement to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 has not only rallied global health and development organizations, but has also gained the support of governments and the private sector. But how can the global development community push on to achieve such a feat? By viewing health as an investment, not a cost, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé told Devex Associate Editor Richard Jones on the sidelines of European Development Days 2015 in Brussels, Belgium…” (Jimeno, 6/25).

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The Atlantic: Preventing the Next Pandemic
“…[W]hat we’ve learned from the Ebola outbreak is that, in the face of an unexpected pandemic, [getting back to] normal isn’t good enough. ‘If one thing kills 10 million people on planet Earth in the next decade, it’s going to be a pandemic,’ said Ron Klain, who served as the White House Ebola ‘czar’ from October 2014 to February 2015, at the Aspen Ideas Festival on Friday. ‘If you believe that’s the kind of threat we face, we need to have a response’…” (Beck, 6/27).

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GlobalPost: Love in the time of Ebola: How sex is keeping the outbreak alive
“…Sierra Leonean and international health officials have ordered Ebola survivors — about 9,130 people in the country — to abstain from sex for 90 days after they recover because the virus can linger in semen for that length of time after men have seemingly overcome the illness. It’s not clear whether or not women can transfer the virus to men, according to the World Health Organization. But people are having a hard time following the directive…” (Kamara, 6/28).

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Nature News: Researchers frustrated by failure to roll out ‘game-changing’ Ebola test
“A test kit that diagnoses Ebola rapidly using just a finger prick of blood could save lives in the ongoing epidemic in West Africa. But researchers are perplexed as to why the diagnostic kit has not been deployed in the field, despite both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approving it four months ago for emergency use…” (Butler, 6/26).

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Agence France-Presse: South Korea reports 32nd MERS death
“South Korea on Sunday reported its 32nd death from MERS as the virus’s mortality rate continued to rise even as the pace of the outbreak appeared to slow. … The total number of infections remained unchanged at 182 and fifteen patients were in critical condition, the health ministry said…” (6/27).

Reuters: Thailand’s first MERS case declared free of deadly virus
“An Omani man who became Thailand’s first case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) has been declared free of the deadly virus, Thailand’s health ministry said on Monday…” (Niyomyat/Lefevre, 6/28).

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U.N. News Centre: In 2015, world must ‘realize great dream’ of sustainable development for all — U.N. Economic and Social Council chief
“The President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) [Friday] opened the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, declaring that 2015 must be the year when the world’s people and leaders realize the dream of a new sustainability agenda…” (6/26).

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U.N. News Centre: On World Day, U.N. says efforts to combat illicit drugs must be linked to development
“Marking the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, top United Nations officials focused on the need for alternative development for farmers who cultivate illicit crops and for leaders to address drug trafficking and drug abuse that pose as obstacles to sustainable development for the world. Also [on Friday], the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released its 2015 World Drug Report, which estimated that 246 million people — slightly over five percent of those aged 15 to 64 years worldwide — used an illicit drug in 2013…” (6/26).

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Financial Times: Hopes rise for malaria vaccine as oil companies fund trials
“Two U.S. oil companies are pouring millions of dollars into the trials of a promising malaria vaccine in Equatorial Guinea in a rare sign of foreign investors trying to help tackle one of Africa’s biggest health scourges. Marathon Oil and Noble Energy have teamed up with the government of Equatorial Guinea to fund trials of one of the most hotly tipped malaria vaccines in development…” (Ward, 6/28).

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VOA News: Multi-Drug Resistant TB Harder to Spread Among Close Contacts
“Incidences of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) are increasing, but British and Peruvian researchers are offering a glimmer of hope in the latest issue of PLOS Medicine. Caused by a bacterium that has evolved to become hard to kill with two or more mainstay antibiotics, MDR-TB, the new study indicates, is actually less infectious than drug-susceptible TB among patients’ close family members and friends…” (Berman, 6/26).

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Xinhua News/GlobalPost: Over 10,000 people infected dengue fever in Myanmar so far this year
“Dengue fever has infected more than 10,000 people in Myanmar in the first half of this year, killing more than 40 people, according to the Ministry of Health Monday. … An anti-dengue fever project official said the outbreak of the mosquito-infected viral disease is on an annual increase despite preventive and control measures being taken on a nationwide scale…” (6/29).

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Reuters: Anthropologist reveals FGM practiced in western, southern Iran
“…[Anthropologist Kameel Ahmady] took global campaigners by surprise this month when he published a study suggesting tens of thousands of Iranian women have undergone FGM. … Ahmady’s research, based on 4,000 interviews, shows FGM is also performed in ‘secret pockets’ of four Iranian provinces: West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, and Kermanshah in the west, and Hormozgan in the south…” (Batha, 6/26).

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Thomson Reuters Foundation: Zimbabwe teen pregnancies fuel demand for illegal abortions
“The death of a 15-year-old Zimbabwean schoolgirl during an apparent botched abortion this month has spurred calls for stronger efforts to prevent teenage pregnancies and unsafe terminations. Health campaigners in Zimbabwe say the girl’s death in a Bulawayo township highlights the inadequate sexual and antenatal health care available to teenagers, whose parents are reluctant to accept they are sexually active…” (Phiri, 6/26).

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The Guardian: Sustainable development must live up to its promise to leave no one behind
Helen Dennis, senior adviser on poverty and inequality at Christian Aid

“…[A]s negotiators resume talks on the SDGs in New York this week, they should push for an agreement that enshrines the principle of leaving no one behind in the outcome document. … Christian Aid’s new briefing on leaving no one behind tries to bring the principle to life, illustrating its global importance and suggesting how governments might start to implement the idea. … The SDGs have the potential to focus policymakers’ attention on the people who are left behind in their societies. With so many women, men, and children so profoundly affected — and with less than 100 days until heads of state meet to finalize the new goals — the challenge of embedding the idea of leaving no one behind in the new development agenda could not be more important or urgent” (6/26).

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U.S. State Department’s “DipNote”: Working With African Communities To Build a Future Free From Hunger
Michele Rivard, chief of staff at the U.S. African Development Foundation, discusses the role of smallholder farmers and civil society in improving food security and nutrition for local communities in Africa (6/27).

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Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases’ “End the Neglect”: 3rd Progress Report on The London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases Released
Kathryn McGrath, communications manager at the Sabin Vaccine Institute, notes, “Uniting to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases released its third progress report on the London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases on June 25, 2015.” She includes an excerpt from the report’s executive summary (6/25).

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Center for Global Health Diplomacy: Global Health and Diplomacy
The Summer 2015 issue of the Global Health and Diplomacy journal highlights the future of sustainable development, including articles on global health security, development financing, and women and children’s health, among other issues (Summer 2015).

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