Inter Press Service: U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump Urged to Ensure Human Rights for All
“Across the world, human rights groups are reacting to the election of Donald J. Trump as the president of the United States, urging him to make a renewed commitment to human rights…” (Yakupitiyage, 11/9).

STAT/Scientific American: Five Ways Trump’s Win Can Change Medicine and Science
“…[H]ere in the world of science and medicine, the election of Donald Trump has left many trying to make sense of the vagaries, reversals, and red herrings that have marked his rhetoric on key issues from research funding to drug pricing. Here are five questions we have about what the Trump administration will mean for science…” (Garde, 11/10).

U.N. Dispatch: What Can We Expect from President Trump’s Foreign Policy?
“…President Trump will likely face a number of key foreign policy challenges upon taking office. On the line with me to discuss the implications of a Trump presidency to America’s role in the world is Heather Hurlburt of the New America Foundation…” (Goldberg, 11/10).

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Xinhua News: WHO urges focus on health in dealing with climate change
“The World Health Organization (WHO) called on Friday for giving health a central priority in the Climate Change Conference (COP22), currently held in Morocco, and including it in the implementation of the Paris Agreement. According to a WHO statement, almost one quarter of the global burden of disease and approximately 12.6 million deaths each year are attributable to avoidable environmental risk factors, such as air, water, and soil pollution, chemical exposures, and ultraviolet radiation…” (11/11).

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Agence France-Presse: Bulk of world’s child deaths in just 10 countries: study
“Sixty percent of the 5.9 million children under five who died last year were in just 10 countries in Africa and Asia, an evaluation of global infant health revealed Friday. Pneumonia was the leading killer in five of them, all in Africa: Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Tanzania, said a study published in The Lancet medical journal…” (Le Roux, 11/10).

Thomson Reuters Foundation: Most child deaths concentrated in 10 Asian, African nations: study
“…The study published in The Lancet medical journal said the latest data highlight the inequality in children’s death among the 194 countries it studied, even though the number of under-five deaths has fallen by four million compared to 2010. … The two leading causes were complications due to premature birth and pneumonia, according to researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and the World Health Organization…” (Yi, 11/11).

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Reuters: Despite progress, measles kills 400 children a day: WHO
“The number of deaths from measles has fallen by 79 percent worldwide since 2000, thanks mainly to mass vaccination campaigns, but nearly 400 children still die from the disease every day, global health experts said on Thursday…” (Kelland, 11/10).

U.N. News Centre: Despite progress, hundreds of children still die of measles every day — U.N.-backed report
“… According to the report, mass measles vaccination campaigns and a global increase in routine measles vaccination coverage saved an estimated 20.3 million young lives between 2000 and 2015. But progress has been uneven. In 2015, about 20 million infants missed their measles shots and an estimated 134,000 children died from the disease…” (11/10).

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Reuters: Zika striking women at higher rates than men: U.S. study
“Adult women in Puerto Rico were significantly more likely to develop Zika than men, researchers said on Thursday, raising new questions about the potential role of sexual transmission of the virus from males to females. The study, published in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly report on death and disease, evaluated more than 29,000 laboratory-confirmed cases of Zika since the outbreak began in Puerto Rico in November 2015…” (Steenhuysen, 11/10).

Science Speaks: World’s largest Zika database shows most confirmed cases among younger women
“…The findings, reported in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report are consistent with patterns observed in Brazil and El Salvador, where the greatest numbers of people reported to have the virus fell between 20 and 49, the authors write…” (Barton, 11/10).

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Reuters: Pfizer offers cut-price pneumonia shot for humanitarian crises
“…In what it called a major expansion of its humanitarian assistance work, the drugmaker said its Prevenar 13 shot, which protects babies and children against pneumonia and other diseases, would be offered in a new multi-dose vial at the lowest prevailing global price, currently $3.10 per dose…” (Kelland, 11/11).

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Associated Press: U.N. says food running out in east Aleppo
“A U.N. official says the last food rations inside besieged eastern Aleppo will run out by next week…” (11/10).

U.N. News Centre: Syria: U.N. envoy urges action to avert mass hunger in eastern Aleppo ahead of ‘killer’ winter
“… ‘The fifth war winter is starting in Syria. There is no doubt it will be the worst in this cruel war, and I fear it will be a real killer in too many places,’ Jan Egeland, special adviser to the U.N. special envoy for Syria, told reporters in Geneva…” (11/10).

VOA News: U.N.: Eastern Aleppo Faces Mass Starvation This Winter
“…The United Nations says it fears winter will be a killer in too many places throughout Syria. The international body says it has not been able to pre-position food and other relief supplies in besieged areas because of fighting and administrative hurdles…” (Schlein, 11/10).

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Star-Ledger: Beyond Ebola: How Sierra Leone is working to rebuild — and remake — its health care system
“…Using lessons learned from [a] pilot clinic [opened in 2015 by the Healey International Relief Foundation in Newton, Sierra Leone], the foundation plans to rebuild 30 health facilities in other parts of the country as it works to restore a network of care centers that were gutted during Sierra Leone’s civil war, leaving large portions of the population with limited or no access to health care. It’s an ambitious undertaking, but also perhaps a microcosm, in some ways, of the country’s plans to revamp its health care infrastructure from the ground up…” (Davies, 11/10).

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Devex: Opinion: Seeing past the shock of the Trump victory
Raj Kumar, founding president and editor-in-chief of Devex

“…[P]resident-elect Trump could offer some new, more comprehensive vision on global development beyond infrequent expressions of skepticism of foreign aid in campaign speeches. But more likely is that existing conservative policy prescriptions and worldview — unlocking more private sector investment, emphasizing economic freedom and fighting corruption, incentive-based approaches such as the Millennium Challenge Corp., and disease-specific global health programs — will become the organizing model for an area that is unlikely to take high priority in the White House. … The climate agenda is one area that stands to take it on the chin from this election result. It is one of the few issue areas for which there is clarity in the form of promises made by Trump on the campaign trail. Global health may well benefit, as the coalition behind it is stronger and includes more conservative voices. Given the trade positions of candidate Trump, it’s hard to imagine proponents of food aid reform being successful: In all likelihood America will continue to fly and ship U.S. agricultural products rather than providing funds directly to those who need it. … Perhaps the key question then is not what a new U.S. administration will do when it comes to global development. Perhaps the key question is what our community will do to stand up for the priorities and values we believe in…” (11/10).

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Science: Who should direct WHO?
David L. Heymann, chair of the Health Protection Agency, United Kingdom; head of the Centre on Global Health Security at Chatham House, London; and professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

“…Having worked at WHO in a number of capacities in the area of infectious diseases, I know well that international health covers a wide breadth of issues. Add to that noncommunicable diseases and matters such as intellectual property and universal health coverage, and it becomes clear that the next director general must be a jack of all trades, but also a master of one — leadership in public health. … On 1 July 2017, a new WHO director general will take office. In the final decision-making steps, it will be important to identify the candidate who will be a technically sound leader with a deep understanding of politics and an ability to channel all stakeholders to the right outcome. This job takes boldness in vision, and the skills to bring others along with that vision” (11/11).

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Devex: Opinion: A vote for the world’s health, absent from the headlines
Malebona Precious Matsoso, director general of the National Department of Health in South Africa, and Mushtaque Chowdhury, vice chairperson of BRAC

“…We urge the candidates [for WHO director general] to commit that, if elected, they will put the full weight and resources of WHO behind a proposed global treaty based on the human right to health, the Framework Convention on Global Health. A treaty is needed because the right to health cannot be achieved by individual countries acting alone. The new treaty would facilitate the coordinated global effort needed to achieve the right to health everywhere. … Establishing a Framework Convention on Global Health is an ambitious undertaking. But ambition, rooted in universal human rights, is precisely what is needed to eliminate unconscionable health inequalities, protect us from emerging threats, and better promote public health. The right to health for all is the path toward true global health security. Joining together in this treaty would bring countries together in a common venture for global health — and help heal a fractured world” (11/10).

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The Lancet: The unfinished agenda of preterm births
Editorial Board

“…Preventing preterm births and caring for preterm infants well to avert mortality and minimize long-term morbidity is now one of the most urgent goals to make further progress in delivering the Sustainable Development Goal target of reducing mortality of children younger than five years. … Deaths from preterm birth complications became the leading cause of under-five mortality in 2015. … What is most needed at a global level is the reassurance of the continuing U.N. commitment to the Every Woman, Every Child agenda and the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (2016-2030). Only with this broad lifecourse approach firmly rooted in human rights and equity, continuing and accelerated efforts by the many partners already involved, and firm financial support will we tackle the unfinished agenda of preterm births and neonatal mortality. The next U.N. Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, must make this one of his top priorities” (11/12).

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Council on Foreign Relations: Garrett on Global Health
In this newsletter, Laurie Garrett, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, discusses “the implications of Donald Trump’s win for the future of global health,” the global health and development successes of the Obama administration, and the upcoming election of a new WHO director general (11/9).

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CDC’s “Our Global Voices”: Measles: A Forgotten, but Formidable Foe
James L. Goodson, senior measles scientist at CDC, writes, “Between the anticipation of polio eradication in the near future and the response to emerging diseases like Zika, measles has become a forgotten, but formidable foe.” Goodson discusses challenges to measles vaccination and elimination strategies, concluding, “[C]ountries and partners must work together to secure political commitment, raise the visibility of measles, vaccinate every child, strengthen measles surveillance, and diminish the threat of decreasing resources for immunization when polio eradication is achieved” (11/10).

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