Devex: Conference call: Inside the White House attacks on U.S. aid

“The Trump administration has tried, and failed, to redirect already-appropriated aid money for a second time. We go inside the political battle between the White House and Congress — and the implications for USAID…” (9/10).

 

The BMJ: U.S. ‘global gag rule’ on abortion is limiting family planning choices for women in Nepal

“U.S. President Donald Trump has reinstated and strengthened the on-again, off-again rule prohibiting U.S. [global health] aid to abortion providers in foreign countries. Rojita Adhikari looks at the effect the rule is having on contraceptive and abortion services in Nepal…” (Adhikari, 9/10).

Devex: UNFPA Colombia response in jeopardy, country director says

“The United Nations Population Fund says limited humanitarian funding in Colombia will not last beyond December, further threatening their already limited response to the sexual and reproductive health needs of Venezuelans seeking to migrate there. UNFPA Colombia has received approximately $1.4 million for the humanitarian response in 2019, at least $5 million short of what the office requires for the calendar year, according to UNFPA Colombia country representative Verónica Simán. UNFPA’s scope of work, however, is expanding well beyond its budget, as Venezuelans continue to cross the border and seek contraception and other sexual and reproductive health care, according to Simán…” (Lieberman, 9/10).

CIDRAP News: With Ebola cases rising, officials launch new infection control steps

“Over the weekend and through [Monday], 12 more Ebola cases were confirmed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), lifting the overall outbreak total to 3,081. In other developments, the DRC, with support from its global health partners, launched new infection prevention and control (IPC) efforts to curb healthcare-acquired infections…” (Schnirring, 9/9).

 

New Humanitarian: Ebola preparations falter in war‑weary South Sudan

“…Lingering insecurity, a lack of funding, and issues with managing [potential] cases … are hampering efforts to prevent a possible outbreak of Ebola in South Sudan, according to health workers, government officials, and community leaders interviewed by The New Humanitarian. … [H]ealth experts say it is only a matter of time before the first cases emerge in South Sudan, where five years of conflict have left nearly 400,000 people dead, millions displaced, and brought an already weak healthcare system to its knees…” (Mednick, 9/9).

SciDev.Net: Plan to wipe out malaria comes with hefty price tag

“A global roadmap to eradicate malaria in the next 30 years has been welcomed with caution by scientists and practitioners because of the high extra costs proposed. The Lancet Commission on malaria eradication used new modeling to predict that, with better malaria interventions and control programs, the disease could be all but eradicated between 2030 and 2050. However, to achieve this, global expenditure on tackling malaria must rise by US$2 billion a year, the commission said, in a report published 8 September in The Lancet…” (9/10).

 

Additional coverage of The Lancet Commission report is available from The BMJ, CNN, and Forbes.

U.N. News: One person dies by suicide every 40 seconds: new U.N. health agency report

“Despite progress in national prevention strategies, one person dies by suicide every 40 seconds, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Director-General lamented on Monday, highlighting key findings of the agency’s latest report on global suicide estimates. Speaking in Geneva ahead of World Suicide Prevention Day, recognized on 10 September, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, ‘every death is a tragedy for family friends and colleagues,’ yet many more suicides can be prevented. All countries should ‘incorporate proven suicide prevention strategies into national health and education programs in a sustainable way,’ he added…” (9/9).

 

VOA News: Every 40 Seconds Someone in the World Commits Suicide

“On the eve of World Suicide Prevention Day on Tuesday, the World Health Organization is calling for action to stop the global epidemic, which every year takes the lives of an estimated 800,000 people. The WHO said Monday suicides are preventable and fewer people would die by self-inflicted means if more nations employed proven suicide prevention strategies. And yet, the United Nations agency says only 38 countries are taking life-saving actions…” (Schlein, 9/9).

Global Press Journal: Will Uganda Increase Its Investment in Maternal Health?

“…[A] growing chorus of women [is] pushing the government to allocate more funds in the annual budget for health centers and services for new mothers. The budget was submitted for consideration in June. … The average woman in Uganda has 5.5 children, which gives Uganda one of the highest fertility rates in the world. … While on the decline in recent years, [Uganda’s maternal mortality rate] remains one of the highest in the world, according to the World Health Organization. Experts say that to combat this, government funding priorities should include maternal health services, such as access to basic necessities like water, blood, and electricity…” (Agiresaasi, 9/9).

The Guardian: Barcelona’s car-free ‘superblocks’ could save hundreds of lives (Burgen, 9/10).

 

Premium Times: Yellow Fever: Nigeria launches vaccination campaign to contain disease (Owoseye, 9/8).

 

SciDev.Net: Latin American subways ‘highest antimicrobial resistance’ (9/9).

The Lancet: The malaria eradication challenge

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of WHO

 

“…Three years ago, at the request of my predecessor, Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO established a strategic advisory group tasked with analyzing future scenarios for malaria, including the feasibility and expected cost of malaria eradication. … The report of the group is consistent with the view of global experts that although elimination has been successfully achieved in many countries, the currently available tools and approaches will not be sufficient to achieve malaria eradication. As with smallpox and polio, a commitment to eradicate must spur research and development to deliver new tools. In 2017, the Lancet Commission on Malaria Eradication (the Commission) was announced, and the report of the Commission is now published. Both the Lancet Commission and the WHO advisory group aspire to a malaria-free world. Both recognize the urgent need to intensify efforts to reduce the misery inflicted by a disease that continues to claim more than 400,000 lives each year. … The Commission makes a bold call for eradicating malaria by 2050. I would be thrilled to see this global scourge eradicated even earlier. But we will not achieve eradication within this timeframe with the currently available tools and approaches — most of which were developed in the past century or even earlier. So, although the imperfect application of imperfect tools has reduced the burden of malaria and helped eliminate malaria from many countries, it is not enough. The good news is that we, the global malaria community, know what we need to do…” (9/8).

The Conversation: Ebola in the Congo: a forgotten conflict became a danger to world health

Aymar Nyenyezi Bisoka, post-doctoral researcher at Université Catholique de Louvain

 

“The World Health Organization (WHO) has recognized the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Ebola epidemic as a ‘public health emergency of international concern.’ … According to governmental and non-governmental organizations fighting the epidemic, the spread of Ebola is facilitated by the nature of the virus as well as how the response is being organized and managed. But there are also contextual reasons, often neglected, for why it’s spread: the existence of conflict and violence in certain parts of the country. … When the Congolese Health Minister, Oly Ilunga, resigned in July, he claimed that there was a war of pharmaceutical companies trying to introduce an experimental vaccine. He also castigated NGOs, claiming that their interventions were uncoordinated and that they withheld information in a race for funding. These factors make Ebola a political problem, and demonstrate that millions of dollars may not be enough to organize an effective response. If the international community does not seriously commit to finding a security solution to the situation in Beni, Ebola may be eradicated — but other dangers could still emerge in this zone and threaten public health and the security of the region” (9/9).

Devex: Opinion: How to transition a project from international donor to local government

Anuradha Khanal, regional director of Southeast Asia at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and manages the drowning prevention program for Vietnam at the Global Health Advocacy Incubator

 

“Earlier this summer, something happened that we in the development community often talk about, but rarely get to see: we watched international donors hand a successful project over to the national government and local community. Representatives of the regional government of Tanzania’s Kigoma region signed a transition plan with EngenderHealth and Thamini Uhai, the project’s implementing partners, for the continuation of a maternal and reproductive health program after international funding ended. … In June, we celebrated the lives saved, but now we’re celebrating the continuation of local stewardship. As the project’s sustainability partner, brought in by Bloomberg Philanthropies to facilitate a smooth transition to government ownership, the Global Health Advocacy Incubator was able to track what worked to ensure sustainability. Here are some of the practices that proved to be most important: 1. Local leadership … 2. Alignment with public priorities … 3. Advocacy capacity-building … This process reaffirmed an essential lesson about sustainability: sustainability planning should start during project design and be integrated throughout implementation. Just as importantly, advocacy doesn’t stop now that the government has agreed to budget support…” (9/10).

PAHO/WHO: PAHO issues $3.5 million donor appeal for humanitarian health response in the Bahamas

“The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is requesting an initial US $3.5 million from donors to cover short-term health care and other needs for the population in the Bahamas affected by Hurricane Dorian. The devastating category 5 storm made landfall … in northwest Bahamas, and severely affected the health sector, with significant destruction of equipment and medical supplies and electrical and water supplies in Abaco and Grand Bahama. … The funding requests includes $1.3 million to restore health care delivery in affected areas, $500,000 for surveillance to detect and manage disease outbreaks, $800,000 for safe access to water, emergency sanitation, and control of disease vectors, and well as $671,000 to coordinate humanitarian assistance and manage information to address the most urgent humanitarian needs” (9/8).

 

UNICEF: Hurricane Dorian leaves behind massive destruction in the Bahamas

“…On 7 September, UNICEF announced the arrival to Nassau, Bahamas of a plane carrying nearly 1.5 tons of lifesaving supplies that will help provide access to safe water for over 9,500 children and families left reeling by Hurricane Dorian. This first supply shipment of UNICEF humanitarian items was freighted by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and includes over 400,000 water purification tablets, several 5,000-liters tanks for at least 2,000 people and 1,000 jerry cans. UNICEF has also deployed staff in the Bahamas to assess the needs of the most vulnerable children and families. The first responder team is composed of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), child protection, emergency coordination and communications experts. Despite the extremely challenging logistic situation on the ground, UNICEF was able to reach Abaco island to assess the extent of the destruction to help inform its humanitarian response plan” (9/8).

Save the Children: The Huge Humanitarian Crisis of Venezuela

Save the Children author Zoe Bennell discusses the humanitarian situation in Venezuela, where “deteriorating economic and political conditions” have caused at least four million people to flee the country. Bennell describes a sexual and reproductive health clinic Save the Children opened in a Colombian border town, as well as how the organization is assisting in opening temporary learning centers for children affected by the crisis (9/9).

WHO Africa: Republic of Korea launches five-country health security initiative in West Africa, in partnership with WHO

“The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) today launched a health initiative in five West African countries that responds to their shared commitment to improve health security worldwide. The initiative, supported by a US$12 million grant for three years of activities in Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, Senegal, and Sierra Leone, aims to reinforce national capacities to prevent as well as detect and respond to outbreaks of infectious diseases and other health security threats…” (9/10).

UNAIDS: Global leaders unite to tackle health inequalities

“London Mayor Sadiq Khan [Monday] welcomed city, municipal, and global leaders to Fast-Track Cities 2019, the inaugural conference of more than 300 cities and municipalities prioritizing their responses to urban HIV, tuberculosis (TB), and viral hepatitis. Speaking at the conference, Mayor Khan highlighted the problem of health inequalities across the world, as well as the need to end the stigma still associated with HIV. He also reiterated the bold ambition for London to achieve the target of no new HIV infections, deaths, and stigma by 2030. … Organized by the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC), in collaboration with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and other partners, the Fast-Track Cities 2019 conference is being held from September 9-11, 2019, at the Barbican Centre. The conference’s aim is to highlight successes achieved across the Fast-Track Cities network, address cross-cutting challenges faced by local stakeholders, and share best practices in accelerating urban AIDS responses, inclusive of co-infectious diseases such as TB and viral hepatitis…” (9/9).

FHI 360’s “R&E Search for Evidence”: Why understanding adolescents’ perceptions of gender inequitable norms is important for development programming

Judith Nalukwago, a monitoring and evaluation manager for FHI 360’s Communication for Healthy Communities program in Uganda, discusses a paper she and her colleagues published on “gender norms associated with adolescent sexual behaviors.” Nalukwago writes, “In our paper, we report that a majority of both girls and boys support gender inequitable norms. With such findings, it is evident that development practitioners need to understand the perspective and perceptions adolescents have of complex gender norms in order to design targeted gender-responsive sexual and reproductive health programs…” (9/9).

USAID: USAID Administrator Mark Green’s Visit to the Bahamas

“The following is attributable to Spokesperson Tom Babington: U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Mark Green traveled to The Bahamas on September 8 to oversee the United States’ humanitarian operations in The Bahamas in response to Hurricane Dorian, the strongest hurricane ever to hit the country. Administrator Green traveled to Abaco, where he met with members of USAID’s Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) working on search and rescue and other humanitarian response operations with Bahamian authorities. … After surveying the affected areas, Administrator Green and U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Stephanie Bowers met with Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Minnis in Nassau…” (9/9).

NIAID: NIAID officials call for innovative research on sexually transmitted infections

“…In a new article in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, experts from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, suggest that the biomedical research community must refocus its commitment to [sexually transmitted infection (STI)] research to surmount this growing global health crisis. The perspective piece was written by NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., Robert W. Eisinger, Ph.D., special assistant for scientific projects in NIAID’s Immediate Office of the Director, and Emily Erbelding, M.D., director of NIAID’s Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. The authors note that a variety of STIs are contributing to the public health crisis as cases of gonorrhea, syphilis, and chlamydia are all on the rise…” (9/9).

Kaiser Family Foundation: The Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic

This updated fact sheet provides the latest data on the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, including impact by region, treatment and prevention efforts, and an overview of the U.S. and global responses to the epidemic (9/9).