News outlets discuss findings from the State of the World’s Antibiotics 2015 report, released on Thursday by the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP).

BBC News: Developing countries show increase in antibiotic resistance
“Rising incomes in the developing world mean more people can afford medical care, but a new study has found that this is also helping spread resistance to antibiotics…” (Soy, 9/17).

National Geographic: Antibiotic Resistance Getting Worse Globally, But Fixes Could Be Simple
“…The report, called The State of the World’s Antibiotics 2015, brings together data from sources that have never been aggregated before: public surveillance programs and private laboratory networks from most regions of the world. The data paint a dismaying picture of antibiotic use and resistance rising in areas where international attention and policy haven’t yet focused: the developing economies where the drugs are easily available but national strategies to contain their use don’t exist or are just being launched…” (McKenna, 9/17).

Wired: Where Antibiotic Resistance Is Worst Around the World
“…CDDEP’s interactive ResistanceMap now contains data on drug resistance from 39 countries and consumption from 69 — obviously still incomplete, but more complete than previous collections. The World Health Organization’s big antimicrobial resistance report last year, for example, largely left off India, where national data isn’t available…” (Zhang, 9/17).

Link to individual story

News outlets continue to highlight findings from a U.N. report showing the world has met the Millennium Development Goal on malaria.

International Business Times: Malaria Death Rates Decreased In The Past 15 Years, But Some Regions Still Hurt More Than Others: Report
“…In 2000, malaria killed almost 840,000 people worldwide, while in 2015, the disease is expected to cause about 438,000 deaths, according to the report Thursday from the World Health Organization and the U.N.’s children’s fund, also known as UNICEF. The U.N. said the reduction in deaths has been the result of improved testing and the distribution of mosquito nets, which has increased in recent years. About a billion nets have been distributed since 2000…” (Lidgett, 9/17).

U.N. News Centre: Global malaria target met amid sharp drop in cases, but 3 billion people still at risk — U.N.
“…The joint report by WHO and the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) — Achieving the Malaria Millennium Development Goal Target — shows that the MDG target of halving and beginning to reverse the incidence of malaria by 2015 has been met ‘convincingly.’ … But malaria remains an acute public health problem in many regions…” (9/17).

Link to individual story

The Lancet: U.N. set to change the world with new development goals
“Lack of ambition is not something the U.N. can be accused of these days. Over the past three years it has been preparing to ‘transform the world’ between now and 2030. On Aug 1, it launched the Agenda for Global Action that set out how this objective would be reached. The agenda called for the attainment of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), each with its complement of targets that have to be reached by a specified time…” (Maurice, 9/19).

Link to individual story

The Economist: The Sustainable Development Goals: Beyond handouts
“…[T]he SDGs are part of an important shift in thinking about development that is making it both more ambitious and more realistic. … Unwieldy as they are, they are not just a call for more handouts. The MDGs were meant to create a social safety net; the SDGs to be fit for an age in which the standard of living in a big chunk of the developing world is creeping towards the levels of rich countries…” (9/19).

Link to individual story

Xinhua News/GlobalPost: U.N. roots for partnerships to achieve Sustainable Development Goals
“The achievement of [the] Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS) by 2030 hinges on strategic partnerships, robust policy frameworks, and renewed political commitment, U.N. officials said on Thursday. Nardos Bekele-Thomas, the UNDP resident representative in Kenya, said in Nairobi that attainment of the new and ambitious development targets is possible if governments rally private sector, foundations, and citizens to support them…” (9/17).

Link to individual story

Newsweek: U.S. Announces $89 Million in Humanitarian Aid to Yemen
“The U.S. will provide $89 million in additional humanitarian aid to war-torn Yemen, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced Wednesday. The funding will go toward food assistance, safe drinking water, and medical care for the nearly 80 percent of Yemen’s population who need humanitarian relief, Ned Price, spokesman for the National Security Council, said Wednesday…” (Westcott, 9/17).

Link to individual story

News outlets report on the launch of a new database in Kenya to track progress on HIV/AIDS.

Standard Digital: President Uhuru Kenyatta launches digital platform to manage HIV/AIDS
“The war against HIV/AIDS got a boost following the launch of a digital application on Thursday. … The system dubbed ‘The Kenya HIV Situation Room,’ will provide up-to date information on the number of people living with the condition and also give information on the availability of antiretroviral (ARVs) drugs in medical facilities across the country…” (Psirmoi, 9/17).

U.N. News Centre: U.N. and Kenya team up to end AIDS epidemic by 2030
“…The Situation Room, developed by the National AIDS Control Council and the Kenyan Ministry of Health in collaboration with UNAIDS, with support from the Government of Japan, brings together data from four separate sources: the Kenya Medical Supply Agency; Kenya’s HIV estimates; the District Health Information System; and data from the National AIDS Control Council on program implementers and service delivery…” (9/17).

Link to individual story

Reuters: Saudi minister says MERS cases are reducing before hajj
“A recent surge in cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), a sometimes deadly virus, in Saudi Arabia has ebbed in the run-up to Islam’s annual hajj pilgrimage, the kingdom’s Health Minister Khaled al-Falih said on Thursday…” (al-Mughrabi, 9/17).

Link to individual story

Washington Post: In eastern Ukraine, most Western aid agencies have been blocked
“Nearly all Western humanitarian organizations have been blocked from operating in separatist-controlled parts of eastern Ukraine for close to two months, and they fear that unless the situation is reversed, civilians could lose access to critical assistance when winter sets in…” (Gibbons-Neff/Smirnova, 9/17).

Link to individual story

Agence France-Presse: Niger health workers in relentless fight to save children
“…In 1990, the infant mortality rate [in Niger] was 326 per 1,000 live births — ‘the highest in the world,’ says UNICEF’s Chetima Moustapha — but this figure has fallen almost threefold in the past 25 years. … ‘This is the fruit of a relentless campaign against the killer diseases among children,’ including ‘malaria, diarrhea, and pneumonia,’ explains Mintou Moctar, a midwife from Safo, another village in Maradi…” (Hama, 9/17).

Link to individual story

Devex: Paul Farmer’s ‘lifelong dream’
“When physician, anthropologist, and global health entrepreneur Paul Farmer describes something as ‘the only terminus’ of ‘a lifelong dream,’ that’s a cue to start paying attention. This week 27 students opened the school year as the inaugural class of master’s degree candidates at the University of Global Health Equity in Kigali, Rwanda, a new university owned and operated by Partners in Health, the nongovernmental organization Farmer co-founded in 1987…” (Igoe, 9/17).

Link to individual story

The Lancet: A Lancet Commission on sexual and reproductive health and rights: going beyond the Sustainable Development Goals
Ann Starrs, president and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute

“…[T]he Guttmacher Institute and The Lancet are establishing a Commission on sexual and reproductive health and rights in the post-2015 world. The Commission will begin work in early 2016 with the aim of developing a wide-ranging and evidence-based agenda for key sexual and reproductive health and rights priorities worldwide over the next 15 years; just as important, it will also make the case for the adoption of policies and programs to turn that vision into reality. … A new agenda for sexual and reproductive health and rights is needed that recognizes the full scope of people’s sexual and reproductive health needs, and enables all people to choose whether, when, and with whom to engage in sexual activity; to choose whether and when to have children; and to access the means to do so in good health” (9/19).

The Lancet: Women are the key to sustainable development
Editorial Board

“…In addition to their productivity, women’s ability to have choice and control over their reproductivity is crucial for healthy development. High fertility contributes to population growth and pressures on the environment and it can limit women’s opportunities to realize their economic potential. Although the [Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)] include sexual and reproductive health, as Ann Starrs explains in today’s issue, they take a narrow view. A new Lancet-Guttmacher Institute Commission on sexual and reproductive health and rights in the post-2015 world will go beyond the SDGs and aims to provide a progressive, evidence-based vision of how to move forward in this critical dimension of sustainable development” (9/19).

Link to individual story

Livemint: Securing a sustainable future
Gro Harlem Brundtland, former prime minister of Norway, and Graça Machel, former minister of education of Mozambique

“…Implementation and accountability [of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)] are key. Fine words are not enough; leaders must commit to putting them into action, and civil society must be vigilant in tracking progress and blowing the whistle when not enough is being done. … To implement the SDGs and minimize climate change, massive shifts will be required to move away from our fossil-fuel-driven economic model. Public understanding and consent will be crucial. World leaders must have the courage to take bold decisions, explain their necessity and implement them in a just and effective way. They have no right to deny a decent future to our grandchildren. It is no longer a question of choices, but an obligation to prevent catastrophe. The time for action is now. We must not allow this opportunity to melt away” (7/17).

Link to individual story

Project Syndicate: Dying to Live
Samuel Kargbo, director of health systems, policy, planning, and information in the Ministry of Health and Sanitation of Sierra Leone

“…The post-Ebola recovery will not be quick, easy, or cheap. In Sierra Leone alone, it is expected to cost $1.3 billion — $896.2 million of which has yet to be procured. To close that gap, we need help from our African partners and the broader international community. … We need genuine engagement, open communication, and mutual accountability, at the local, national, regional, and global levels. We have already seen how a lack of essential health care services can devastate a country, taking thousands of lives and shattering many more. We came together as a country to beat Ebola, and we are committed to prevent future epidemics. With ongoing international support, we will do just that” (9/17).

Link to individual story

Devex: Using markets to improve children’s lives
Cammie Lee, senior program officer at the Results for Development Institute, and Kanika Bahl, principal and managing director at the Results for Development Institute

“…[K]ey donors are rapidly mobilizing resources to scale up access to [amoxicillin dispensable tablets (amox DT)] in several countries that have the highest number of children dying from pneumonia. … Reducing preventable deaths requires a concerted effort to align supply and demand forces. To that end, we are ensuring that critical policies are updated to reflect amox DT as the priority treatment for childhood pneumonia, making business cases to manufacturers and distributors to invest in registering amox DT at the country level, supporting the market to forecast demand in a robust manner, and working to secure sustainable funding for amox DT above and beyond what has already been committed… (9/17).

Link to individual story

Center for Global Health Policy’s “Science Speaks”: Antibiotic resistance poses growing threat to fragile health systems
Antigone Barton, senior editor and writer of “Science Speaks,” discusses the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy’s State of the World’s Antibiotics 2015 report, which “tracks trends of growing antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria … in high-income countries as well as low-and-middle income countries. … The report attributes the growing problem to two factors — increasing use of antibiotics in humans, and in animals…” CDDEP also released an interactive map, ResistanceMap, showing trends of antibiotic resistance (9/17).

Link to individual story

Humanosphere: Tackling neonatal hypothermia in Uganda and Kenya
Jennifer Zhu, a health policy analyst and Global Health Corps fellow, discusses a new technology called Embrace Baby Wrap, a low-cost baby warmer designed by Stanford University graduate students as an intervention for neonatal hypothermia, “one of the leading contributors to neonatal mortality worldwide” (9/17).

Link to individual story