BBC News: Lack of exercise puts one in four people at risk, WHO says
“…A WHO report estimates that more than a quarter of [adults] worldwide — 1.4 billion — are not doing enough physical exercise, a figure that has barely improved since 2001…” (Therrien, 9/5).

CNN: ‘Pandemic’ of inactivity increases disease risk worldwide, WHO study says
“Around the globe, about one in three women and nearly one in four men does not exercise enough to avoid common diseases, a new report shows…” (Scutti, 9/4).

Deutsche Welle: Inactivity puts adults worldwide at risk of disease
“…In 2016, more than a quarter of adults across the world did not exercise sufficiently, according to a study conducted by researchers from the World Health Organization (WHO), published [Tuesday] in The Lancet Global Health journal…” (Warneck, 9/4).

Reuters: A quarter of adults are too inactive, putting health at risk
“…The WHO says insufficient physical activity is one of the leading risk factors for premature death worldwide. It raises the risk of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes…” (Kelland, 9/4).

U.N. News: Inactivity puts physical and mental health of more than 1.4 billion adults at risk, says WHO
“…Additionally, physical activity has positive effects on mental health, can delay the onset of dementia, and help people maintain a healthy weight…” (9/4).

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The Guardian: Climate change will make hundreds of millions more people nutrient deficient (Davis, 8/27).

The Guardian: Tropical disease outbreaks are growing threat in Europe as temperatures rise (McVeigh, 8/23).

The Guardian: Heat: the next big inequality issue (Fleming et al., 8/13).

Reuters: Governments ‘not on track’ to cap temperatures at below 2 degrees: U.N. (Lefevre, 9/2).

Thomson Reuters Foundation: Where is the promised money, campaigners ask at climate talks in Bangkok (Chandran, 9/3).

U.N. News: Act now to save children from rise in climate-driven extreme weather — UNICEF (8/31).

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Health Policy Watch: Senegal President Urges African Leaders To Invest In Health
“…The sixty-eighth session of the World Health Organization Regional Committee for Africa [took] place in Dakar, Senegal, from 27-31 August. In an address to the event, Senegal President Macky Sall urged African countries to invest more resources into health in order to address the challenges faced every day by the continent. He particularly drew attention to the growing problem of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and emergencies…” (Ueberschlag, 8/28).

Intellectual Property Watch: African Health Ministers Approve Roadmap For Medicines Access, Framework To End Cholera
“Health ministers from the World Health Organization Africa region last week endorsed a roadmap for access for the years 2019-2023 concerning areas such as fair pricing, intellectual property management, and supply chain management. The previous day, they pledged to implement key strategies to end cholera outbreaks in the African region by 2030…” (Saez, 9/3).

Outbreak News Today: Ending cholera in Africa: Health minister’s pledge
“…Forty-seven African countries adopted the Regional Framework for the Implementation of the Global Strategy for Cholera Prevention and Control [August 28] at the 68th session of the World Health Organization’s Regional Committee for Africa…” (8/30).

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The Guardian: Millions of people need urgent help to stave off famine in Lake Chad Basin
“Nine years into a crisis that shows no sign of abating, 11 million people in the Lake Chad Basin are in need of urgent help, a high-level conference has heard. More than two million people have been displaced and five million regularly do not have access to enough food in Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, where the armed group Boko Haram has waged a nine-year insurgency…” (Maclean, 9/4).

U.N. News: Africa’s Lake Chad Basin: Over $2.1 billion pledged, to provide comprehensive crisis response
“A United Nations-backed humanitarian conference to raise much needed resources for relief, development, and peacebuilding programs in Africa’s Lake Chad Basin concluded on Tuesday, raising some $2.17 billion in support and about $467 million in concessional loans for the crisis-ridden region…” (9/4).

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New York Times: China Has Withheld Samples of a Dangerous Flu Virus
“For over a year, the Chinese government has withheld lab samples of a rapidly evolving influenza virus from the United States — specimens needed to develop vaccines and treatments, according to federal health officials. … Now, as the United States and China spar over trade, some scientists worry that the vital exchange of medical supplies and information could slow, hampering preparedness for the next biological threat…” (Baumgaertner, 8/27).

Washington Post: China pledges $60 billion in aid and loans to Africa, no ‘political conditions attached’
“Chinese President Xi Jinping announced $60 billion in aid and loans for Africa on Monday while hosting more than 40 of the continent’s leaders in Beijing, saying that the money came with no expectation of anything in return. … The package outlined by Xi also includes medical aid, environmental protection, agricultural training and assistance, and government scholarships and vocational training for more than 100,000 young Africans…” (Fifield, 9/3).

Xinhua News: China to set example for global health, development cooperation: Gates Foundation
“As China progresses toward its goal of eradicating poverty domestically by 2020, it is taking an ever more important global role in matters such as energy, climate, and global health and development, says Mark Suzman, chief strategy officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Since 2007, the foundation has been supporting China in overcoming domestic health and development challenges, focusing on issues like HIV, tuberculosis, tobacco control, and [the] fight against extreme poverty, Suzman told Xinhua in an interview on [August 27]…” (8/30).

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CNN: Myanmar military leaders should face genocide charges, U.N. says
“An independent United Nations investigation into alleged human rights abuses carried out against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar has called for the country’s military leaders to be investigated and prosecuted for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The damning report contains allegations of murder, imprisonment, and sexual violence against the Rohingyas, carried out by the Myanmar military, known as the Tatmadaw, under the guise of a crackdown on terrorists, and against a backdrop of impunity that effectively placed military leaders above the law…” (McKirdy, 8/28).

Additional coverage of the U.N. report is available from Al Jazeera, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, New York Times, and Washington Post.

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Al Jazeera: ‘Rat fever’ threatens thousands after Indian state’s worst floods (Saberin, 9/3).

CIDRAP News: DRC: More confirmed Ebola cases in Beni, Mabalako (Soucheray, 9/4).

Deutsche Welle: Wars killed 5 million African children over 20 years, says study (8/31).

Devex: What you need to know from Stockholm World Water Week 2018 (Edwards, 9/3).

Devex: Nonprofits take on Nigeria’s struggles with mental health (Undah, 9/4).

The Lancet: 41,000 measles cases in Europe since the beginning of 2018 (Holt, 9/1).

Nature: World Bank pours hundreds of millions into African science (Nordling, 9/3).

New York Times: Photographing an Indelicate but Deadly Subject (Estrin, 9/4).

Popular Mechanics: NASA Is Tracking Disease Outbreaks From Space — And Trying To Prevent the Next One (Thompson, 8/30).

SciDev.Net: Oral polio drops linked to paralysis in India (Devraj, 9/4).

Xinhua News: Feature: Yemen’s children suffer malnutrition, lack of medical care amid ongoing war (al-Azaki, 9/5).

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The Lancet: Pneumonia: a global cause without champions
Kevin Watkins, CEO of Save the Children U.K., and Devi Sridhar, co-investigator on the NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Respiratory Health at the University of Edinburgh

“…Why has childhood pneumonia achieved such limited traction on the health agendas of governments and the international community? We believe three inter-related and mutually reinforcing factors are at play. First, the limited progress achieved in combating pneumonia reflects the wider failure of health systems to place equity and the needs of the most marginalized at the center of strategies for delivering on the 2030 [Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)]. … Second, middle-class and more affluent constituencies with the strongest political voice in shaping health priorities are insulated from pneumonia risks. … Third, action and global campaigning on pneumonia have been constrained by complexity. … An international summit on pneumonia with a remit to galvanize and support national policies could change this picture not only by turning the spotlight on a largely invisible killer but also by building the coalitions and public-private partnerships needed to drive a breakthrough…” (9/1).

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STAT: Ending tuberculosis will take continued private-sector innovation
Adrian Thomas, private sector constituency board member for the Stop TB Partnership and vice president for global public health and access at Johnson & Johnson

“…[K]ey debates are happening right now regarding the political declaration that U.N. member states will adopt at the [first-ever] high-level meeting [on tuberculosis (TB) this month]. One of them is focused on — and will have major implications for — how we sustain and encourage innovation against TB. … [W]e need to think creatively if we want major innovator companies to develop tomorrow’s novel TB therapies, diagnostics, vaccines, and cures. At the high-level meeting on TB, the global health community will have a unique opportunity to lay the foundation for a vibrant innovation ecosystem to end TB. Models for pricing and access must be designed to ensure that TB medicines are affordable and accessible to all patients while also encouraging the pharmaceutical industry to identify the treatments of the future. Millions of people around the world … are counting on us to get this right” (8/23).

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Financial Times: Aid spending can help stabilize ‘fragile’ African countries
Elwyn Grainger-Jones, executive director of CGIAR System Organization

“…The relationship between development assistance and migration levels is complex. … Directing development aid to reduce pressure on fragile states impacted by unemployment, hunger, and climate change can help build greater stability so nations are less dramatically affected by the political, social, or environmental shocks that drive displacement. … Investing in ‘climate-smart’ agricultural technologies and practices, such as insurance schemes, drought-resistant crops, and water management, can make a difference. … If the U.K. is looking to tackle the root causes of migration and invest in the long-term stability and prosperity of African countries, then prioritizing stimulating employment opportunities, food security, and resilience to climate change will help Theresa May realize her ambitious plan” (9/4).

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Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s “Impatient Optimists”: Reflecting Back on a Grand Decade of Innovation
Steven Buchsbaum, deputy director of Discovery & Translational Sciences in the Global Health Program at the Gates Foundation, reflects on the foundation’s Grand Challenges initiative. Buchsbaum writes, “In 2018 and beyond, Grand Challenges is set to continue its central role in the foundation’s philanthropic portfolio. … I feel confident that the initiative’s smart approach of combining scientific innovation with the social science context will continue to prove hugely beneficial in the collective effort to tackle our greatest global health and development challenges” (8/27).

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PLOS Blogs’ “Speaking of Medicine”: PLOS Medicine Special Issue: New Tools and Strategies for Tuberculosis Diagnosis, Care, and Elimination
“The editors of PLOS Medicine together with guest editors [Claudia Denkinger, head of TB at FIND; Richard Chaisson, director of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Tuberculosis Research; and Mark Hatherill, director of the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative,] announce a forthcoming Special Issue focused on new approaches to alleviate the individual and epidemiological burden of tuberculosis…” (8/28).

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PATH: 7 ways public health in India has changed over the last decade
Neeraj Jain, PATH’s country director for India, highlights seven ways public health in India has changed over the past decade, including: “A downtrend in communicable diseases … A focus on prevention … Reduced neonatal mortality rates … Tackling antimicrobial resistance … Improved nutrition … Using digital health and artificial intelligence for social impact … Stronger government accountability” (8/23).

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NIH: HIV/AIDS research yields dividends across medical fields
“…Beyond the development of life-saving medications and innovative prevention modalities, [HIV/AIDS] research has led to numerous advances outside the HIV field, according to a new commentary from experts at NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Writing in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., and his colleague Tara A. Schwetz, Ph.D., note that researchers have gleaned critical insights from the devastation HIV can unleash on the immune system…” (8/28).

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USAID: Innovation and Impact Newsletter — August 2018
The August issue of USAID’s Innovation and Impact Newsletter features a report recapping the 8th annual Saving Lives at Birth DevelopmentXChange event, as well as a news round up of blog posts and articles on various development and global health innovations (August 2018).

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