Washington Post: Report recommends consolidating State Dept. foreign aid programs under USAID
“The latest in a series of high-level reports and recommendations for revamping the State Department proposes expanding the size and mission of the U.S. Agency for International Development to encompass all U.S. assistance now spread across dozens of diplomatic, civilian, and military agencies. The report, by 10 former senior officials in both Republican and Democratic administrations, was requested last year by Congress and compiled under the auspices of the Atlantic Council. It is to be formally released Wednesday…” (DeYoung, 9/5).

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Healio: Trump budget cuts threaten antimicrobial stewardship
“The significant budget cuts proposed by President Donald J. Trump’s administration threaten recent progress on combating antimicrobial resistance, according to a commentary published in Annals of Internal Medicine. … The cuts would also hinder the global health security efforts of the CDC and United States Agency for International Development by substantially reducing support for global surveillance and increasing the chance that multidrug-resistant pathogens will spreading across borders undetected, according to [Helen W. Boucher, director of the infectious diseases fellowship program at Tufts Medical Center and associate professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine,] and colleagues…” (Demko, 9/5).

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Al Jazeera: What is fueling Yemen’s cholera epidemic?
“With Yemen mired in the third year of a war led by Saudi Arabia and its allies, the country’s population is facing a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented proportions. … Al Jazeera spoke with Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization, about the impacts of the current cholera epidemic on Yemen’s vulnerable population…” (O’Toole, 9/5).

Deutsche Welle: U.N.: Civilian death toll in Yemen exceeds 5,000
“A report from the United Nations has found more than 5,000 people have died in Yemen in the past two-and-a-half years. … The report, released by the United Nations human rights office on Tuesday, also found that more than 20 percent of the 5,144 people that died between March 2015 and August 30, 2017 were children. An additional 8,749 people have been injured…” (9/5).

The Guardian: ‘Man-made catastrophe’: Yemen conflict has killed 1,100 children, says U.N.
“More than 1,100 children have been killed in Yemen, most in airstrikes by the Saudi military coalition, while some as young as 10 have been recruited to fight, according to the latest U.N. figures on the three-year conflict…” (McVeigh, 9/5).

U.N. News Centre: Yemen: U.N. report urges probe into rights violations amid ‘entirely man-made catastrophe’
“The United Nations human rights chief has called for an independent, international investigation into the allegations of serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in Yemen, in a new report published [Tuesday]…” (9/5).

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New York Times: Desperate Rohingya Flee Myanmar Crackdown in Growing Numbers, U.N. Says
“At least 123,000 Rohingya have fled from western Myanmar into neighboring Bangladesh since late last month, the United Nations said on Tuesday, as a military crackdown has destroyed villages and killed hundreds. … Aid agencies say the [Myanmar] government has continued to block their access to Rakhine State, increasing the risk to people of all ethnic groups fleeing the violence…” (Ramzy, 9/5).

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Reuters: Thousands hit by malaria, dengue as South Asia’s worst floods in a decade recede
“Thousands of people are suffering from an outbreak of diarrhea, malaria, and dengue in Bangladesh and Nepal as the waters from the worst floods in a decade recede, officials and aid agencies said on Wednesday…” (Narayan, 9/6).

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Thomson Reuters Foundation: From Ebola to mudslides, Sierra Leone learns painful disaster lessons
“Experience gained taming West Africa’s Ebola outbreak is helping Sierra Leone deal with its recent mudslide disaster, but urgent action is needed to prevent future catastrophes, experts say…” (Lazareva, 9/5).

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Associated Press: Italy orders investigation after child dies of malaria
“Italy’s health ministry has ordered an investigation into the death of a four-year-old girl from malaria after checks determined she hadn’t traveled to any country at risk for the disease…” (9/6).

BBC News: Rare malaria death of girl in northern Italy puzzles doctors
“…Italy is free of the Anopheles mosquito that carries cerebral malaria, the deadliest form of the blood disease. But after a scorching August, some fear that it might have reached Italy. A flight could have brought it in. [The girl] had been on holiday with her parents at Bibione, an Adriatic resort near Venice…” (9/5).

NBC News: Malaria May Be Back in Italy After Decades Amid ‘Very Hot Summer’
“…Dr. Claudio Paternoster, director of the infectious diseases ward at Santa Chiara hospital in Trento, said that he had not seen a case of home-grown malaria during his 30-year career…” (Lavanga, 9/5).

NPR: In A Case That Is ‘Almost Impossible,’ Girl Dies Of Malaria In Italy
“…While patient-to-patient transmission of the disease is rare, it is possible. Yet Paternoster tells Corriere della Sera that the girl was treated in a different ward from [two malaria-infected children from Burkina Faso] and she did not have a blood transfusion…” (Held, 9/5).

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Newsweek: Hacking Health: Has Silicon Valley Found Its Soul on a Mountaintop in Utah?
“In late August, tech titans, startup founders, and fluffy-haired ‘Burners’ gathered with international surgeons and nonprofit leaders at Summit, a private mountain retreat in Utah, to try to hack global health. … [C]an Summit’s approach — disrupting public health by leveraging the power of leaders in seemingly unrelated fields — help make [change] happen? Is a few days of conversation on a mountaintop really enough?…” (Jones, 9/5).

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Devex: CEPI announces call for proposals to innovate vaccines
“With a call for proposals on Tuesday, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations aims to shorten the usually long time it takes to develop vaccines for emerging diseases. This call, open to a range of companies, foundations, and research and development institutions, asks for ideas for ‘new approaches to vaccine development’ that will ‘support the development of rapid response platforms for vaccine development, a core part of CEPI’s mission,’ Richard Hatchett, the CEO of CEPI told Devex…” (Saldinger, 9/6).

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STAT: Facing the bioterrorism threat: New Stanford group aims to find ways to minimize risks
“Few topics generate more fear — in Hollywood movies and real life — than a biological weapons attack. [Last] week Stanford University launched a Biosecurity Initiative that will bring together biologists, bioengineers, legal scholars, and policy experts to coordinate research and education about these threats. One key goal: To help scientists understand how to mitigate risks that might come from their own experiments…” (Piller, 9/1).

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Devex: Opinion: To House colleagues: Support aid to help women rebuild from crises
Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Pa.)

“…U.S. funding to humanitarian organizations is vital to reach … women and families in need. … Knowing the critical role our foreign assistance plays, I encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to stand up and protect this funding from any further cuts and ask them to fight to restore critical funding that is slated to be eliminated. Foreign assistance, which accounts for roughly one percent of the federal budget, saves lives, particularly during catastrophes like the Syrian civil war, and it prevents similar crises from occurring in other endangered areas of the world. … [T]he Trump administration’s proposed budget would endanger the efforts of the U.S. government and partners … These cuts would halt progress, cost lives, and create continued suffering and pain in communities around the globe. … We have an obligation to make sure [the federal budget] reflects our country’s core values and stand by our long and proud bipartisan legacy of foreign policy leadership. It is time for us to step up and live our humanitarian values out loud” (9/5).

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Lexington Herald Leader: Call on Congress to adequately fund global health programs
Josh Rouse, global outreach pastor at Northeast Christian Church and member of Hope Through Healing Hands’ Faith-based Coalition for Healthy Mothers & Children Worldwide

“…Our elected officials need to hear from the American people — and especially Americans of faith — advocating for helping those most in need, especially in fighting devastating epidemics. Voters’ expressions of support for global health could then help sustain U.S. leadership in the 2018 appropriations bills, a process which has markedly reduced the scourges of AIDS, TB, and malaria over the past 15 years. … By stopping diseases before they reach our shores and strengthening communities that buy American goods, we are helping to make America safer and boosting U.S. and global economies. … I urge Kentuckians to join faith leaders from across the country in expressing their support for these crucial global health programs. We have the power to save millions of lives and end these deadly diseases for this generation and many more to come” (9/5).

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The National: One of the key pillars of this country’s foreign policy is humanitarian relief
Jamal Sanad Al Suwaidi, director general of the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research

“The UAE aims to make its mark in the field of humanitarian work. It has achieved this aim by launching a series of initiatives to confront challenges and strengthen global resilience to natural disasters. … In fact, one of the key pillars of this country’s foreign policy is humanitarian work. … There are extensive statistics that prove that the UAE’s humanitarian approach is a core part of its foreign policy. … Two initiatives, in particular, stand out in that they have attracted the attention of the international community and humanitarian organizations. These are the UAE Water Aid (Suqia) campaign and the Polio Eradication Initiative. … [T]he UAE has borne its fair share of international social responsibility. … [T]he UAE works in philanthropy apolitically, raising zero suspicion of funding extremism. This is why its endeavors are always welcome, not just by international charity organizations, but by governments around the world” (9/5).

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Center for Strategic & International Studies’ “Take As Directed”: What are the barriers to reaching children with immunizations?
Nellie Bristol, senior fellow at the Global Health Policy Center at CSIS, speaks with Jon Kim Andrus, adjunct professor and senior investigator in the Division of Vaccines and Immunization at the University of Colorado, and Lora Shimp, senior immunization technical expert and specialist in communication and behavior change with John Snow, Inc., on immunization systems improvements and barriers to vaccinating children (8/11).

Center for Strategic & International Studies’ “Take As Directed”: What happened at the July 2017 International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Science?
Sara Allinder, deputy director and senior fellow at the Global Health Policy Center at CSIS, speaks with Lisa Carty, director of the U.S. Liaison Office of UNAIDS, and Chris Beyrer, Desmond Tutu professor of public health and human rights at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, about the main outcomes of the International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on HIV Science that took place in July (8/14).

Center for Strategic & International Studies’ “Take As Directed”: GHTC Report: Return on Innovation
Steve Morrison, senior vice president and director of the Global Health Policy Center at CSIS, speaks with Courtney Carson, policy and advocacy officer at the Global Health Technologies Coalition, about a new report on why global health R&D is a smart investment for the U.S. (8/15).

Center for Strategic & International Studies’ “Take As Directed”: Global Tuberculosis and U.S. Health Security
Sara Allinder speaks with Audrey Jackson, GHPC senior fellow, about the threat of drug-resistant tuberculosis and its impact on U.S. health security, and offers recommendations on how the U.S. can protect itself from the risk of global tuberculosis (8/16).

Center for Strategic & International Studies’ “Take As Directed”: Why CDC Must Work Globally to Protect Americans’ Health and Security
Steve Morrison speaks with Rebecca Martin, director of the Center for Global Health at the CDC, about “CDC’s work in health security and recent experiences with Ebola and Zika” (8/17).

Center for Strategic & International Studies’ “Take As Directed”: Polio Outbreak in War-Torn Syria
Steve Morrison speaks with John Vertefeuille, polio eradication branch chief and incident manager in the Global Immunization Division at the CDC, about the outbreak of vaccine-related polio cases in Syria, the response effort, and what the outbreak means for the region moving forward (8/21).

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Center for Global Health Policy’s “Science Speaks”: Study finds small savings, high costs in both dollars and lives from global HIV funding cuts
Antigone Barton, senior editor and writer of “Science Speaks,” discusses findings from a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine on the potential impact of HIV funding cuts. Barton notes, “Cutbacks to HIV services driven by diminishing donor dollars would result in reductions of no more than 30 percent of current spending, while inflicting individual and public health costs out of any proportion to the amounts of money saved, a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found…” (9/5).

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Aidspan: Global Fund Observer
Aidspan, an independent watchdog of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, published Issue 319 of the “Global Fund Observer.” The newsletter features articles on various topics, including funding absorption failures among some African countries and the process of selecting the Global Fund’s next executive director (9/6).

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USAID: On-The-Record Roundtable Interview With USAID Administrator Mark Green
This press release features a transcript of an on-the-record roundtable interview with USAID Administrator Mark Green, Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General Jose Graziano de Silva, World Food Programme Executive Director David Beasley, and International Fund for Agricultural Development President Gilbert Houngbo. They discuss proposed U.S. budget cuts and the conflict in South Sudan with journalists (9/1).

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