Also In Global Health News: HIV/AIDS Stigma In China; USAID; MDR-TB In Ethiopia; Zoonotic Diseases

IPS Reports On Stigma, Discrimination Among People Living With HIV/AIDS In China 

In follow-up coverage of the news that China lifted a decades-old HIV/AIDS travel ban, Inter Press Service reports that “erasing the stigma attached” to the virus is difficult in China.  “‘What we are lacking now is in-depth HIV and AIDS education in China,’ said Wan Yanhai, founder and director of the AIZHI Institute of Health Education…the first AIDS-focused non-government organisation in China,” according to IPS. “In a recent survey, 84 percent of those who answered opposed lifting the ban” (Gillet, 4/29).

Financial Times Examines USAID’s Role Under Obama Administration

The Financial Times looks at USAID’s role in the Obama administration, noting its recent work in Haiti and on employee recruitment, a major priority for USAID’s administrator, Rajiv Shah. He said, “Whatever it is we’re trying to do in the world – whether it’s lowering the number of women who die in childbirth, or eradicating a disease, or trying to bring democratic governance to parts of the world that are in transition – it takes staff who are smart and optimistic, and who understand how to invest in people” (4/28).

IRIN Reports On MDR-TB In Ethiopia

IRIN reports on the challenges Ethiopia faces in trying to diagnose and treat multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), including a shortage of facilities equipped to manage MDR-TB and high turnover among health workers who work on such cases. “Ethiopia, which ranks seventh on WHO’s list of 22 high burden TB countries globally, is one of three countries in Africa with more than 5,000 estimated new MDR-TB infections annually. Of these, 1.6 percent of new cases and 11.8 percent of re-treatment cases are MDR-TB,” according to the the news service, which profiles the only clinic able to treat MDR-TB in the country (4/28).

Newsweek Highlights Spread, Surveillance Of Zoonotic Diseases Worldwide

Newsweek examines the spread and surveillance of zoonotic diseases, which originate in animals and jump to humans. The article mentions a recent report, which “found that there is ‘no single example’ in the U.S. or anywhere else of a well-functioning zoonotic disease surveillance system—despite the fact that outbreaks of these diseases are increasing and they can spread rapidly, thanks to international trade and travel.” It also looks at USAID’s $400 million, five-year Emerging Pandemic Threats program (Kalb, 4/27).

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