“The World Health Organization endorsed a new, rapid test for tuberculosis Wednesday that cuts the diagnosis time for patients from months to hours,” CNN reports (Gray, 12/8).

“Tanzania, Mozambique and Niger spend the most on child wellbeing in Africa – with Sudan, Angola and Burundi at the bottom of the table,” according to an African Child Policy Forum (ACPF) report, which was launched in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Tuesday at the opening of the Fourth International Policy Conference on the African Child, Deutsche Presse-Agentur/M&C reports (12/7).

Years after deadlines for polio and guinea worm eradication came and went without achieving their intended goals Science magazine examines efforts to strengthen disease eradication. The topic was front and center of a meeting of public health experts earlier this year in Frankfurt, Germany, that “sought a new way forward” on disease eradication, the magazine reports. “The participants, many of them involved in past and current eradications, believed that eradication campaigns should continue. But ‘proceed with caution’ could have been the motto” of a report the group drafted during the meeting, according to Science.

The rate of health care-associated infections in developing countries is more than three times the rate of cases in the U.S. and more than double the rate in Europe, according to a study published Friday in the Lancet, BBC reports (12/9).

“Detailed genetic tests confirm that the cholera strain that has killed more than 2,000 people in Haiti came from South Asia and most closely resembles a strain circulating in Bangladesh,” according to a study published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, Reuters reports (12/9).

A recent poll found that respondents “vastly overestimate[d]” the amount the U.S. government spends on foreign aid, PBS NewsHour reports. “The median answer was roughly 25 percent, according to the poll of 848 Americans. In reality, about 1 percent of the budget is allotted to foreign aid,” the news service writes (Sullivan, 12/6).

UNICEF on Thursday launched a $1.2 billion appeal aimed at providing “life saving emergency assistance to millions of children and women in dire need,” VOA News reports (Schlein, 2/4). “The appeal is part of UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action Report 2010, released in Geneva … which spotlights the desperate situation of children and women in 28 countries and territories facing deep humanitarian crises,” the U.N. News Centre writes (2/4).

Poor Grain Harvest To Worsen Food Shortages In N. Korea A poor grain harvest in 2009 is likely to exacerbate North Korea’s severe food shortages, Agence France-Presse reports (2/9). “The North is estimated to have produced 4.1 million tons of grain last year, a drop of about 200,000 tons compared…

“India has postponed the launch of its first genetically modified (GM) vegetable, saying it would adopt a cautious approach and wait for more scientific studies on the impact of the new variety of eggplant,” Reuters reports (Majumdar, 2/9).

A coalition of more than 150 humanitarian groups expressed “concern” in a letter Thursday that more than half of the U.S. government’s disaster-assistance program budget has been pledged to help Haiti, which they say could mean cuts for aid to countries such as Sudan or Somalia, the Washington Post reports.