VOA News: U.N. to Aid Central Africa in Polio Vaccinations “The United Nations said it is assisting six Central African countries in organizing synchronized vaccinations after Cameroon reported a fifth case of the wild polio virus in its territory…” (Kindzeka, 10/21).

Xinhua/GlobalPost: Experts laud civil society for implementing Beijing declaration in Africa “African experts have highlighted the contribution of civil society to efforts made to accelerating the implementation of the Beijing declaration, a commitment by governments to ensure gender equality and women’s empowerment among others. … A two-day consultation dubbed Beijing+20…

Thomson Reuters Foundation: Ghana’s success in fight against hunger has lessons for others “As India starts its version of Brazil’s famous zero hunger campaign, the world’s most populous democracy could take some inspiration from Ghana. The West African country ‘has met zero hunger,’ Jose Graziano da Silva, head of the…

News outlets report a U.N. Ebola fund has received more donations in recent days. Associated Press: U.N. has praise as money starts to flow in for Ebola “The United Nations secretary-general is welcoming the cash and promises from countries in response to last week’s news that a U.N. trust fund…

News outlets report on Cuba’s contributions to Ebola efforts in West Africa. Agence France-Presse: Cuban response to Ebola outbreak helps thaw relations with U.S. “Cuba’s contribution of hundreds of doctors and nurses to fight Ebola puts the island at the forefront of the international response and is even thawing relations…

FOX News Latino: 300,000 people in U.S. have Chagas disease as country unsure how to deal with growing threat “…Chagas — along with its cousins dengue fever and the chikungunya virus — is a disease found mainly in Latin America, but is starting to gain a foothold in the U.S.…

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s “Impatient Optimists”: Supply Chains for Global Health David Sarley, senior program officer at the Gates Foundation, discusses lessons that three Seattle-area companies — Starbucks, Microsoft, and Trident Seafood — can provide to improve public health supply chains (10/21).

News outlets report on President Obama’s statement on Wednesday expressing cautious optimism regarding the Ebola situation in the United States. Associated Press/Washington Post: Obama: Ebola gave ‘trial run’ for worse epidemic “President Barack Obama says he’s cautiously more optimistic about the Ebola situation in the U.S., and that the virus…

CIDRAP News: Turkey has first MERS case; Saudi Arabia acts to stop cluster “Turkey has confirmed its first MERS-CoV case, involving a man who visited Saudi Arabia, according to media reports, and Saudi Arabia announced steps today to stop an ongoing cluster of cases in Taif, where three more have…

Population Council: Building the Assets to Thrive: Addressing the HIV-related Vulnerabilities of Adolescent Girls in Ethiopia This report, written by Annabel Erulkar, a senior associate and country director for Ethiopia at the Population Council, provides a review of three programs addressing HIV risk among adolescent girls in Ethiopia launched by…