Reuters: Maternal and newborn survival rates not improving-WHO
Mothers and newborns are no more likely to survive today than two decades ago, with prospects worst in countries battling AIDS, conflict and poverty, the World Health Statistics 2009 report showed on Thursday.

Associated Press: WHO says Japan, San Marino top life-expectancy list; Sierra Leone, Afghanistan fare worst
The AP reports on life expectancy figures. Most startling are figures for Sierra Leone and Afghanistan, where average life span for men is 39 and 42 years, respectively. There is some good news regarding child mortality, due to the increased use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets for malaria, oral rehydration therapy for diarrhea, better access to vaccines and improved water and sanitation in developing countries.

UPI: TB vaccine may become effective again
Scientists say the tuberculosis vaccine has not weakened but changed and could be made effective again. “Our findings represent nearly a 180-degree reversal from the dogma of the last 60 years — that the TB vaccine stopped working because it became over-attenuated and was too ‘wimpy’ to be effective,” Dr. Douglas Kernodle of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, the study leader, said in a statement.

Economist: The patient capitalist
Jacqueline Novogratz, a market-minded development expert believes the current crisis in capitalism strengthens her call for a sweeping change in how the world tackles poverty. In her recently published autobiography,“The Blue Sweater”, Novogratz describes her past frustrations working in such pillars of finance and development. In 2001 she set up Acumen Fund, a “social venture capital” outfit, to promote what she calls “patient capitalism”. Acumen is a mix of charity and traditional investment fund.

The Guardian: Can African governments afford to invest more in health?
The Guardian’s Katine Chronicles reports that a Kenyan NGO has criticized African governments for not spending enough on healthcare, particularly tackling HIV/Aids, and for relying too much on overseas support. As a Ugandan newspaper reports that the country is ‘running out’ of HIV testing kits, is the NGO right to say it’s time African states took more responsibility for funding its services?

Washington Times: Senate upholds IMF contribution
The Senate blocked a Republican bid to strip a $100 billion contribution to the International Monetary Fund from President Obama’s emergency war-spending bill, as the legislation moved toward passage late Thursday evening. The amendment to axe the IMF donation – pledged by Mr. Obama at last month’s Group of 20 summit in London to help poor countries weather the global economic slowdown – failed in a 30-64 vote.

AFP: World poor have little access to microcredit: experts
The vast majority of the world’s poor still have no access to microloans that have been hailed as a good way to eradicate poverty, experts said Thursday at an international conference in Madrid.

-Chandler Smith