What We’re Reading 11/6/09

Nov 6th, 2009 10:58 AM UTC
By Robyn Mitchell

Washington Post: Slowed funding threatens AIDS fight, group says
A new report by Doctors Without Borders warned that slowed funding from international donors, including the United States, is imperiling recent dramatic gains in treating AIDS patients in the developing world. The report highlights the fact that after years of expansion, funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, has leveled off, and less of its budget is dedicated to treatment. This, in hand with the global economic crisis and a number of other factors are causing financial support to taper, undermining progress in nations such as Uganda, where some clinics are refusing new patients.

The Economist: The HIV travel ban is lifted
After 22 years of America banning HIV-positive people from entering the country without “hard-to-get waiver,” President Obama has announced that he will do away with the rule. Starting in 2010, HIV-positive people will be able to travel to America and will also be able to apply for citizenship. According to the economist, reversing the travel ban may help Mr. Obama “combat HIV/AIDS domestically by emphasizing that it is a national disease, not one brought in by foreigners.” Here the Economist focuses on how this plays into President Obama’s policies towards homosexuality rather than contextualizing it within the fight against HIV/AIDS.

ABC News: Will Promising New Malaria Vaccine Deliver?
A new vaccine offering the best hope in the fight against the killer disease malaria could be on the market for African children in three to five years — but according to ABC News, the real challenge may be in making sure that it’s available in some of the poorest, most remote areas of Africa. With many life-saving medications in Africa, such as anti-retroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS, “getting them out to people has been nearly as difficult to deal with as manufacturing the drugs themselves.”

Financial Times: G20 ministers seek to counter skepticism
The Financial Times reports that finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of 20 leading nations will attempt this weekend to flesh out the group’s plan for stronger and more balanced growth as the world emerges from recession. Meeting for the third time this year, the finance ministers’ gathering in St Andrews, Scotland, will seek to counter the lingering skepticism that the new framework for strong, sustainable and balanced growth is another example of “toothless international posturing that will have little practical impact.”

Reuters: China adopts “malaria diplomacy” as part of Africa push
Reuters reports that China is working to improve and enhance the use of the best proven anti-malaria drug, artemisinin, to fight the disease both on its own soil, where the deadly disease has been sharply pruned back, but in Africa as well. China pledged to help Africa fight malaria at the triennial Forum on China and Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2006 and has since set up 30 anti-malaria and prevention units. Already, a Chinese-backed eradication program on a small island off Africa has proven a huge success.

Business Day: Food subsidy scheme for poor homes a blessing for small-scale farmers
A food subsidy scheme announced in Kenya this week could help create demand for farm produce and offer a lifeline to smallholder farmers who form a large pool of food suppliers to the poor. The scheme also means that Kenya is now in the league of some of its African peers who have implemented such plans to create social equity and cushion the poorest of the poor against hunger. According to Business Day, the plan could create an incentive to smallholder farmers whose principal clients, the poor, will have their purchasing power enhanced by the cash.

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