US House panel to tackle 2013 foreign aid cuts – The Republican-led House Appropriations subcommittee on State and foreign operations’ will vote May 9 on “a proposal to reduce funding for U.S. bilateral aid and global health programs, and impose ‘significant cuts’ to the country’s contributions to multilateral development banks.” The draft budget provides $40.1 billion in regular discretionary funding for the Department of State, USAID and related programs, which is $2 billion less than current funding levels and $7 billion less than the budget requested by President Obama. (Devex, Ivy Mungcal)
FDA review favors first drug for HIV prevention – The Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday that Gilead Sciences’ Truvada “appears to be safe and effective for HIV prevention.” The FDA concluded that the pill “could spare patients infection with a serious and life-threatening illness that requires lifelong treatment.” There have yet to be any other drugs proven to prevent HIV, and a vaccine is still believed to be decades away. (AP, Matthew Perrone)
Campaign Aims to Help End Childhood HIV Infections – UNAIDS has launched the Believe it, Do it campaign to help eliminate new HIV infections among children by 2015. UNAIDS officials estimate that 3.4 million children under the age of 15 are currently living with HIV, and 400,000 children become infected with the AIDS virus every year. The Believe it. Do it campaign is being launched prior to Mother’s Day with the premise that “every day is Mother’s Day.” (VOA, Joe DeCapua)
IMF to offer assurances to unlock aid for Malawi – The IMF will “send letters to Malawi’s donor nations telling them it approves the country’s effort to seek financing to that they can release funds to help prop up its rapidly dwindling foreign exchange reserves.” Malawi devalued its kwacha currency on Monday in an effort to unlock foreign aid, but Malawi now only has enough foreign currency reserves to cover one month’s imports, “raising concerns the devaluation will hit companies and the poor if prices climb.” (Reuters, Mabvuto Banda)
