It was just announced today at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna that an estimated 5.2 million people globally were on life-saving antiretroviral treatment for HIV at the end of 2009. This latest estimate from the WHO represents an additional 1.2 million people on treatment compared to the number in 2008. Increased leadership and resources
Officials from Australia, Indonesia and the Global Fund just announced an agreement that will boost support to Indonesia’s tuberculosis control programs. The Debt2Health agreement helps redirect money from servicing debt to improving public health. Australia will cancel AUD$75 million of Indonesia’s debt and Indonesia will put half of this amount into national programs to fight
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report included promising information on a significant drop in polio cases in Nigeria. One of four remaining polio-endemic countries, Nigeria had the highest number of polio cases anywhere in the world (an estimated 798) in 2008. In 2009, the number was more
Last week, my colleagues Erin, Margaret and I (that’s us in the lab coats) went on a tour of the Aeras Global TB Vaccine facility in Rockville, Maryland. We were there to learn more about the need for a new tuberculosis (TB) vaccine and to see how the vaccine development process works. A new vaccine
Check out these great videos from the WHO that movingly display the need to move to 100% polio eradication, and the plan that was launched to do just that:
This morning, the State Department, USAID and the Department of Health and Human Services released a joint press release announcing the first round of “GHI Plus” countries, and providing details on the program’s governance. As we have described before, the U.S. Global Health Initiative (GHI) is a $63 billion initiative to coordinate and expand U.S.
Ayuba Gufwan is a polio survivor and the Executive Director of Wheelchairs for Nigeria and the Beautiful Gate Initiative. He is in Geneva today to help formally launch the new 2010-2012 Strategic Plan for eradicating polio. I had the pleasure of asking Ayuba a few questions about his experience with polio and how he is
On Monday I was in New York City for the launch of an important report charting Africa’s progress in the fight against malaria and the major efforts still needed. Released by the Roll Back Malaria Partnership (RBM) and UNICEF, World Malaria Day 2010: Africa Update shows that increased funding for malaria control programs has resulted
A study published in The Lancet this week reports that maternal mortality has declined significantly for the first time in decades. The study, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and conducted by researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle and the University of Queensland in Brisbane, found that the number of women
Monday was World Water Day, but if you are still thirsty for more information on this critical issue, take a look at the Pulitzer Center’s online water gateway, DOWNSTREAM: Our Water, Our Lives. This interactive site houses a wealth of information on water. Among many features, DOWNSTREAM examine water in terms of health, economics, conflict/cooperation,
Chad, along with eighteen other African countries, began immunization of 85 million children against polio in a massive immunization campaign. The campaign has high level support and was launched by Heads of State and Health Ministers across the continent on March 6. President Idris Deby Itno of Chad initiated the campaign by immunizing a child
The WHO just released its 2010 report on multidrug and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (M/XDR-TB) surveillance and response, providing the latest information on the status of this global epidemic. The alarming news from this report is that in some areas of the world, one in four people who were infected with tuberculosis became ill with a
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