Entries related to "Global Health"The Power of Activism: TB vs. HIVRESULTS’ Paul Jensen reports from the 2009 International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention in Cape Town, South Africa, on why a lack of public activism around tuberculosis has slowed progress, while advocacy for HIV/AIDS has yielded huge successes. Fighting TB in the CommunityIn her second blog from the codel, Jen reports on a community-based care program in a poor area of Zambia's capital that reaches out to those co-infected with TB-HIV. MDR-TB Photos Displayed in U.S. CapitolIt is one thing to tell members of Congress about the suffering caused by deadly diseases like tuberculosis in the world’s poorest countries. It is another thing to bring graphic evidence of the horror of TB to the esteemed halls of the greatest legislative building in the country. . . . How the Media Can Impact PolicyThe second joint plenary of the day treated us to a session with John Donnelly and Glenn Thomas, who presented their work to us on Airborne, a photojournalism project produced by the World Health Organization that looks at drug-resistant TB. John Donnelly is a renowned global health journalist who has previously written for the Boston Globe. Glenn Thomas is the communications officer of the WHO Stop TB Partnership. Marching for TBRESULTS’ Paul Jensen participates in a march in Cape Town demanding better diagnostics and access to treatment for tuberculosis. New Report Making Waves in the Global Health CommunityA new report is out by a coalition of international health groups and advocacy organizations working across a spectrum of global health issues. The report, The Future of Global Health: Ingredients for a Bold and Effective U.S. Initiative, details how major accomplishments in global health over the last decade demonstrate that adequately resourced programs, focused on achieving specific results, can improve health outcomes for millions and support economic progress. It also highlights that distinct public health challenges are closely interconnected and that a comprehensive and integrated strategy is needed to ensure that ambitious health goals are met. Cuts That Kill: The Senate Must Restore Global Health FundingFrom Joanne's Huffington Post Blog Last week Congress approved a two-week extension of federal funding to avoid a looming government shutdown. The vote postpones -- but does not resolve -- potentially devastating cuts to global health programs. The House-proposed bill for the balance of 2011 proposes deep cuts to some of the most effective investments the US makes globally, including a drastic 40 percent reduction for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. In a recent interview Michael Gerson, a former speechwriter and advisor to President George W. Bush, called the cuts "irrelevant and destructive." He's right on both counts, and there's still time for Congress to reverse course. The cuts are irrelevant to the deficit problem that members of Congress are ostensibly trying to solve. Our entire foreign aid portfolio amounts to little more than a rounding error in the federal budget. Foreign aid focused on health, education, economic opportunity, and other anti-poverty programs account for less than 1 percent of federal spending. Even if Americans believed that erasing these programs was a good idea -- and they don't, as public opinion polls consistently reveal -- it wouldn't put a dent in the deficit. These cuts are destructive because they would be measured in human lives. Marking a "Polio Free" Year in IndiaA year has passed by since the last wild polio case was detected in India. Indian investment and global support have brought things to this critical watershed moment. The next challenge is to maintain another 24 months of polio free status to truly be able to say that endemic wild polio transmission in India is a thing of the past, and to use the experience and infrastructure to raise the rates of immunization coverage among all children for the other diseases for which vaccines are available. |