Current Global Health Issues

— International Women's Day 2012 Forum

   (Thursday, 08 March 2012 02:00)

Are you interested in maternal health as a student or as a professional? To mark IWD in Sydney, on 8 March the University of Sydney and Médecins Sans Frontières Australia are co-hosting a 90-minute forum on addressing the challenges of maternal health in resource-poor settings. Four speakers, midwives and obstetrician-gynaecologists, will present on critical issues in countries including Ethiopia, Nigeria and Papua New Guinea, and the intensification of efforts to improve mortality and morbidity rates for birthing women in settings like these. Doors open at 17:30 for tea and coffee. Presentations will commence at 18:00 interspersed with time for Q&A. Click...

— Melbourne

   (Saturday, 11 February 2012 08:00)

21 March 2012 - time and venue TBC.

21 March 2012 - time and venue TBC.

— Somalia: Four year old boy recovers from malnutrition

   (Thursday, 02 February 2012 18:03)

Four year old Khalif has been under treatment in Médecins Sans Frontières’ in-patient therapeutic feeding centre in the southern Somali town of Kismayo for just over two weeks when his mother, Abshiro Gedi, tells his remarkable story.

The family lives in Mayondo village, around 60 kilometres north of Kismayo, in an area that has been heavily affected by the ongoing crisis in Somalia. Two of Khalif’s brothers recently died because of complications arising from measles, and Khalif and his sister were also suffering the same disease. When one of Abshiro’s brothers,...

— Auckland

   (Sunday, 29 January 2012 20:29)

Date: Wednesday 18th April Time: 6.30pm Venue: Ernest and Marion Davis Library Auckland City Hospital, 2 Park Rd, Grafton, Auckland Map:

Date: Wednesday 18th April

Time: 6.30pm

Venue:

Ernest and Marion Davis Library

Auckland City Hospital,
2 Park Rd,
Grafton,
Auckland

Map:

— Dunedin

   (Sunday, 29 January 2012 20:27)

Date: Thursday, 12th April Time: 6.30pm Venue: St David's Seminar Room University of Otago, 364 Leith Walk, Dunedin

Date: Thursday, 12th April

Time: 6.30pm

Venue:

St David's Seminar Room

University of Otago,
364 Leith Walk,
Dunedin

— 'Humanosphere' Blog Examines Roles Of Former President Carter, Researcher Foege In Fighting NTDs

   (Friday, 03 February 2012 10:20)

This post in KPLU 88.5's "Humanosphere" blog examines how former President Jimmy Carter gave the fight against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) "a good first shove nearly 30 years ago," writing, "Neglected diseases like river blindness, Guinea worm, parasitic (lymphatic) elephantiasis and schistosomiasis have been in Carter's cross hairs since the mid-1980s." The blog adds, "Few would argue that it has been primarily the work of the Carter Center, carrying on the work of the CDC and others, that has brought the horrible parasitic disease Guinea worm so close to eradication today -- from millions of cases in the 1980s down...

— Republican Win In 2012 Election Could Spell End Of International Family Planning Programs

   (Friday, 03 February 2012 10:15)

"If a Republican becomes president, ... say goodbye to international programs providing birth control to women in desperately poor countries such as Liberia," senior contributing writer Michelle Goldberg writes in this Daily Beast opinion piece. Goldberg notes that birth control has become a "significant issue in the U.S. presidential campaign," writing, "All of the Republican candidates have slammed the administration's refusal to give religious institutions a broad exemption from the mandate that insurance cover family planning."

— Global Malaria Deaths Twice As High As Previously Estimated, IHME Study Suggests

   (Friday, 03 February 2012 09:51)

"Malaria is killing more people worldwide than previously thought, but the number of deaths has fallen rapidly as efforts to combat the disease have ramped up, according to new research from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington" published in the Lancet on Thursday, an IHME press release reports. "More than 1.2 million people died from malaria worldwide in 2010, nearly twice the number found in the most recent comprehensive study of the disease," the press release states (2/2). The study, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, "used new data and new...

— WHO Finds Very High Levels Of Drug-Resistant TB In Russia, Moldova

   (Friday, 03 February 2012 09:43)

"[T]he highest levels ever of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) have been found in Russia and Moldova," the WHO reports in research published in the February edition of the WHO Bulletin, but "the agency didn't have data from most of Africa and India, where tuberculosis rates are much higher," the Associated Press/USA Today's "Your Life" reports. According to the AP, the "experts reported that about 29 percent of new TB patients in parts of Russia were drug-resistant" and that "65 percent of previously treated patients in Moldova had resistance problems." The news service notes, "Normally, less than five percent of TB cases...

— DRC Facing Decline In Donor Funding, HIV Treatment Shortage

   (Friday, 03 February 2012 09:37)

"The lives of thousands of HIV-positive people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are at risk as the country faces declining donor funding and a severe shortage of HIV treatment, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)," PlusNews reports. "'The problem is quite old in the DRC; the country has always been minimized by donors who have not seen it as a priority, mainly because HIV prevalence is relatively low at between three and four percent,' Thierry Dethier, advocacy manager for MSF Belgium in the DRC, told IRIN/PlusNews," and he added, "But look at the indicators: more than one million...