What We’re Reading: Week of September 6 - 10
Posted by
Robert Yule
Washington, D.C.
September 10, 2010
This week we were especially moved by a posting on
our blog from Foundation Ambassador Suzan Meredith, who shared the story of her family’s personal fight against HIV.
See below for the other articles we were reading:
Funding News:
Reuters reported on Johnson & Johnson’s five year pledge to improve the health of 120 million women and children as part of the efforts to achieve the UN’s
Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
In related news,
Agence France-Presse wrote on dual reports from
UNICEF and
Save the Children issued this week urging for greater equality of spending on health services for the world’s poorer women and children.
The Associated Press reported on a call by doctors, activists, and Graca Machel – wife of former South African President Nelson Mandela – for African leaders to honor their pledges to devote more of their countries’ budgets to healthcare.
The Los Angeles Times and the
San Francisco Chronicle both wrote editorials about the Obama administration’s funding commitments to the
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
Research News:
The New York Times reported on the lack of funding for additional studies on vaginal microbicides, a promising new way to prevent HIV infection in women. The results of a South African study on microbicides released at the
AIDS 2010 conference in July showed increased protection for women against HIV.
Bloomberg covered a study indicating that a cheaper HIV drug produced by Boehringer Ingelheim was more effective for HIV-positive infants than a more expensive drug from Abbott Laboratories, which could have implications about which drug should be used in resource-poor countries.
HealthDay News wrote about other research from Johns Hopkins that HIV-positive children on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) may require revaccination for other childhood diseases.
Voice of America reported on a new strategic research plan released this week by the
Council of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise to help jumpstart new AIDS vaccine trials.
International HIV/AIDS News:
IRIN’s PlusNews reported on women in nomadic communities in Kenya who have trouble accessing services to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV in the remote areas in which they live.
South Africa’s Mail & Guardian wrote about cases of forced sterilization of HIV-positive women in Namibia and other countries in the region, a human rights issue also covered by a
recent report issued by the
Harvard Program on International Health and Human Rights.
Robert Yule is the Foundation's Media Manager, based in Washington, D.C.