Source: New York Times
By DONALD G. McNEIL JR.
Published: December 8, 2008

A major limitation on journalists covering global health is the cost: getting to a story can mean airfare to Africa or Asia, hotels, Jeep rentals, satellite phones, translators, sometimes even armed guards.

Meanwhile, many news organizations are cutting back.

Now the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which spends billions on global health, is taking a direct route to ensuring coverage.

Last week, “The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer” received a Gates Foundation grant of $3.5 million to help its correspondents produce 40 to 50 reports over three years on malaria, AIDS, tuberculosis, measles, neglected diseases and other global health issues.

It came with “no strings,” said Patti Parson, managing producer of “NewsHour,” which is seen on 315 PBS stations. If her reporters found a story critical of the foundation’s work and Mr. Gates objected, she said, “we’d let him defend it, of course, but we’d proceed with the story.”

This is the foundation’s most overt financing of health journalism, but not the first. It has given $6 million to WGBH in Boston for a series on global health; $5 million to Public Radio International, a partnership between American public radio and the BBC; $2 million to the International Center for Journalists to train African reporters; $1.2 million to Harvard for fellowships for health reporters; and $1.6 million to Johns Hopkins to send top editors on a fact-finding trip to poor countries.

And because fictional plotlines may be even more persuasive, it gave $1.4 million to a University of Southern California program that advises television and film writers on medical issues.

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Read full article at The New York Times

Source: Wall Street Journal
9/12/08
By JEANNE WHALEN

LONDON — The fight against malaria, one of the world’s biggest killers, has just gotten a booster.

An experimental vaccine has shown promise in two studies in African children, who account for the majority of the more than one million victims that malaria claims every year. Published online Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the studies affirm encouraging results from earlier trials of the vaccine, known only as “RTS,S.” It is being developed by GlaxoSmithKline PLC and the Path Malaria Vaccine Initiative, or MVI, a charitable group funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

“We are one important step closer to the date when malaria will join diseases like smallpox and polio, that have been either eradicated or controlled by vaccines,” Christian Loucq, director of MVI, said of the results. If the vaccine does well in a larger study to determine whether the shot is truly safe and effective, it could be ready for use as soon as 2011.

The development illustrates how some deep-pocketed charities are breathing new life into research for potentially life-saving drugs that pharmaceutical companies saw as too risky or unprofitable to pursue.

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Read full article at The Wall Street Journal

Dec 4, 2008

LONDON (AFP) — The govenment announced 10 million pounds of emergency aid to help tackle Zimbabwe’s cholera crisis Thursday, while denouncing President Robert Mugabe as leader of a “failed state.”

The pledge came as Zimbabwe pleaded for international help after declaring the epidemic that has killed over 560 people a national emergency, and admitted that hospitals are no longer working.

“Mugabe’s failed state is no longer willing or capable of protecting its people. Thousands are stricken with cholera, and must be helped urgently,” said Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose country is the former colonial power in Zimbabwe.

“The international community’s differences with Mugabe will not prevent us doing so — we are increasing our development aid, and calling on others to follow suit.”

And he added: “For once we agree with the government of Zimbabwe — this is a national emergency.”

Britain is a fierce critic of Mugabe’s leadership, calling it a “criminal cabal.” British aid to Zimbabweans is channelled through non-governmental bodies rather than Mugabe’s regime.
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Read full article at AFP

Source: VOA News
By Jessica Berman
Washington
04 December 2008
Health officials say aggressive efforts to vaccinate young children against measles have resulted in a 74 percent global decline in the number of deaths due to the illness. Experts say the biggest decline, 90 percent, occurred in the Eastern Mediterranean region.

Global health officials say that from 2000 through 2007, the number of measles deaths worldwide dropped from 750,000 to 197,000. In the Eastern Mediterranean, the number of deaths due to measles fell from 96,000 to 10,000 during the same period.

The World Health Organization, or WHO, has set a goal of cutting measles deaths overall by 90 percent by the end of the decade. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and the Sudan have already achieved that goal, while other countries are not far behind.

But Peter Strebel of the WHO warns that those involved in the fight against measles cannot let their guard down.

“Countries must plan and budget for periodic nationwide national measles vaccination campaigns to make sure all children are protected by vaccination,” said Strebel.

Strebel says 500 children per day die of the disease, which is easily prevented through immunizations. The vast majority of measles deaths occur in children under the age of five.

Global health officials say the hot spot is India, where eradication efforts lag the rest of the world. According to the latest figures released by the World Health Organization, measles deaths in India have been reduced by 67 percent during the past eight years.

Last year, officials say there were an estimated 130,000 measles deaths in India.

Edward Hoekstra of the United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF, says India will begin stepping up its measles vaccination efforts.
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Read full article at VOA News