KFF Daily Global Health Policy Report

In The News

U.N. SG Ban Promises Additional Aid To Haiti Following Hurricane Matthew; U.N. Deputy Chief Outlines New Approach To Cholera Outbreak

Deutsche Welle: U.N. chief examines Haiti destruction amid cholera controversy
“While visiting victims of Hurricane Matthew, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the destruction by the storm as ‘heartbreaking,’ expressing disappointment at scant emergency aid reaching the struggling nation…” (10/16).

New York Times: Cholera Deepens Haiti’s Misery After Hurricane
“…A week has passed since the hurricane tore through this remote stretch of Haiti’s southern peninsula, leaving an apocalyptic landscape of treeless countryside, disarticulated homes, and a land robbed of its natural riches. But for many, the torment has only started. Cholera, the disease at the heart of Haiti’s last disaster, is being spread again by this one…” (Ahmed, 10/15).

Reuters: Looting near U.N. base in Haiti; Ban promises more aid
“Haitians desperate for relief from hunger and sickness in the wake of Hurricane Matthew looted United Nations trucks on Saturday during a short visit to a hard-hit port town by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who promised more aid…” (Brice et al., 10/15).

U.N. News Centre: U.N. deputy chief briefs Member States on new U.N. approach to cholera outbreak in Haiti
“Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said [Friday] that the first track of the new United Nations approach to tackling cholera involves intensifying efforts to treat and eliminate the disease and boost access to clean water and sanitation; and the second track aims to develop a framework proposal to member states for material assistance to those Haitians most affected by cholera after the 2010 outbreak…” (10/14).

U.N. News Centre: Haiti: U.N. supporting government to provide emergency food assistance to 750,000 people
“United Nations relief agencies are continuing work on the ground to assist Haiti in the aftermath of powerful Hurricane Matthew with the World Food Programme (WFP) [Friday] helping to provide supplies for some 750,000 people, while the U.N. health agency and its regional partner have appealed to donors for $9 million for emergency health operations…” (10/14).

U.N. News Centre: ‘The United Nations is with you,’ Ban tells people of Haiti after witnessing hurricane’s wrath
“Haiti is facing its largest humanitarian disaster since the 2010 earthquake, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said [Saturday] in Port-au-Prince, where he urged friends of the island nation worldwide to ‘step up’ and provide the resources the Haitian people so desperately need in the wake of the ‘utter devastation’ wrought by Hurricane Matthew…” (10/15).

VOA News: U.N. Chief Sees ‘Heartbreaking’ Suffering in Haiti
“…Shortly before Ban’s arrival at a U.N. base in Les Cayes, a minor skirmish broke out between residents and U.N. peacekeepers when trucks carrying food aid arrived. The U.N. force fired tear gas to restore order. A World Health Organization coordinator said two containers loaded with supplies from the World Food Programme also were looted outside the U.N. base on Haiti’s southern coast…” (10/15).

Wired: Cholera in Haiti Isn’t Just Bad News — It’s Not Going Away
“…The hurricane may have put cholera in the news again, but really, the disease never went away. In the six years since cholera seeped from a U.N. camp’s faulty plumbing, it has infected at least 800,000 Haitians and killed nearly 10,000…” (Walker, 10/14).

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Climate Change Could Force Up To 122M People Into Extreme Poverty By 2030 Without Immediate Action, FAO Report Says

The Guardian: Climate change could drive 122m more people into extreme poverty by 2030
“Up to 122 million more people worldwide could be living in extreme poverty by 2030 as a result of climate change and its impacts on small-scale farmers’ incomes, a major U.N. report warned on Monday. Climate change is ‘a major and growing threat to global food security,’ said the report, warning that it could increase the global population living in extreme poverty by between 35 and 122 million by 2030, with farming communities in sub-Saharan Africa among the hardest hit…” (Provost, 10/17).

Thomson Reuters Foundation: Without urgent action, climate change will push millions into hunger: U.N.
“… ‘Unless action is taken now to make agriculture more sustainable, productive, and resilient, climate change impacts will seriously compromise food production in countries and regions that are already highly food-insecure,’ FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva said in the report. ‘Hunger, poverty, and climate change need to be tackled together. This is, not least, a moral imperative as those who are now suffering most have contributed least to the changing climate,’ Graziano da Silva said…” (Whiting, 10/17).

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NPR Speaks With Experts About WHO TB Report, Challenges In Controlling Disease

NPR: Why Is The News About TB So Bad?
“…We spoke to experts to understand some of the challenges of controlling TB. Here are some key reasons for the grim report [on TB from WHO]. It’s difficult to accurately count TB cases. … TB is inextricably linked to poverty. … Newer treatments against TB aren’t in wide use. … Efforts to control TB focus on symptomatic cases rather than early stage or pre-symptomatic cases…” (Shaikh-Lesko, 10/16).

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800 Children Per Day Could Be Saved From Diarrhea-Related Death With Proper Handwashing, UNICEF Says

U.N. News Centre: Proper handwashing may save the lives of 800 children a day worldwide — UNICEF
“On the eve of Global Handwashing Day, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has reported that more than 300,000 children under the age of five died last year due to diarrheal infections linked to a lack of safe drinking water and sanitation — a rate of 800 per day that could have been prevented by proper handwashing…” (10/14).

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Marking International Day Of Rural Women, U.N. SG Ban Says Empowering Rural Women Vital For SDGs' Success

U.N. News Centre: Rural women’s empowerment critical to U.N. Sustainable Development Agenda — Ban
“Marking the International Day of Rural Women, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed that rural women are critical to the success of almost all of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as they all ‘have gender equality and women’s empowerment at their core.’ Rural women make up 25 percent of the world’s population and in developing countries they make up 43 percent of the agricultural labor force that produces much of the world’s food…” (10/15).

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The Lancet Interviews 6 WHO Director-General Candidates On Experiences, Platforms

The Lancet: WHO’s Director-General candidates: visions and priorities
“…As the world enters a new era — that of the Sustainable Development Goals — the [WHO] director general has an essential voice in shaping the meaning of health in an era of human dislocation, pervasive inequality, mass migration, ecological degradation, climate change, war, and humanitarian crisis. Six excellent candidates for director general are standing. All have wide experience in health, as one would expect, but each offers a very different platform. … To help clarify their experience, visions, and ideas, we invited each candidate to offer a brief manifesto and to answer a series of 10 questions to illuminate their positions on what we see as some priorities for the organization…” (Horton/Samarasekera, 10/13).

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MSF's Refusal Of Pneumonia Vaccine Donation Raises Questions About Pricing, Intellectual Property Rights

The Atlantic: Why Doctors Without Borders Refused a Million Free Vaccines
“[Last] week the medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders refused a donation of one million vaccine doses from the pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer. It offered inoculations against a commonly fatal pneumonia — deliverable immediately, to people in need anywhere — and the doctors said no. The decision is the result of a fundamental impasse in modern health care. The heart of the refusal — which could well imperil children who would have received those vaccines — is a principled stand against the extremely high cost of many vaccines…” (Hamblin, 10/14).

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Emergency Health Infrastructure Important To Combating Future Ebola Outbreaks, Study Shows

Xinhua News: Ebola deaths preventable with more emergency health facilities: Aussie researchers
“Australian researchers in an international-led study have found that emergency health facilities could hold the key to increasing the survival rate of Ebola patients. University of Queensland (UQ) epidemiologist Dr. Ricardo Soares Magalhaes said … setting up emergency infrastructure was key in combating future outbreaks and reducing the number of deaths from patients contracting the disease…” (10/17).

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Editorials and Opinions

Editorial, Opinion Piece Discuss Haiti's Recovery From Hurricane Matthew, Ongoing Humanitarian Aid

Washington Post: The Herculean task facing Haiti
Editorial Board

“…[After Hurricane Matthew, it] is to Americans [that Haitians] are turning for the most basic forms of lifesaving help: food, water, shelter, medical supplies. … The hurricane left conditions ripe for a new spike in Haiti’s already deadly epidemic of cholera … [A]id workers and journalists visiting the area describe … a growing sense of desperation, and [a rise in] reports that looters have targeted international humanitarian stockpiles and built roadblocks in order to ransack aid convoys. … Americans should demonstrate generosity to ease Haiti’s plight, as they did after the earthquake. … Not least, the hurricane forced a postponement of an already long-delayed presidential election, leaving the Herculean task of relief and rebuilding in the hands of a caretaker government. To regain its footing, Haiti will need help, and quickly” (10/16).

Wall Street Journal: The Curse of Charity in Haiti
Mary Anastasia O’Grady, editor at the Wall Street Journal

“…[W]hy are so many Haitians still living in such dire poverty in the 21st century? Paradoxically, the answer may be tied to the way in which humanitarian aid, necessary and welcome in an emergency, easily morphs into permanent charity, which undermines local markets and spawns dependency. … The country has also been the recipient of billions of dollars in foreign government bilateral and multilateral aid over the last quarter century. This enormous giving has created harmful distortions in the local economy because when what would otherwise be traded or produced by Haitians is given away, it drives entrepreneurs out of business. … Most Haitian farmers could not compete with Uncle Sam’s generosity [after the 2010 earthquake], and they lost their customers. … Donations of bottled water, clothing, shoes, and even solar panels destroy local businesses in the same way. … When the cleanup from Matthew finishes, aid groups should start packing their bags. The best way of showing we care is to provide emergency relief and then leave Haiti to Haitians” (10/16).

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Addressing Breast Cancer Requires Global Efforts

The Hill: Breast cancer is not just a U.S. problem, but a global one
Celina Schocken, CEO of Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon, and Nancy G. Brinker, founder of Susan G. Komen

“…Breast cancer is the leading cause of women’s cancer deaths around the world. It is not a U.S. or a developed country problem; it is a global problem. … Many, if not most, breast cancer cases are treatable … But in Africa, surviving a breast cancer diagnosis is rare. Very few women have access to mammograms, or even a simple clinical breast exam. … We can change this, and we have the tools. … Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon is a public-private partnership working in Africa and South America to address women’s cancers. Founded by the Bush Institute, the U.S. government through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, UNAIDS (the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS), and Susan G. Komen, Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon works with governments and nonprofits to scale up access to detection and treatment for breast and cervical cancer. The approach is working, but more is needed. … We have a duty to help women around the world and ensure they don’t die from this treatable disease. Now is the time to act” (10/14).

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Ending Preventable Child Deaths From Severe Malnutrition By 2030 Will Take 'Concrete Action,' 'Political Will'

Thomson Reuters Foundation: World leaders must act fast to keep promise to end child deaths by 2030
Jean-Michel Grand, executive director of Action Against Hunger U.K.

“…Progress in the fight to end child hunger has stagnated in the past year. At the current pace, it could take 150 years to eliminate preventable child deaths from severe malnutrition. That is simply unacceptable. … On World Food Day 2016, we are closer than ever to our vision of a world without hunger. In the past decade we have made considerable progress in the treatment of severe malnutrition. … Today, we are at a crossroads. If the world truly wants to make good on its promise to end preventable child deaths by 2030 we need commitments to be translated into concrete action. We need political will for children to access treatment. That is why, as part of a new coalition of leading international aid organizations called No Wasted Lives, Action Against Hunger has committed to doubling the number of children receiving life-saving treatment for severe malnutrition to six million a year by 2020…” (10/14).

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From the Global Health Policy Community

U.S. Continues To Work Toward Achieving Global Food Security

U.S. Department of State’s “DipNote”: A Strengthened U.S. Commitment to Global Food Security
Lona Stoll, deputy vice president of the Department of Compact Operations at the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), and Rick Gaynor, practice lead and senior director for agriculture and land at the Department of Compact Operations at the MCC, discuss the U.S. commitment to global food security as well as the MCC’s work to achieve the goals of the Global Food Security Strategy (10/14).

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U.S. Senators Seek Clarification Of U.S. Position On U.N.'s Role In Haitian Cholera Epidemic

Humanosphere: Senators press U.S. to take stance on U.N. fault for cholera in Haiti
Humanosphere reporter Tom Murphy discusses “[a] letter [from a group of U.S. senators] to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power [that] requests a response in writing explaining whether there is support for increased funding to eliminate cholera [in Haiti] and whether the U.N. is immune from the lawsuit brought forward by the victims of the outbreak” (10/14).

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Fall 2016 Issue Of Global Health Governance Available Online

Global Health Governance: Fall 2016 Issue
This issue of Global Health Governance features articles on a variety of global health governance topics including developing and mapping foreign affairs and global public health competencies; assessing tripartite partnerships among multilateral health agencies, ministries of health, and civil society, and examining their role in HIV/AIDS program spending; and using digital disease surveillance in responding to global disease threats (10/16).

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Pulitzer Center Project Examines Efforts To Eliminate Female Genital Mutilation In Ethiopia

Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting: Ending Female Genital Mutilation in Ethiopia
Pulitzer Center grantee and journalist Amy Yee reports on the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Ethiopia and specifically “looks at the pioneering work of Bogaletch Gebre of Ethiopia. Gebre founded a nonprofit called KMG that helped reduce the incidence of FGM from 97 percent to three percent in her home region of Kembatta Tembaro” (10/7).

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