“Global health funding barely grew last year,” according to a report released Wednesday by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, a research unit at the University of Washington in Seattle, Bloomberg reports (Bennett, 2/6). “Although it’s too early to say exactly how much money countries donated to global health in 2011 and 2012, preliminary estimates suggest it was a mixed bag,” NPR’s “Shots” blog writes (Doucleff, 2/7).

According to the IHME study, estimates show “[d]evelopment assistance for health increased 2.5 percent to $28.1 billion last year after expanding at an average pace of 11 percent a year from 2001 to 2010,” Bloomberg writes, adding, “Increased spending by the GAVI Alliance, a funder of vaccines backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF, made up for lower contributions [from governments], the institute said.” Bloomberg notes, “Donations from governments dropped 4.4 percent last year, according to the report” (2/6).