CQ HealthBeat: Monday: Troubled Zika Response Funding and Spending Bill Woes
“…[The House conference report (HR 2577) approved last week a] $1.1 billion funding level for Zika response efforts but Democrats object to funding offsets that transfer existing unspent funds and are keenly upset over limits on distribution of funding toward family planning services, plus an added waiver of environmental rules for mosquito control efforts. A Senate procedural vote, likely on Tuesday, will determine the fate of the measure and prospects for any additional Zika response funding action prior to the start of the new fiscal year in October…” (Jerks, 6/27).

The Hill: This week: Zika, Puerto Rico fights loom ahead of recess
“…Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) teed up a procedural vote on the House-Senate deal, which is attached to a larger military and veterans spending bill. … McConnell will need 60 votes to get the legislation over an initial procedural hurdle, expected on Tuesday…” (Carney, 6/27).

New York Times: Senate to Take Up House Bill on Zika Funding, Barbs and All
“…Democrats have indicated they will not provide the support to overcome a 60-vote procedural hurdle. President Obama would most likely veto the measure if it got to his desk. Republicans, after taking months to advance the funding for the mosquito-borne disease, will no doubt argue that it is now Democrats who are blocking the funds. But the Republican record on the response is pretty clear, so that argument will be a tough sell…” (Hulse, 6/27).

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Vox: The Zika virus is fueling demand for self-induced abortions in Latin America
“…Reproductive rights advocates are putting pressure on Latin American countries to liberalize their abortion laws in light of the huge public health threat Zika poses. They warn that deaths and injuries from unsafe abortions are likely to rise unless something changes. The United States may have a role to play as well, according to researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation. The U.S. government could boost family planning aid, although it can’t help with abortion services due to the restrictions under the Helms amendment. The U.S. could also use its public health expertise and diplomatic leverage to pressure countries into protecting the rights of women and girls…” (Crockett, 6/23).

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Huffington Post: Here’s Why ‘Brexit’ Could Be A British Public Health Disaster
“In a final tally of 52 percent to 48 percent on the ‘Brexit’ referendum Thursday, Britons voted to exit the European Union, a decision that many believed hinged on voter opinion about immigration. … The public health risks of exiting the E.U. are plentiful. Leaving the partnership will exclude Britain from European research, disease control, and drug and food safety networks (which Britons can only keep access to by paying)…” (Schumaker, 6/23).

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Reuters: Bangladesh gets $150 million from World Bank for health
“The World Bank said on Sunday it has approved $150 million in additional financing to help improve Bangladesh’s health systems and services, bringing its total support for health projects in the country to $508.9 million. The support will help the government address health sector challenges, including sustaining and improving immunization coverage, improving deliveries for pregnant women at public health facilities, and tackling multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, the World Bank said in a statement…” (Paul, 6/26).

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Washington Post: A yellow fever epidemic in Angola could turn into a global crisis
“…More than 3,000 suspected cases are in Angola and 1,000 are in neighboring Congo, making this the biggest urban epidemic in decades. More than 400 people have died. There are growing concerns that Chinese workers — of whom there are thousands in Angola — will carry the virus to Asia, where nearly all of the rural poor are also unvaccinated. The explosion of yellow fever has put severe strain on stockpiles of the vaccine…” (Sieff, 6/27).

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U.N. News Centre: On Day Against Drug Abuse, Ban calls for ‘effective, compassionate’ global response
“Marking the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, United Nations Secretary-General [Ban Ki-moon Sunday] called for ‘a global response that is simultaneously effective, compassionate, and humane,’ to the challenges posed by the world drug problem. ‘I call on countries and communities to continue to improve the lives of everyone blighted by drug abuse by integrating security and public safety with a heightened focus on health, human rights, and sustainable development,’ said the U.N. chief in his message on the day…” (6/26).

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The Guardian: Disability in conflict zones: ‘I told my wife to take the children and run’
“…Last year, Human Rights Watch documented 96 disabled people who had been left alone in deserted villages in the wake of attacks in CAR — for days, weeks, and sometimes months — with little water or food. Eleven had been killed. … The adoption at the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) of what Ban Ki-moon called a groundbreaking charter on disability in humanitarian response has offered some hope of progress. One of its commitments is to lift the barriers to accessing relief, protection, and recovery support…” (Young, 6/27).

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The Guardian: Malaria scheme cuts child deaths during Sahel’s rainy season
“…The innovative Access-SMC project, funded by Unitaid and run by the Malaria Consortium in partnership with Catholic Relief Services, involves scaling up the use of seasonal malaria drugs to children under five in seven countries along the arid belt of land that fringes the Sahara. The $67m (£45m), three-year project aims to deliver 45 million treatments to about 10 million children by next year — and eventually up to 25 million children in the Sahel could benefit…” (Chonghaile, 6/24).

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VOA News: Entrepreneurs at Global Summit Tackle Range of Challenges
“Appalled at the incidence of sexual harassment and abuse in India’s cities, ElsaMarie D’Silva co-founded the Red Dot Foundation, whose crowdsourcing platform collects anecdotes and data, then maps dangerous and safe public spaces. Inspired by a cousin’s medical work in Myanmar, Michael Lwin left his job as a U.S. corporate attorney to join his relative in setting up Koe Koe Tech, a social enterprise providing mobile health information to improve maternal and child health in the Asian country’s rural areas. D’Silva and Lwin are among more than 700 innovators and investors gathered for the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit at Stanford University in California’s tech-centric Silicon Valley…” (Guensburg/Sarai, 6/24).

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NPR: How Are Health Workers Putting An End To Guinea Worms?
In this TED Radio Hour show, “Professor Richard Thaler returns to the show to talk about how a nudge has essentially eradicated guinea worm disease in Africa. … Thaler’s 2008 bestseller, Nudge, (co-written with Cass Sunstein) explores how concepts of behavioral economics are used to tackle many of society’s major problems…” (6/24).

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U.S. News & World Report: Playing Politics With Zika
Jamila K. Taylor, senior fellow with the Center for American Progress

“…[T]he conference funding measure passed [in the U.S. House last] Thursday … completely misses the mark when it comes to addressing the needs of women, who are most susceptible to grave health outcomes in the face of Zika virus. … The congressional Republicans’ Zika response package fails to allocate any funding for family planning and maternal health programs … Support for women’s health care is vital to ensure a comprehensive response that effectively combats Zika transmission. … With the impending July recess, Congress heads out no closer to a real solution than it was before passage of the Republican conference package. It is completely nonsensical that congressional Republicans would broker a deal that lacks sufficient emergency funding and omits vital support for women’s health programs. Even in the face of a critical public health concern that has been scientifically proven as a women’s health issue, women’s lives are once again at the center of political games on Capitol Hill” (6/24).

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Huffington Post: The issues we must address to #EndHIV4Her
Timothy Mastro, director of global health, population & nutrition at FHI 360, adjunct professor of epidemiology in the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

“Adolescent girls and young women continue to be at unacceptably high risk for HIV infection. … Integrated approaches that address economic strengthening, educational opportunity, unhealthy social norms, and optimal behavioral and biomedical HIV prevention methods, including PrEP, are needed to prevent HIV infection among girls and young women. … The momentum to protect girls and women from HIV and achieve an AIDS-free generation is picking up speed. … AIDS 2016 offers an opportunity to re-energize our HIV prevention efforts and bring together the holistic, integrated approaches that are most likely to lead to reduced HIV infections for those most vulnerable, especially girls and young women” (6/26).

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PLOS “Translational Global Health”: Brexit: what might it mean for global health?
Rhea Saksena, a British global health graduate and medical student, discusses how the U.K.’s exit from the European Union could impact health domestically as well as globally, and she explores other public health, environmental, and trade issues. Saksena notes, “Now outside [the E.U.], accountability must become our collective responsibility by advocating that exit negotiations reached prioritize a rights-based, social-determinants-of-health approach” (6/26).

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Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria: Global Fund News Flash
The latest issue of the Global Fund News Flash discusses an announcement from the French government that it will contribute €1.08 billion to the Global Fund for a three-year period beginning in 2017. “The new pledge, which represents a sustained commitment of France’s previous support, represents a significant contribution to the Global Fund’s three-year replenishment” (6/27).

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