News outlets report on new WHO guidelines announced Wednesday calling for all people living with HIV to receive treatment without delay.

Associated Press: U.N.: HIV patients should start treatment immediately
“The World Health Organization has revised its HIV guidelines to recommend that anyone who tests positive for the virus that causes AIDS should be treated immediately. That guidance fits with what is already recommended in many developed nations, including the United States…” (Cheng, 9/30).

BBC News: WHO backs ‘treat-all’ HIV drug plan
“…UNAIDS said these changes could help avert 21 million AIDS-related deaths and 28 million new infections by 2030. The recommendations increase the number of people with HIV eligible for antiretrovirals from 28 million to 37 million across the world…” (9/30).

CNN: HIV patients should start treatment immediately, U.N. says in new push
“…Recent trials emphasized that immediate treatment prolongs life and reduces the risks of transmitting the virus, according to the U.N.’s World Health Organization…” (Karimi, 9/30).

Deutsche Welle: WHO: Everyone with HIV should get antiretroviral drugs
“…Previous guidelines had suggested ART for patients whose immune cell counts had fallen below a certain threshold…” (9/30).

Reuters: WHO ramps up HIV drug push with call for early treatment for all
“…All people at ‘substantial’ risk of contracting HIV should also be given preventive ART, not just men who have sex with men, the WHO said…” (Nebehay, 9/30).

VOA News: WHO Calls for Early Treatment for All HIV Patients
“…The U.N. health agency says expanding access to treatment is at the heart of a new set of targets aimed at ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030…” (9/30).

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Huffington Post: Bernie Sanders Calls Out Obama Team On Global Drug Prices
“Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders on Monday urged the Obama administration to reverse its opposition to a proposal aimed at preventing drug price increases in the world’s poorest countries. … ‘USTR has received Senator Sanders’s letter regarding the World Trade Organization (WTO) TRIPS Agreement, and we will respond to him directly regarding its contents,’ USTR spokesman Andrew Bates said in a written statement provided to HuffPost…” (Carter, 9/29).

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Agence France-Presse: Pacific trade ministers aim to seal TPP trade pact
“Top trade representatives of 12 Pacific Rim countries begin two days of talks in Atlanta Wednesday hoping to finalize the ambitious Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement after July negotiations in Hawaii failed. … A handful of issues bogged down the talks in Hawaii, including how the U.S. treats imports of Japanese auto parts, the length of patent protections for increasingly important biologic drugs, and open markets for dairy products from major producers such as New Zealand…” (Handley, 9/30).

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Agence France-Presse: G7, Gulf states pledge $1.8 billion for U.N. refugee aid
“The G7 group of leading economies, European countries, and Gulf states pledged $1.8 billion in funding for U.N. aid agencies struggling with the worst refugee crisis in 70 years. The commitment, which in part reflects earlier pledges, came after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told world leaders at the opening of the General Assembly debate that U.N. humanitarian agencies were ‘broke’…” (Waschinski, 9/30).

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NPR: It’s Up To The World: Pay For The Global Goals Or Buy Everyone A Latte
“…The great majority of funding for the SDGs will come from national budgets. But the U.N. still needs to cover $2 to $3 trillion a year. To put that sum in perspective, the advocacy group ONE calculated that $1 trillion is enough to buy every person on the planet — all seven billion of us — a Starbucks latte every day for a month. So where will the cash come from?…” (Gharib, 9/29).

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FOX News: Exclusive: U.N. ignores science council warnings in creating vast Sustainable Development Goals
“When the United Nations approved a massive agenda of sustainable development goals last week, it over-rode pointed warnings by two international science councils that the program is in many ways uncoordinated, unmeasurable, and unrealistically ambitious…” (Russell, 9/29).

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U.N. News Centre: U.N. agencies call for end to violence and discrimination against LGBTI community
“Twelve U.N. agencies today called for an end to violence and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) adults, adolescents, and children, and set out specific steps to protect these individuals. ‘This is the first time that so many members of the U.N. family have joined forces in defense of the basic rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people,’ said Charles Radcliffe, the chief of global issues for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)…” (9/29).

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The Nation: Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis Is a Global Crisis. Why Are We Doing So Little to Fight It?
“…Although largely unnoticed by the public in the United States and Western Europe, where TB and HIV are relatively well-controlled, the co-epidemic rages on across great swaths of Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Africa. In 2013 alone, these twin scourges took the lives of an estimated 2.6 million people, who died of one infection, or the other, or both. … The ongoing, uncontrolled spread of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) also threatens to upend the public health systems in South Africa and 21 other counties…” (Foster, 9/29).

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U.N. News Centre: Presidents of Sierra Leone and Liberia outline post-Ebola recovery plan in addresses to U.N. Assembly
“In their respective statements to the United Nations General Assembly [Tuesday], the leaders of Sierra Leone and Liberia, two of the countries hardest hit by the Ebola outbreak, discussed their subsequent recovery efforts, and also spoke about the need for the reform of U.N. bodies. … Meanwhile, the President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, also spoke about the impact of the Ebola virus on her country…” (9/29).

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U.N. News Centre: Uruguay leader urges U.N. action to ease global burden of noncommunicable diseases
“President of Uruguay Tabaré Vazquez addressed the United Nations General Assembly [Tuesday], urging decisive action from the world community to find solutions to a raft of global challenges, including migration and the increasing prevalence of noncommunicable diseases…” (9/29).

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Thomson Reuters Foundation: No money for contraceptives, safe births for Burundi refugees at new camps
“Thousands of Burundian refugees risk unwanted pregnancies, dangerous deliveries, and unsafe abortions when they move next week to camps without reproductive health services, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said. … The IRC had expected to receive funding to work in the new camps but this has not materialized…” (Migiro, 9/29).

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BBC News: Dealing with dengue: Lessons from the fever crippling Delhi
“…Delhi is in the grip of its worst outbreak of dengue in years. According to the official figures, 25,000 people have been infected in India this year. The real figure is believed to be hundreds of times higher…” (Rowlatt, 9/30).

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Huffington Post: Building a Stronger Civil Society to Achieve an AIDS-Free Generation
Deborah L. Birx, ambassador-at-large and coordinator of U.S. government activities to combat HIV/AIDS

“…The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) announced that it will make a $10 million contribution to the Robert Carr Civil Society Networks Fund (RCNF) over the next three years to support and build the capacity of global and regional civil society networks as strong partners in the delivery of HIV services and champions of human rights. … As co-chairs of the RCNF Replenishment, UNAIDS and PEPFAR will help ensure access to HIV prevention, treatment, and care services through the partnership of the networks with local organizations to achieve the UNAIDS 90-90-90 goals and Fast Track strategy. … [W]e must strengthen our commitment to inclusiveness and building a stronger civil society … to accomplish our collective goal of achieving an AIDS-free generation” (9/29).

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Huffington Post: Waiting for the White House Plan on Tuberculosis
Lee Reichman, professor of medicine and epidemiology and executive director emeritus at Rutgers Global Tuberculosis Institute

“…President Obama can now harness [the momentum from the U.N. General Assembly to end the TB epidemic by 2030] with a bold and ambitious plan of his own. If he proposes, and Congress approves, the necessary funding boost to implement his plan, we can avert the enormous cost of an escalating drug-resistant TB epidemic. We can work with leaders around the globe who are ready to intensify their efforts for both prevention and treatment and end the stigma about the disease. We can jumpstart crucial research, including for an urgently needed TB vaccine. But, if his TB Action Plan ends up just another unfunded plan gathering dust on the shelf, issued in the twilight of his presidency, then all we will have is the steady ticking of the TB timebomb…” (9/29).

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Inter Press Service: Opinion: We Can Overcome Poverty and Hunger by 2030
Jomo Kwame Sundaram, coordinator for economic and social development at the Food and Agriculture Organization

“…With the growing consensus, momentum, and commitment to eradicate world poverty and hunger by 2030 enshrined in the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals, it will be necessary to deploy all the necessary instruments [to achieve this goal] as soon as possible. … [In the Addis Ababa Action Agenda,] the Rome-based U.N. agencies presented an affordable and feasible way to quickly eliminate hunger and poverty through social protection, while increasing the earned incomes of the poor with adequate pro-poor investments during 2016-2030 costing about 0.3 percent of current global income. Clearly, together, we can — and must — eliminate hunger and poverty by 2030” (9/29).

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TIME: What the U.N.’s New Development Goals Mean for Africa
Tony O. Elumelu, chair of Heirs Holdings and founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation

“…The key to Africa successfully achieving the new goals is to effectively utilize Africa’s private sector to transform our natural wealth and human capital into an engine of global growth that is inclusive and sustainable. I call this ‘Africapitalism.’ Governments can create an enabling environment, and the philanthropic and social sectors can offer guidance. But ultimately it is responsible and sustainable business that will create wealth that underpins a just and fair society. … It is only by working together that we can achieve the new goals and build a world that is worthy of us and our children” (9/29).

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USAID: USAID’s Vision for Health Systems Strengthening
The agency on Tuesday released its Vision for Health Systems Strengthening (HSS) 2015-2019, “a key document that will help guide USAID’s work and investment focus to evidence-based HSS approaches that contribute to positive health outcomes and help create an environment for universal health coverage. It will also help the agency meet its goals of ending preventable child and maternal deaths, creating an AIDS-free generation, and protecting communities from infectious diseases, including achieving the goals of the Global Health Security Agenda…” (9/29).

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Center for Global Development’s “View from the Center/Rethinking U.S. Development Policy”: SDGs + USAID = EEP @ UNGA
Casey Dunning, senior policy analyst at CGD, discusses USAID’s recently released Vision for Ending Extreme Poverty, writing, “Lingering questions aside, I’m heartened that USAID has spoken with action instead of words on the ending extreme poverty agenda. Over a year of consultations and analysis went into the creation of this Vision, and USAID has already assembled implementation teams for how the Vision will translate into practice. Kudos to USAID for leading on how it will define this critical part of the SDG agenda — now it’s time to lead the way on implementation” (9/29).

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ONE Campaign: New AIDS targets and a bold agenda for adolescent girls
Erin Hohlfelder, ONE’s policy director for global health, discusses PEPFAR’s new HIV targets, as well as other recent events advancing the agenda for adolescent girls. “…Along with bold new treatment targets and commitments to male circumcision, PEPFAR set specific targets for adolescent girls and young women for the first time ever…” (9/29).

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Health Affairs Blog: The Global Migration Crisis, International Law, And The Responsibility To Protect Health
Lawrence O. Gostin, director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University Law Center, and Anna Roberts, fellow at the institute, discuss the impacts of global migration on health and security. “The sheer scale of forced migration, along with its potential to spread infectious diseases, is a matter not only of the right to health, but also of global health security to prevent the reemergence of diseases such as polio. … [I]t is very much in the international community’s interests to build health system capacity to prevent public health emergencies of international concern. Pro-active protection of health and security should be an obligation under international law, but it also is a moral imperative” (9/29).

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Center for Global Health Policy’s “Science Speaks”: Global health advocates suggest alternatives when limited options + limited bargaining power = unlimited drug prices
Antigone Barton, senior editor and writer of “Science Speaks,” examines drug pricing and discusses a report on the issue from Médecins Sans Frontières, as well as a press release from the Stop TB Partnership (9/29).

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