OCHA Report Warns Of Possible, New Cholera Outbreak In Zimbabwe

In a report released on Tuesday, the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that Zimbabwe remained at risk of a fresh outbreak of cholera when the next rainy season starts in about five months, ZimOnline reports. According to the OCHA report, structural causes that resulted in the most recent epidemic that killed more than 4,000 people over the past 11 months have not been addressed and could trigger another outbreak (Nzou, 7/22).

Nigeria Still Not Making Progress Toward MDGs, WHO Official Says

Despite the recent signing of a $100 million malaria control agreement between Nigeria and the World Bank, Nigeria is still “not making progress” towards the Millenium Development Goal targets, Coordinator of the Malaria Control Unit of the WHO in Nigeria Bayo Fatoyinbo said, This Day/allAfrica.com reports. According to the publication, “[i]n addition to the $1.3 billion budgeted to halve the impact of malaria by 2013, donor agencies have so far realised $800 million, while a funding gap of $436 million remained” (Nwezeh, 7/22).

Poverty, Hunger, Public Health Addressed In Arab Human Development Report 2009

The U.N. Development Program released the Arab Human Development Report 2009 on Tuesday, which aims to address some of the obstacles to human development in the region, AP/Washington Post reports (Lederer, 7/22). “Among the topics detailed in the report, recommendations are proffered on how the Arab world can tackle poverty and end hunger, boost public health services and end armed conflict that has forced an estimated 17 million Arabs from their homes over the past 60 years,” the Daily Star writes (Galey, 7/22). According to the report, “which was drafted mainly by Arab academics,” refugees, displaced persons, women and children are at the “forefront of vulnerable groups states must protect,” AFP/Google.com reports (Yazbeck, 7/21).

SciDev.Net Examines Chagas Disease

SciDev.Net examines the “forgotten disease” Chagas, which affects 14 million people worldwide and kills 15,000 people annually. The article describes how people get the disease, who it primarily affects, its global spread and the outlook for treatment (Kilby, 7/17).