AIDS Relief Program Intensity Linked To Lower Death Rates
The May 16 edition of the Global Health themed issue of JAMA reveals a larger drop in all-cause adult mortality in those African countries with more intense operation of the AIDS relief program PEPFAR. The article's background information states: "The effect of global health initiatives on population health is uncertain. Between 2003 and 2008, the U.S...

18% Of Deaths Among Under 5s Caused By Pneumonia Globally
Of the 7.6 million deaths worldwide among children under 5 years of age in 2010, 18% were caused by pneumonia, while 14% were the result of a complication of a preterm birth, researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and an international team of experts reported in The Lancet. The authors added that diarrhea is the third leading cause of deaths among very young children...

Reaching Millennium Development Goal Requires Coordinated Efforts
The Millennium Villages Project was introduced into sub-Saharan African villages in order to co-ordinate improvements amongst multiple sectors, including agriculture, infrastructure, the environment, health, education and business...

Flawed Analysis Leads To Negative View Of Foreign Aid For Health
The evidence underlying the current widely-held view that foreign aid for health in a recipient country leads to a displacement or diversion of government funds from that country's health sector is unreliable and should not be used to guide policy, according to experts writing in this week's PLoS Medicine...

What Is The Best And Worst Place To Be A Mother Worldwide?
According to Save the Children's 13th State of the World's Mothers report, Norway is the best place to be a mother in the entire world, and Niger is the worst, overtaking Afghanistan, which for the last two years was classified as the worst place to be a mother. The U.S, as of now, is ranked number 25...

Infection Behind One Sixth Of Cancers Worldwide
Around 2 million, or one sixth of new cancer cases worldwide are due to infections that are largely preventable or treatable, says a landmark study published in The Lancet Oncology this week. Infections with certain bacteria, viruses and parasites have already been cited as strong risk factors for specific cancers, write the authors in their background information...

The Risks Of Low-Level Radiation Highlighted By Experts
Each time a release of radioactivity occurs, questions arise and debates unfold on the health risks at low doses - and still, just over a year after the disaster at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Station, unanswered questions and unsettled debates remain...

Over 1 In Every 10 Babies Born Premature Globally
More than 10% of babies worldwide are born prematurely, according to a new report issued by Save the Children, WHO (The World Health Organization), The March of Dimes, and Newborn & Child Health...

Red Cross Worker Beheaded, WMA Appalled
After the discovery of Khalil Rasjed Dale's beheaded and bullet-strewn body in Pakistan, the World Medical Association (WMA) denounced his appalling treatment. Dale worked in Pakistan as a health-program manager for the International Committee of the Red Cross. Chair of the WMA, Dr...

African Adolescents Missing Out On Global Health And Education Improvements
Although adolescents have benefitted from progress in education and public health over the past two decades, a UNICEF report entitled "Progress for Children" reveals that tens of millions of adolescents are still without education and over 1 million are dying each year. According to the report, the most challenging place for an adolescent to live is in Sub-Saharan Africa...

Lime Juice, Sunlight Help Make Water Safer
In low-income countries, one way to make drinking water safer is to expose it to sunlight, but now scientists at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, suggest adding lime juice can make the method more effective. They write about their findings in the April 2012 issue of American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene...

New Zealand Earthquake Medical Response Reduced Injuries And Deaths
A review published in The Lancet, reveals that careful earthquake preparation helped to lower mortality rates and the burden of injury during the February 22nd earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2011...

Good Intentions Bring Mixed Results For Haiti's Disabled People
A new evaluation by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine of the physical rehabilitation response after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, finds that many hands didn't always make light work. Thousands of people became disabled during and after the 2010 earthquake, and physical rehabilitation interventions were crucial to the emergency response...

Improving Emergency Management With The Help Of A Georeferenced Digital "Comic"
Researchers at the Universidad Carlos III of Madrid (UC3M) have developed a computer application that allows georeferenced images that have been uploaded to social networks on the Internet to be recovered, located on maps and organized like a comic to create a visual perspective of a specific story, such as a crisis situation or an emergency...

Technology Improves Allocation Of Limited Health Care Resources In Resource-Poor Nations
In the developing world, allocating limited health care resources as effectively and equitably as possible is a top priority. To address that need, systems engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are using computer models to help resource-poor nations improve supply chain decisions related to the distribution of breast milk and non-pharmaceutical interventions for malaria...