More TB Deaths
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009From the World Health Organization (WHO): HIV-related TB deaths higher than past estimates 1.37 million new TB cases in 2007 among HIV-infected people, says new global TB control report The total number of new tuberculosis (TB) cases remained stable in 2007, and the percentage of the world’s population becoming ill with TB has continued the […]
Progress Towards the Health MDGs in LAC / Progreso hacia los ODM relacionado con la salud en ALC
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008Recently 14 United Nations (UN) agencies* released a report (English, Spanish) reviewing the status of efforts of Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) nations toward meeting the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The report addresses the following health-specific MDGs: reducing the under-five mortality rate by 2/3 between 1990 and 2015; reducing the maternal mortality ratio by […]
WHO and World Bank Join Forces on Global Health / La OMS y el Banco Mundial aúnan esfuerzos en salud mundial
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008From the World Health Organization (WHO): WHO and World Bank join forces for better results from global health investments As delegates gather at the International AIDS Conference (3-8 August), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank today address the pressing global debate around health systems and initiatives in specific aspects of health, nutrition […]
Improvements in HIV/AIDS Treatment in LAC
Friday, July 4th, 2008This is a few weeks delayed in being posted, but frankly folks, I only have so many hours in my day… Everyone takes away something different from Towards Universal Access: Scaling Up Priority HIV/AIDS Interventions in the Health Sector – Progress Report 2008, the report released last month jointly by the World Health Organization (WHO), […]
LAC Health Stats, Trends and Trivia
Saturday, June 21st, 2008Which Latin American or Caribbean nation smokes or drinks the most? In which are you more likely to die from cancer than infectious diseases such as malaria or dengue? Which has the highest percentage of obese people? Which spends the most on the health of their citizens? If you you’ve ever wondered about such questions, […]
Dealing with the Threat of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis
Saturday, June 23rd, 2007TB Steps Out of the Shadows I suspect that until the recent much-publicized case of the young American lawyer infected by drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) flying in Europe and the US without safeguards, most Americans had all but forgotten TB the disease. After all, it had all but disappeared in the US with modern drug therapies. […]
A Health Agenda for the Americas
Saturday, June 9th, 2007The annual General Assembly (GA) of the Organization of American States (OAS), held this year in Panama just last week, was used as the venue for formally rolling out the “Health Agenda for the Americas” developed over the last two years by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The […]
Cheaper HIV/AIDS Treatments for LAC Nations
Thursday, June 7th, 2007In May former US President Bill Clinton announced that his foundation had negotiated new agreements to substantially reduce the price of 15 so-called “second-line treatments” for HIV/AIDS, plus a new, “next generation” once-a-day pill, for 66 poor and middle-income countries. The 66 (chosen because they represent about 90% of the world’s AIDS cases) includes many […]
Fighting the Growing Menace of Counterfeit Drugs
Wednesday, March 14th, 2007Have you ever bought medicine at a pharmacy in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)? I'm not talking about the big, sophisticated ones you might find in Buenos Aires or Rio de Janeiro. I'm speaking of those small ones in places like Santo Domingo or small towns in the Central American countryside, which are often […]
What to Expect from WHO’s New Director-General
Wednesday, November 15th, 2006On Thursday 09 November 2006 the World Health Organization (WHO) elected a new chief executive, and it wasn’t a Latin. Dr. Margaret Chan of Hong Kong (but representing China in the contest) beat out Mexican Health Minister Julio Frenk for the post of Director-General (DG) — first for the WHO Executive Board (EB) endorsement, and […]