30 million mosquito nets for Nigeria

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, in its largest-ever malaria initiative, will provide 30 million long-lasting treated mosquito nets to Nigeria.  This initiative will provide the African nation with half the nets needed to cover its entire population.
The Global Fund’s “unprecedented commitment to Nigeria, which bears one quarter of the global malaria [...]

UN Report: reducing 5 key health risks could boost global life expectancy by 5 years

Addressing five critical risk factors – underweight childhood, unsafe sex, alcohol use, lack of safe water, sanitation and hygiene, and high blood pressure – could add almost five years to global life expectancy, according to a new United Nations report.
These five factors are responsible for one quarter of the 60 million deaths estimated to occur [...]

UN Secretary-General urges global response to combat fake medicines

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged collective action to protect people from falling victim to the “insidious and illicit” trade in counterfeit medicines, a problem affecting all countries but which hits the poor particularly hard.
“We must join forces to fight this global crime for the sake of international public health,” Mr. Ban told the “Call of [...]

TIME: The Trade in Counterfeit Medicines

TIME Magazine recently published an interesting article on the trade in counterfeit medicines and an initiative fostered by former French President Jacques Chirac to combat this epidemic.  The proposed Cotonou declaration would be the first step of a worldwide campaign aimed at raising awareness of the problem and persuading governments to impose tougher [...]

Google Flu Trends tracks real-time spread of influenza

Google Flu Trends, a flu-tracking Web tool, has expanded to cover Canada and 16 other countries.  First launched in the United States last November, Mexico was added in April and in Australia & New Zealand in June.
Google Flu Trends gathers data from the company’s search engine and analyzes it to create a near real-time picture [...]

Counterfeit medicines in China

An interesting article from the Canadian Medical Association Journal about the production and dangers of counterfeit medicines, with a specific focus on China.
China’s booming counterfeit medicine trade
It was a cringe-worthy moment for China when 600 000 counterfeit antimalarial tablets were intercepted by the Nigerian government in June. Produced and shipped from China, they bore an [...]

UN Report: 40% global increase in access to HIV treatment within the last year

Over 4 million people are now receiving treatment for HIV, marking a nearly 40 per cent jump from the previous year according to a new United Nations report.
The new study – produced jointly by the UN World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) – said [...]