Global Health Progress

The Red Cross has deployed seven emergency teams normally reserved for major global disasters to fight Zimbabwe’s worsening cholera epidemic.

It’s easier for men to transmit HIV to women than previously thought, a Northwestern University study has found.

A called Nurses Strengthening Our AIDS Response, or simply Nurses SOAR, is sending nurses specially trained in HIV/AIDS care from the United States to hospitals and clinics in Africa to act as mentors for increasingly burdened nursing staffs.

New guidelines state that all medical professionals including paramedical staff should strictly adhere to the principle of testing for HIV only after getting consent and pre-test counseling.

MIT researchers have developed a computer modeling technique to assist in the fight against malaria, a disease which still accounts for one third of all deaths in children under five worldwide.

In developing countries, cell phones increasingly are used to respond to disease outbreaks, educate the local populace about illnesses, and remind patients to take their medications.

Dr. Peter Piot, head of the United Nations AIDS program, is retiring on December 31, 2008. He is credited as the person most responsible for making heads of state understand the political, economic and social ramifications of AIDS.

“Women in eastern Burma only have limited access to maternal-health care during pregnancy and most women expecting, suffer poor nutrition, anemia, and malaria, raising the risk of complications during pregnancy, a new report said.”

“The promising results from trials of a malaria vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline have kindled hopes of a breakthrough in combating this mosquito-transmitted disease that infects nearly 250 million people, killing about a million every year.”

Last week, deputy premier Najib Razak said all Muslim couples would have to undergo mandatory HIV screening before marrying. On Monday, another official said that couples with HIV should not be allowed to marry or have children.