(March 2, 2012) An estimated 910 000 lives were saved globally over six years by improving collaboration between TB and HIV services that protect people living with HIV from TB, according to global health impact figures released today. To follow up on the success of the 2004 initial guidance on TB and HIV, WHO is releasing today an updated global policy for joint prevention, diagnosis and treatment of TB and HIV. TB is a leading killer of people living with HIV.

The NCD Alliance supports the position voiced by others that priority-setting should be driven by the mandate of the WHO and the burden of disease borne by its Member States, rather than allocation of resources and donor priorities. The NCD Alliance calls on WHO to ensure its future work gives greater priority and resources to NCDs.

ATLANTA (February 27, 2012) – The online public is invited to select the winner of MAP International’s Community Health Heroes campaign. Three finalists – one from Ghana, one from Ecuador and one from Kenya – will vie for the most votes in the contest which can be found at www.map.org/heroes.

Worldwide malaria deaths may be almost twice as high as previously estimated, a study reports. The research, published in the British medical journal the Lancet, suggests 1.24 million people died from the mosquito-borne disease in 2010.

Today, 13 pharmaceutical companies, the U.S., U.K. and U.A.E governments, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank and other global health organisations announced a new, coordinated push to accelerate progress toward eliminating or controlling 10 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) by the end of the decade.