Budget cuts threaten global health progress, advocacy group warns in report

The Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) -- consisting of 40 global health research and advocacy organizations -- on Tuesday held a congressional briefing to launch its third annual policy report, titled "Sustaining Progress: Creating U.S. policies to spur global health innovation," GlobalPost's "Global Pulse" blog reports (Donnelly, 2/28). The group is "warning deep cuts in the U.S. federal budget could reverse progress made on many diseases, including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria," VOA News writes (DeCapua, 2/28).

According to the report, "President Obama's budget request for 2013 calls for several decreases for global health when compared with last year's levels," and the "prospect of deep cuts in the federal budget threatens to reverse the dramatic progress of a bipartisan U.S. commitment to defeat neglected diseases in developing countries," a GHTC press release states (2/28). The report includes "recommendations for how U.S. policymakers can continue to advance innovation and save lives around the world," the GHTC's "Breakthroughs" blog notes, adding, "By following these recommendations in the GHTC's third annual policy report, U.S. policymakers can help take the next generation of lifesaving global health products over the research finish line" (Lufkin, 2/28).

Additional information on the global health components of the White House FY13 budget request is available online from the Kaiser Family Foundation's Policy Tracker.