Also in Global Health news: HIV/aids in Zambia; Ugandan medical workers; Obama administration officials' Q&A, speech; South African health care reform efforts; texting to combat drug shortages in Africa

Sep 21 2009

Post Of Zambia Examines Toll Of HIV/AIDS On Country

The Post of Zambia examines the findings of a recent report revealing "the devastating effects" the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Zambia is having on the country's ability to meet the U.N. Millennium Development Goals. The article also looks at the relationship between HIV/AIDS and nutrition, maternal health and education (Chackwe, 9/21).

Ugandan Government Works To Attract Medical Workers

The Ugandan government will soon begin centralizing the recruitment of medical workers in an effort to improve health services and reduce health worker shortages, Health Minister Stephen Mallinga announced Wednesday, the New Vision/allAfrica.com reports (Edyegu, 9/18).

Science Insider Blog Features Interview With U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator

Science magazine's "Science Insider" blog interviewed Eric Goosby before his official swearing-in ceremony last week as the Global AIDS Coordinator and Ambassador-at-Large for the U.S. government. The interview covers several topics, including his plans for PEPFAR, targeting the demographic of the HIV epidemic and funding ideas (9/18).

Carson Speech Published By AllAfrica.com

allAfrica.com published a transcript of Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Johnnie Carson's recent speech at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C. The Obama administration "will also continue to maintain our historical focus on health issues with a particular emphasis on public health and the strengthening of African delivery systems to provide the kinds of access, treatment and prevention that remain essential for progress in most other areas," Carson said (9/17).

AP/Washington Post Examines South African Health Care Reform Efforts

South Africa's "governing African National Congress party wants to pass universal health insurance before President Jacob Zuma's first term ends in five years," and most people in the country "believe the plan will pass," the Associated Press/Washington Post reports. The article includes quotes from a public forum addressing the country's health care system and notes that questions remain about how reform "could be funded and whether it would fix the troubled health system in South Africa, which has an estimated 5.5 million people living with HIV - the highest total of any country" (Bryson, 9/17).

African Countries Use Text Messages To Report Local Drug Shortages

PlusNews/IRIN examines how a program launched earlier this year in Kenya, Uganda, Malawi and Zambia is helping people to use text messages to report shortages of "essential medicines to treat common diseases such as malaria, pneumonia, diarrhoea, HIV and tuberculosis" at their local clinics or hospital pharmacies. "Stock-outs often mean that poor patients, who cannot afford to travel to other health facilities or to buy drugs from the private sector, simply go without, risking serious health consequences," the news service writes (9/17).