Posted on Feb 01, 2012 at 09:10 am
During recent uprisings in Bahrain, Syria, and Libya, security forces obstructed access to health facilities; harassed, arrested, and prosecuted medical personnel; and even assaulted patients within hospitals. Assaults like these have long been part of the landscape of armed and civil conflict. Yet, for decades, a paucity of regular reporting on the frequency, dynamics, and impacts of these assaults; lack of attention to strategies to prevent attacks; and absence of accountability mechanisms for those who perpetrate assaults has allowed these assaults to continue with impunity.
Posted by CSIS Staff on Jan 31, 2012 at 02:15 pm
The Global Health Policy Center hosted a presentation highlighting the contributions faith-based-organizations make to global health including the fight against HIV/AIDS in particular.
Posted on Jan 30, 2012 at 09:33 am
There is a good chance that India's polio eradication campaign will tell an inspiring story. If this milestone endures, it will be the result of a persistent and focused effort and unprecedented collaboration among Indian scientists, administrators, and their international counterparts. The effort’s ultimate legacy—beyond the unquestioned benefit of reducing or eliminating paralytic polio—will depend on how India’s health leaders consolidate their victory, and how they embed the institutional sources of their apparent success into the country’s remarkably diverse health system.
Posted on Jan 25, 2012 at 09:30 am
Although tuberculosis mortality rates had fallen by over a third since 1990, the recent outbreak of the so-called totally-drug-resistant tuberculosis (TDR-TB) in India raises serious international health concerns.
Posted by J. Stephen Morrison on Jan 04, 2012 at 11:05 am
Watch J. Stephen Morrison, Director of the CSIS Global Health Policy Center, discuss the "end of aids" and the 2012 global AIDS conference, back in the United States for the first time in 22 years, in the latest episode of Small Screen Sessions.
Posted by Suzanne Brundage on Dec 20, 2011 at 11:36 am
A period of major change is unfolding in health and HIV services in South Africa, carrying opportunities and risks for delivering effective, integrated health services that improve health outcomes and save lives. This report finds that the United States can find feasible, flexible ways to support this process, even though its health program through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief is scaling down.
Posted by Phillip Nieburg on Dec 13, 2011 at 02:54 pm
This brief report focuses on the “nuts and bolts” of the complex biological, epidemiologic, and risk management concepts that are the foundations of global and national “expert group” recommendations for specific target groups for currently available childhood vaccines and others. Using examples of specific vaccine successes and disease challenges, this report highlights the ongoing attention to detail required for the success of local, national, and global immunization efforts.
Posted on Dec 13, 2011 at 02:47 pm
There is a tremendous opportunity for transforming global health and could have significant consequences for child survival while expanding the impact of vaccines across the lifespan, but there is no easy formula for success. How a number of challenges are addressed will be critical to success or failure in the next decade and to the most effective use of available resources. This report outlines 10 important issues facing the global vaccine and immunization agenda.
Posted on Dec 12, 2011 at 01:26 pm
The second CSIS High-Level Forum on U.S. Leadership in Global Health placed a focus on vaccines as instruments of U.S. global leadership in pursuit of security and economic interests at home and abroad, in close enduring partnerships with corporations, foundations, multilateral organizations, and other countries.
Posted by Katherine Bliss on Dec 08, 2011 at 09:41 am
On December 6, 2011 the CSIS Global Health Policy Center hosted a half-day seminar focused on the activities, practices, and strategies that characterize the global health outreach of Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa, or the BRICS.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 at 01:38 pm
In November 2011, a team from CSIS traveled to Zambia to produce a video on vaccination efforts - their value, their long-term sustainability, and the challenges to their implementation. The video aims to portray the complexities of immunization in Zambia and to make broader points about global immunization efforts. This five minute trailer is a preview of what we saw. Please stay tuned for the full video in early 2012.
Posted by J. Stephen Morrison on Dec 05, 2011 at 03:13 pm
In early November, I traveled to Tokyo and Fukushima City, Japan where I had the chance to meet with a diverse group of experts, both within and outside government, involved in the health reconstruction effort. From my visit, I took away four major impressions.
Posted by Janet Fleischman on Dec 02, 2011 at 11:07 am
The U.S. government has relatively balanced health and development funding in Malawi, which gives the GHI comparatively greater potential for impact than in neighboring countries where U.S. flexibility is limited because funding is effectively tied to PEPFAR. The value and impact of GHI�s new business model may ultimately be evaluated based on its outcomes for women and girls, given the prominence of the women, girls, and gender equality principle in GHI and the importance of cross-sectoral approaches to address their health and non-health needs.
Posted by Margaret Reeves on Nov 12, 2011 at 10:41 am
The United States has an opportunity to make rapid progress on PMTCT in the 14 countries where PEPFAR is already partnering with governments to implement PMTCT Acceleration Plans. To facilitate progress more broadly, the United States should use its leadership role and influence in global health to encourage other donors, partner organizations, and institutions such as the Global Fund to do more to lower the incidence of mother-to-child transmission. Through its own programming and diplomatic partnerships, the United States can do better by addressing more aggressively stigma and gender inequity, integrating programs, and strategically targeting investments to address persistent obstacles.
Posted on Nov 06, 2011 at 08:08 pm
Announced in mid-September at the “Summit to Save Lives,” hosted by the George W. Bush Institute, the Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon (PRRR) initiative aims to leverage the public health infrastructure established through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) with new public and private investments to make progress in the early detection and treatment of cervical and breast cancer in the developing world. The initiative’s name highlights its linkage of cancer and HIV/AIDS programs: pink ribbons have traditionally denoted support for breast cancer research and awareness, and red ribbons have signified support for HIV/AIDS research and awareness.
Posted by J. Stephen Morrison on Nov 03, 2011 at 12:42 pm
Since April 2011, I organized a health working group that has examined the complex, evolving health situation in Japan, post-March 11, and weighed what would be the most appropriate and effective U.S. assistance in the medium term to support Japanese-led health recovery efforts. That working group contributed the health chapter contained in a broader CSIS effort – the ‘Partnership for Recovery and a Stronger Future: Standing with Japan after 3-11.’ In Chapter Four of the final report, entitled Health and Recovery, we identify three core issues that are most appropriate and effective for U.S. assistance over the next three years in support of Japanese-led reconstruction initiatives
Posted by Julia Nagel on Nov 02, 2011 at 01:35 pm
While there are numerous reasons to be optimistic about the future of malaria control efforts, there are also several challenges that stand in the way of eradication.
Posted by Julia Nagel on Oct 25, 2011 at 12:12 pm
The October 17-19, 2011 Global Malaria Forum in Seattle hosted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation made the case that malaria control and eventual eradication efforts have entered a new day. This is in contrast to the 1950's when global efforts to eradicate malaria successfully eliminated the disease from 37 of 143 endemic countries, but weren’t sustained and malaria resurged as a consequence. Today leaders have focused the world’s attention again on malaria, leveraged high-level political will, substantially increased resources, and expanded the adoption, use, and distribution of effective, existing interventions.
Posted by Julia Nagel on Sep 26, 2011 at 12:29 pm
As world leaders gathered in New York last week for the United Nations General Assembly, another group of representatives assembled in New York at the second annual Social Good Summit to discuss the power of new media and technology in solving the world’s greatest challenges. While the Social Good Summit caters to a new army of leaders – the blogger, the technologist, the activist – the mission of the conference is one that everyone should care about: how do we take new emerging technologies and harness them for social good? As Raj Shah, Administrator for USAID, said – governments cannot solve every problem alone. At a time when budgets are tight and debate abounds as to where precious resources should go, citizens need to think creatively, engage philanthropically, and actively participate to achieve broad gains in society.
Posted by J. Stephen Morrison on Sep 26, 2011 at 10:36 am
The September 19-20 High-Level Meeting at the UN General Assembly was a high-profile, somewhat risky and ultimately sobering test of the proposition that non-communicable disorders (NCDs) could become a new global health priority. Though the result last week for NCDs fell far short of a transformative moment, it was hardly a failure. Indeed there were many achievements. Outcomes were mixed, were largely predictable, and were shaped by a profoundly different set of economic and political factors at play in 2001.
