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A diverse look at global health issues.

Talking about the end of AIDS

Business leaders join government and NGO representatives to discuss why it makes to much sense to invest in treatment.
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Young girls play cricket on November 25, 2011 in Laikipia, Kenya. Members of the Maasai Cricket Warriors team helped support the International Cricket Council's Think Wise awareness campaign, ahead of World Aids Day, by delivering HIV prevention messages to children. (Getty Images/AFP/Getty Images)

NEW YORK — Some 30 years after the discovery of the HIV virus, the talk around AIDS has changed dramatically in the last few months.

It’s all about the end game — even if major doubts exist in many corners about whether the talk is just that, and whether enough funds and political commitment can lead to a breakthrough.

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Delivering on delivery for Nepali mothers this Mother’s Day

The message of encouragement this Mother’s Day is that gains in dignity and the safety of delivery are possible in Nepal.
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Maternal mortality rates in Nepal are staggering, but with a little help from the government and NGOs, delivery doesn't have to be fatal for mothers. (Mark Arnoldy/GlobalPost)

Mark Arnoldy is the Executive Director of Nyaya Health, an organization committed to doing whatever it takes to build transparent, data-driven health systems for Nepal’s rural poor. Nyaya Health is hosting a Mother’s Day campaign to bring employment and safer delivery to mothers in Far-Western Nepal at mom.nyayahealth.org. 

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Guatemalan government attempts to curb malnutrition

Weekend activities can bring together activists with those in need to work together for a solution.
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Maria Lucas Lopez, 52, makes tamales over a fire in Huetancito, Guatemala. (Tess Townsend/GlobalPost)

QUETZELTENANGO, Guatemala — Ana Rosi Noviega Alanzo wanted to see how the other half lived.

Last weekend, the 21-year-old college student from Quetzeltenango, Guatemala's second largst city, was among 6,000 volunteers bussed out to Guatemala's most impoverished pueblos to spend the last weekend of April with families affected by malnutrition.

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Kenyans want AIDS windfall to stay in country

Activists point blame back at the US for unspent funding.
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HIV/AIDS activists, some of them living with the virus, yell during a demonstration April 25, 2012 in Nairobi on the sidelines of a joint conference sponsored by the US Embassy here and Kenya's Vision 2030 program. The activists demanded that the US and the Kenyan government work together to utilize some 500 million of unspent PEPFAR funds to get desperately needed HIV treatment to more Kenyans. (Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images)

Pulling out old photos, backpacks to save children

USAID yesterday launched a social media campaign called “Every Child Deserves a Fifth Birthday.”
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A photo of USAID Deputy Assistant Administrator for Global Health Amie Batson at age 5. (Amie Batson/Courtesy)

WASHINGTON – She’s missing two front bottom teeth and her red hair band matches her red-and-white flowered blouse. Amie Batson looks at the picture of herself at age five, the third of four children to Bob and Carol Batson in Newington, Conn., and feels so lucky.

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USAID: Every Child Deserves a 5th Birthday

The agency launches a campaign to highlight the reality of millions of children who die before reaching five years old.
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A young Afghan girl plays on swings near the Kart-e-sakhi shrine in Kabul on April 10, 2012. (JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images)

Alex Palacios is the GAVI Special Representative in Washington. He is responsible for coordination between GAVI and the U. S. Government, non‐government organizations, foundations and other entities. Prior to his position at the GAVI Alliance, he was Chief of the International and Corporate Alliances Section at UNICEF and writes for GlobalPost as a Guest Blogger. 

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The global pressures of population and access to clean water

As the world climbs toward a population of 9 billion, a conversation about supporting all those people.
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Salva Dut, founder and president of Water for South Sudan, speaks to the audience at a discussion called “7 Billion: Conversations That Matter” hosted by the Aspen Institute’s Global Health and Development in Washington, DC on April 18, 2012. (John Donnelly/GlobalPost)

WASHINGTON — The US Census Bureau’s World Clock says that the population of the world today is estimated at 7.008 billion people, while projections show that the world could reach the 9 billion marker by 2050.

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A Q&A with US global AIDS coordinator Eric Goosby

Goosby discusses the revelation that the US has accumulated nearly $1.5 billion in unspent funds intended to go to HIV/AIDS programs around the world.
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Eric Goosby, United States Global AIDS Coordinator, listens during a news conference for the launch of the Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus on Capitol Hill on September 15, 2011 in Washington, DC. (Brendan Hoffman/AFP/Getty Images)

Ambassador Eric Goosby, a medical doctor, took over as the US global AIDS coordinator in June 2009. He talked with GlobalPost’s John Donnelly about why the US global AIDS program accumulated more than $1.4 billion in a financial pipeline of money that hasn’t been spent by developing countries.

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PEPFAR's broad guidelines for spending $1.5 billion backlog

The organization will begin a process of removing unspent HIV/AIDS funds from country ledger and consult with various stakeholders to reallocate the money.

The following document was released to GlobalPost on April 17. Read correspondent John Donnelly's reporting on PEPFAR's $1.46 billion in unused funds here.

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Female condoms: Pricey but cheaper than the alternative

Johns Hopkins study validates their cost-effectiveness in HIV prevention.
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The FC2 female condom. (Courtesy)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A few weeks ago as I stood outside of a Metro station in Anacostia, a woman approached the HIV outreach worker I was with for a very particular prophylactic.

“You got any of them female condoms?” the woman asked.

My curiosity piqued. Since when did female condoms become a thing? I thought they were rare, uncomfortable, and costly. Admittedly, I knew close to zero about the contraceptive.

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