Marissa MileyMarch 21, 2013 15:14

USAID report gives few details on progress reducing child mortality

More than 170 countries have signed a pledge to reduce child mortality, but specifics are lacking.

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Head of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Rajiv Shah speaks with children on the Turkish-Syrian border on November 27, 2012. (Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images)

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) yesterday released its first progress report for USAID Forward, the major reform effort it initiated in 2010 “to change the way the Agency does business.”

“Development is a discipline,” said USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah, in a keynote speech to mark the report’s publication. With USAID Forward, the agency has put forth a new model for development very much defined by the language of business. Shah, a Wharton School of Business graduate, spoke about metrics, results, cost-benefit analysis, new partnerships and innovation.

Marissa MileyMarch 18, 2013 17:08

TB is a leading, but underdiagnosed, cause of child mortality

At least 500,000 children die from the treatable disease each year

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A volunteer pours children's tuberculosis medicine for patients in Payatas, Philippines. (David Greedy/Getty Images)

Drug-resistant tuberculosis is a growing concern for the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, who issued a joint statement today calling for additional funding to combat the deadly infectious disease. “We are treading water at a time when we desperately need to scale up our response to [multi-drug resistant TB],” said Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO’s director-general, in a press release.

While health officials did not single out the devastating impact of the disease on children, just last week, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported that its doctors in Tajikistan are treating the youngest patient they have ever diagnosed with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, a 9-month old little girl.

Sugar causes diabetes, not weight gain (VIDEO)

Alexander BesantFebruary 28, 2013 20:25

A new study confirms that sugar, not obesity is behind type 2 diabetes.

Cambodia mystery disease "solved," health experts say

Faine GreenwoodJuly 11, 2012 14:29

The cause of Cambodia's deadly "mystery" disease has been found by health experts, CNN reported today. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Cambodian Ministry of Health allegedly have determined that the culprit is a combination of pathogens: enterovirus 71, streptococcus suis and dengue fever.