In The News

Breastfeeding: A Philippine Battleground

Carlos H. Conde July 18, 2007
Research demonstrates that breastfeeding provides many health benefits for infants. As a result, mothers in developed nations have substantially increased breastfeeding rates since 1990. In search of new customers, pharmaceutical firms that make infant formula target mothers in developing nations, including those in the Philippines. One ad campaign hints that formula’s nutrients can increase...

How Dr. Chan Intends to Defend the Planet from Pandemics

June 19, 2007
Diseases can emerge on any point on the globe, spreading quickly, and health providers cannot have vaccines ready for every disease in every location. Complicating the treatment of any infectious disease: Entities within any country may regard disease as a business opportunity, a security risk, a reason for shame or a matter to hide. Indonesia only recently provided the World Health Organization...

Brazil to Break Merck AIDS Drug Patent to Lower Price

Katia Cortes May 17, 2007
Brazil’s president signed an order to override the patent of Merck and Company’s signature AIDS drug, thereby opening the field to lower-cost producers to sell generic versions of the drug. Citing a 2001 World Trade Organization ruling permitting countries to overrule drug patents in cases of national health emergencies, Brazil rejected Merck’s offer to reduce the price of Efavirenz, part of an...

Who's Monitoring Chinese Food Exports?

Nicholas Zamiska April 13, 2007
Food inspectors have traced to China a contaminated ingredient in pet food that has killed an unknown number of animals. Wheat gluten is a common ingredient in pet food, cereal and pasta. The discovery of batches tainted with a pesticide illegal in the US raises questions about China's growing role in the international agricultural market. In 2006, 12 percent of world fruit and vegetable...

Polio Cases Jump in Pakistan as Clerics Declare Vaccination an American Plot

Declan Walsh February 22, 2007
Pakistan’s remote northwestern frontier, one of the few remaining hotspots of polio in the world, has been a major focus of efforts to eradicate the disease. Now, however, health workers in Pakistan face a new obstacle: political fallout from the US-led war on terror. Local tribal and religious leaders have convinced thousands to refuse polio vaccinations in the belief that the vaccine is an...

Globalization Forces a Health-Check of US Auto Industry

Susan Froetschel February 19, 2007
Of the top six automobile-manufacturing countries in the world, the US and China are the only ones that lack universal government-backed health care. US workers expect employers like Ford, General Motors and Chrysler to provide cradle-to-grave health coverage, a significant cost burden not shared by competitors. The problem is exacerbated by health plans for retired employees – every plant...

Theologians Battle Female Circumcision

Amira El Ahl December 19, 2006
The World Health Organization estimates that up to 140 million women worldwide are circumcised, most living in Africa, with some also in Asia and the Middle East. Some cultures – mostly in Africa, but also in Asia – have embraced female circumcision for thousands of years, expecting it to decrease sexual desire in women. The practice is common in Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia, but not in Iraq,...