diseases

At the big International AIDS Conference in Vienna a few weeks back, there was wide coverage of positive trial results for a new microbicide –- a gel that women can use to reduce their risk of getting infected with HIV.
Giving women a prevention tool that they can use to protect themselves from the virus is critical. Right now, they have to depend on men to use condoms or other methods — and you can see how well that’s going.

The U.N. Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is less than two weeks away, so what better way to jump into the issues than by – hmm – reading up on them?
This week, Melinda French Gates of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is blogging about the MDGs in advance of their TEDxChange event, which looks into the future of global health and development.

Over the weekend, we saw coverage of a massive drug bust in East Africa in which more than 20,000 pounds of counterfeit medicine were seized from more than 300 sites across Uganda, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zanzibar. According to Interpol authorities, the confiscated items included anti-malaria drugs, vaccines and antibiotics.

Exciting partnership news from while we were out: The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) announced its formal support of the Measles Initiative, which was established in 2001 by the American Red Cross, United Nations Foundation, UNICEF, the CDC and the World Health Organization. The effort will be spearheaded by the WNBA’s community outreach arm, WNBA Cares.

This month, we’ll be featuring blog posts that help illustrate the Global Fund’s effect on programs that fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria around the world — and the people suffering from these diseases.