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Alliance News Digest

Week of 27 August 2010

NEWS FROM WHO AND PARTNERS

• Alongside Syrian health workers, UNICEF battles varied causes of malnutrition – UNICEF. (8/18)
  Operating alongside local teams, UNICEF experts assess the extent of the problem and train public health centre staff to track children’s growth and treat malnutrition.
• Canada and Mali Sign Agreement to Advance Canada’s G-8 Muskoka Initiative Commitment to Save the Lives of Mothers, Newborns and Children Under Five – CIDA. (8/23)
  The Canada-Mali partnership will concentrate on training health workers, strengthening Mali's comprehensive primary health systems at the local level…….
• Aid donors in Nepal agree to joint financing of better maternal and child health - GAVI Alliance.(8/18)
  Strong health systems vital to achieving Nepal’s health-related MDGs
• PAKISTAN: We are Treating Up To 800 Patients a Day – Global Health Council. (8/20)
  In the aftermath of the floods, International Medical Corps is assisting some of the 20 million affected

AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST

• Budaka transfers 39 health workers – Daily Monitor, Uganda. (8/18)
  Health workers have been transferred to various health units in the district in a move aimed at improving efficiency and effectiveness
• Stakeholders urged to expand access to HIV treatment – Walfa Info. Ethiopia (8/20)
  Lack of health professionals and laboratory equipment, as well as inaccessibility of health institutions are factors hindering the expansion of HIV treatment.
• State goes to court over essential service workers – Dispatch Online, SA. (8/23)
  UNIONS have vowed to continue striking this week despite a court interdict ordering nurses and other essential services staff to return to work.
• Angola com mais de mil 800 unidades sanitárias até 2009 – Angola Press. (8/20)
  As áreas rurais são, de acordo com o ministro, lamentavelmente, as mais afectadas pela carência de profissionais
• Strike Update: Health Workers in the Western Cape – Cape Gateway, SA. (8/23)
  Today's strike did not impact on the delivery of health services to patients in the Western Cape.
• Strike Jeopardizes HIV Treatment – IRIN PlusNews. (8/24)
  If the strike goes beyond a second week, the no-work-no-pay rule will see workers lose more than two percent of their annual income
• Uganda: Breastfeeding Dilemma for HIV-Positive Mothers – Catholic Information Service for Africa. (8/24)
  "Community nurses and midwives should be trained and new policies should be quickly circulated."
• Health Workers Demand More Pay – The Informer, Liberia. (8/19)
  Health workers are civil servants that need to be respected in society and not to be taken for granted.
• Health Workers' Phones Making Impact – MOH – New Times, Rwanda. (8/19)
  Mobile phones have helped improve information flow between the health workers and health ministry.
• Cholera death toll rises to 352 – Nigerian Tribune. (8/26)
  The commissioner said health workers and drugs had been dispatched to the affected areas to contain the situation

ASIA AND PACIFIC

• PM: 3.5 mln Pakistani children at risk of waterborne diseases – China.org. (8/25)
  Doctors, nurses, Lady Health Visitors, and paramedical staff have been sent to affected areas
• Money, scholarships woo health, education workers to villages – Jakarta Post. (8/20)
  Ministries propose rewards to health and education workers willing to be stationed at remote areas to overcome manpower shortages.
• Health workers refuse to join immunisation drive – Times of India. (8/26)
  Committee was constituted to conduct a death audit of the Mohanlalganj tragedy, in which four kids died after vaccination
• Hope Persists for Jailed Health Workers in Philippines – IPS Terra Viva. (8/25)
  43 people - two doctors, one registered nurse, two midwives and 38 volunteer health workers - were arrested on Feb. 6 for the illegal possession of explosives and firearms.
• Aussies touch down in Pakistan – Sydney Morning Herald. (8/25)
  The 51-strong medical task force arrived near Multan in the Punjab province on Tuesday
• Regional health groups like poll result – Sydney Morning Herald. (8/23)
  The Rural Doctors Association says that could mean more money for the bush.
• Pregnant women warned — Hames – Collie Mail, Australia. (8/18)
  COLLIE Hospital’s maternity unit has an adequate number of midwives to meet current and expected needs
• UN - UN DPI/NGO Conference in Australia to Attract Unprecedented Number of Workshops, Wide Range of Round Tables on Global Health Goals, 30 August – 1 September – ISRIA.com. (8/22)
  Event has set for itself the goal of galvanizing support for improving global health and achieving the MDGs.

NORTH AMERICA

• Training lay health workers envisioned – The Herald-Sun, NC. (8/20)
  Community leaders would aid patients in underserved areas
• U.N. sees increase in humanitarian workers being targeted – CNN. (8/18)
  The U.N. is calling for all parties to respect aid workers
• Obama Seeks Boosts In Funds For AIDS Prevention, Research – Wall Street Journal. (8/20)
  About $55 million would go toward AIDS virus prevention, services and research while $250 million would be to help enhance health-care training programs
• Hillary Clinton Touts Global Health Initiative as Key Foreign Policy Tool – Politics Daily. (8/18)
  "What exactly does maternal health or immunizations or the fight against HIV and AIDS have to do with foreign policy?" Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton queried
• Smart Health | Simple Mobile Services Improve Maternal Health Care in Developing Countries – TMCNet. (8(16)
  Worldwide, millions of newborns die each year due to lack of access to adequate health services
• Marshall University midwifery program off to slow start – Charleston Gazette. (8/21)
  The nation's rising maternal mortality rate is attributed to a move away from the midwife system and toward physician-based care
• Stanley says health care worker bill puts patients at risk – Eagle-Tribune, Mass. (8/21)
  Community health workers would be offered certification training under a bill nearing Gov. Deval Patrick's desk, despite warnings from lawmaker it could diminish patient safety
• U.S., International Aid Helps Fight Disease in Pakistan Floods – Media Newswire. (8/19)
  WHO and mobile and stationary medical centers reported treating 143,870 skin infections, 115,922 cases of acute diarrhea and 113,981 respiratory tract infections.
• ASEAN Workers Train for Pandemic Response – Voice of America News. (8/18)
  Public health workers from nearly a score of countries gathered in Cambodia to play a game they hope will help make Southeast Asia better able to handle pandemic disease
• HHS Secretary Announces $32 Million to Support Rural Health Priorities – ExecutiveGov. (8/24)
  FY 2010 funds to make healthcare more accessible for Americans living in rural areas.

EUROPE

• Membership exams overseas in light of new global code of practice – The Lancet, UK. (8/21)
  For candidates in pursuit of an internationally recognised qualification, it is undoubtedly more convenient to take these examinations in their home countries
• S African strikers set to defy court order – Financial Times, UK. 88/229
  Schools, hospitals and courts have been severely affected by the action, which began last Wednesday after the government failed to resolve a dispute over wage increases
• Mother told to clean own room after caesarean – The Local, Sweden. (8/22)
  Mother-of-two Elin Andersson has highlighted staffing shortage problems at a maternity ward in Sundsvall in northern Sweden
• Foreigners queue up for nursing vacancies – Times of Malta. (8/21)
  ‘Repetitive work done by casualty and ward doctors’
• Healthcare workers raise 'SOS' over threats to services – Irish Independent. (8/25)
  Around 100 health workers yesterday raised an 'SOS' over threats to hospital services from a major budget shortfall
• Expansion of cancer care and control in countries of low and middle income: a call to action – The Lancet, UK. (8/16)
  Strategies can reduce costs, increase access to health services, and strengthen health systems to meet the challenge of cancer and other diseases
• Chinese doctors are under threat (Editorial) – The Lancet, UK. (8/28)
  Many Chinese patients believe that doctors and hospitals conspire to increase charges by providing unnecessary examinations, investigations, and treatments.
• NÎMES - Cruel manque d'infirmières dans les maisons de retraite – Midi Libre, France. (8/18)
  C’est la première fois qu’on manque à ce point d’infirmières dans nos établissements
• Horário de 40 horas traz mais meio milhão de consultas – Diário de Notícias, Portugal. (8/23)
  FNAM fez contas aos ganhos para o SNS caso os clínicos que fazem 35 passem a 40 horas semanais: 'mais' 800 a 900 médicos
• Málaga tiene la mitad menos de enfermeros que la media europea – Malaga Hoy, Spain. (8/22)
  La provincia suma 387 profesionales por cada 100.000 habitantes mientras el promedio comunitario es de 843

LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN

• Health sector on track for MDGs — CMO – Jamaica Observer. (8/25)
  PAHO/WHO believes that assessing skills of workforce; improving working environment and addressing the migration of health workers are some of the ways of improving healthcare..
• Padece hospital de Tehuacán falta de médicos y enfermeras – e-Consulta, Mexico. (8/23)
  El déficit de personal es uno de los mayores conflictos, ya que actualmente la atención demanda al menos 25 nuevos médicos especialistas y 30 enfermeras
• Gestiona ante el IMSS incremento de personal para el Hospital Ixtlero – Vanguardia, Mexico. (8/19)
  La ampliación de 33 a 54 camas demanda un mayor número de médicos, enfermeras, empleados de laboratorio y de rayos X
• São Paulo pode se tornar um polo mundial de saúde – Abril.com, Brazil. (8/18)
  São Paulo reúne todos os requisitos para se tornar um polo mundial de atividades ligadas às ciências da vida humana
• REUNIÓN BILATERAL PERÚ - BRASIL Y TRANSFERENCIA DE LA CORDINACIÓN TITULAR DE RECURSOS HUMANOS DE UNASUR SALUD – Min. Salud, Peru. (8/19)
  Reunión permitió analizar los niveles de cooperación bilateral desarrollados hasta el momento, particularmente en recursos humanos

Information