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  • African Science Academy Development Initiative (ASADI) Meeting in Ghana The fifth annual international conference of the African Science Academy Development Initiative (ASADI) will be held Nov. 9-11 in Accra, Ghana, in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. The theme of this year's conference will be improving maternal, newborn, and child health in Africa, which will be discussed by top experts from around the world. ASADI V will kick off with the release of Science in Action: Saving the Lives of Africa's Mothers, Newborns, and Children, a new report by several African science academies, assessing the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing maternal and childhood mortality -- the focus of U.N. Millennium Development Goals Four and Five -- in sub-Saharan Africa. The report will include estimates of lives that could be saved if proven scientific methods reached more parts of Africa. 11/9
  • Meeting HIV/AIDS Cost Demands: Is The Global Response Working? The November/December 2009 edition of Health Affairs focuses on key global health challenges – including the economic, political, scientific and ethical ones – facing world policymakers in their response to HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. Over the next several years, the world could face a funding shortfall that would prevent millions more with HIV/AIDS from gaining access to antiretroviral drugs. Yet over the long-term, the world could also take critical steps to slash the global burden of HIV-AIDS – and the costs of battling the pandemic – by half. 11/10
  • Meeting HIV/AIDS Cost Demands: Is The Global Response Working? The November/December 2009 edition of Health Affairs focuses on key global health challenges – including the economic, political, scientific and ethical ones – facing world policymakers in their response to HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. Over the next several years, the world could face a funding shortfall that would prevent millions more with HIV/AIDS from gaining access to antiretroviral drugs. Yet over the long-term, the world could also take critical steps to slash the global burden of HIV-AIDS – and the costs of battling the pandemic – by half. 11/10

WHO Approves Second HPV Vaccine

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Friday, July 10, 2009

The WHO announced Thursday it had approved a second cervical cancer vaccine, opening "U.N. agencies and partners [to] now officially buy millions of doses of the vaccine for poor countries worldwide," where an estimated 80 percent of the 280,000 annual deaths from cervical cancer occur each year, the AP/Google.com reports (7/9).

Cervarix, produced by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), prevents HPV infection, which can cause cervical cancer. Cervarix, joins Merck's Gardasil, in receiving the "green light" from the WHO, Reuters reports. "WHO 'prequalification' is necessary for U.N. agencies and the non-profit GAVI Alliance to purchase the vaccine, and Glaxo said on Thursday it hoped the move would help speed access to Cervarix globally," Reuters writes (Hirschler, 7/9) – which officials say will save "tens of thousands of lives," according to AP/Google.com (7/9).

"We're very eager to offer women in developing countries these vaccines because without early screening, they are arguably more vulnerable to cervical cancer," Dan Thomas, a spokesman for GAVI, said, according to Reuters (7/9). However, cost arrangements have yet to be settled, Dow Jones Newswires/Wall Street Journal reports (Stovall, 7/9).

Reuters reports that GAVI is in talks with GSK and Merck in hopes of bringing the cost of the vaccine down for developing countries (7/9). AP/Google.com writes: "In the West, the vaccines typically cost about $360 for a three-shot dose — which is far too expensive for poor countries, Thomas said" (7/9).

The Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report is published by the Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2009 Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.