Top Five Global Health Headlines: Violence in Libya, HIV Trial Halted, Drug Theft

Humanitarian Needs in Libya

The Libyan army may be scaling back in the besieged city of Misrata, the Associated Press reported Monday, after a bloody weekend of intense fighting and worsening humanitarian conditions.

Hundreds of people have been killed in the city in two months of fighting. The United Nations was promised humanitarian access to the area to assess needs early this week, but has continued to provide aid mainly through the city’s port while the high level of violence continues.

HIV Prevention Trial Halted

A large trial testing the use of an HIV drug Truvada as a possible HIV prevention method for women was halted this week due to early results showing no protective effect.

The trial, called FEM-PrEP, had already enrolled nearly 2,000 women in
in Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa, but found in early results that half of new HIV infections in the trial were occurring in women on the drug.

The news was a major blow to HIV prevention efforts. An earlier trial among gay men found Truvada had a significant protective effect, up to 70 percent in men who took the drug most regularly.

Malaria Meds Stolen from Global Fund

Millions of dollars worth of malaria medication donated through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria may have been lost to theft, according to internal documents obtained by the Associated Press.

The Global Fund disputed the AP’s account of the scope of the problem, but confirmed an estimated $2.5 million worth of malaria drugs may have been taken from Togo, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Swaziland and Cambodia between 2009 and 2011. Potential theft was also found in eight other countries, most in Africa, according to the documents.

Measles Outbreak in Europe

Several countries in Europe are experiencing high rates of measles, according to the World Health Organization, especially France, which has seen nearly as many cases of measles in the first three months of 2011 as all of 2010.

Nearly 4,950 cases were between January and March in France — compared with 5,090 cases in 2010. More than 6,500 cases have been reported in 33 European nations this year, prompting renewed calls for vaccine campaigns.

Mother’s Diet Changes Baby DNA

Researchers at the University of Southampton found that pregnant women who ate low levels of carbohydrates early in pregnancy caused changes in bits of DNA in their children. The children with those markers were “strongly linked” by the research to become heavier by ages six and nine, regardless of the mother’s weight.