The following will be published in the April 10 issue of The Lancet:

Help for Haiti Nearly US$10 billion have been pledged by donors in aid to Haiti, which is more than double the amount requested by President René Préval after the devastating earthquake in January. Most of these funds are likely to flow through the Haitian state government’s budget to rebuild infrastructure after the earthquake, with monitoring to help minimise corruption and waste.

Social care levy The UK’s Labour Party has proposed a compulsory levy to fund social care for all adults in England. If introduced, eligible adults would be entitled to financial support to provide residential care or home help. Currently, many vulnerable adults rely on support from family and friends, or have to sell their homes to pay for care.

New meningitis vaccine A new con­jugate vaccine for meningococcal meningitis has been launched in Europe by Novartis. A study by the company found that two-thirds of people who had visited the so-called meningitis belt (the strip of sub-Saharan Africa between Senegal and Ethiopia) had not been vaccinated. The vaccine protects against the four major strains of Neisseria meningitidis: A, C, W-135, and Y.

Driving with disabilities In China, newly revised regulations on drivers’ licences will allow more people with disabilities to drive motor vehicles, as of April 1.  They are those who are able to sit by themselves despite having paralysed limbs, hearing-impaired people who use a hearing aid, and those with incomplete fingers or missing right thumbs.

Drug-resistant gonorrhoea Public health experts attended a meeting in the Philippines last week to discuss the spectre of drug-resistant gonorrhoea. Strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae resist­ant to either cefixime or ceftriaxone have been reported in Australia and Hong Kong, and multidrug resistance has been noted in Japan. The meeting highlighted the urgent need for new drugs to treat the disease.

CT scan hearing The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) held a 2-day meeting last week to discuss the risks of exposing healthy individuals to CT radiation during routine screening for cancer. At the hearing, a former FDA scientist alleged that the agency ignored his objection, and that of colleagues, to the approval of CT scanning for colon cancer screening.

Rift Valley fever An outbreak of Rift Valley fever has affected dozens of farmers, veterinarians, and farm workers in South Africa, at least two of whom have died. Up to 80 farms have reported laboratory-confirmed cases of the zoonosis in animals, with extensive deaths. The government is continuing to investigate the outbreak and is taking steps to develop disease-surveillance systems in cattle.

H1N1 vaccine surplus An estimated 71·5 million doses of influenza A H1N1 vaccine might have to be discarded in the USA, according to figures obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of the 229 million doses purchased, only 91 million have been used. Much of the bulk surplus will be stored or donated to other countries, but doses that have been made up in vials will expire too soon.

Afghan poverty Most people in Afghanistan live in dire poverty, despite receipt of US$35 billion in aid between 2002 and 2009, according to a UN report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The report criticises donors for putting security before long-term development, noting that child and maternal mortality rates in Afghanistan are among the worst in the world.

Deadly delivery An Amnesty International report has concluded that about half the deaths attributable to complications of pregnancy and childbirth in the USA could be prevented if maternal health care were available, accessible, and of good quality for all women. The report draws attention to racial disparities in care, poor insurance coverage, and availability of family planning services.

Under fire The Canadian Government has attracted criticism for failing to include safe access to abortion in its G8 maternal health funding initiative. At a G8 foreign ministers’ meeting, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton argued that “contraception and family planning and access to safe, legal abortions” are essential parts of any maternal health initiative.

Monkey business Long the nemesis of western medical practitioners, traditional folk medicine has a new opponent: zoologists. A global survey has shown that, of 101 species of primate whose body parts are commonly used in traditional folk medicine, magic, or religious rituals, 23 are classified as being endangered and 12 as critically endangered.

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