Newsbites

Afghanistan

Taliban and government strike deal

Afghan government health officials have brokered a deal with Taliban leaders to allow children in rebel held areas to receive vaccinations. Unicef is trying to vaccinate more than a million Afghan children against polio after a recent outbreak of the debilitating viral infection that the World Health Organization is trying to eradicate.

The Taliban's fight against the Afghan government and its mainly Western allies has held back health related development, such as hospital and clinic construction, which is sorely needed after 30 years. Fighting also prevents health workers reaching many sick and injured people.

Government medical officials struck the deal after contacting a medical professional on the Taliban side, who persuaded a Taliban governor that the vaccinations should be allowed to go ahead.

Other health workers also contacted this medical professional, Mullah Ahmad, to use his influence to overturn a threat by one Taliban commander to burn down a clinic in government held territory because male doctors there had helped women give birth (www.reuters.com).

US public health

Concern about MRSA infection rates

Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection is killing almost 19,000 people in the United States every year, more than succumb to HIV, federal health officials have said.

Making the first national assessment of the toll from MRSA, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calculated that it is responsible for more than 94,000 serious infections a year.

Mounting evidence shows that the infection is becoming more common. “This is a …