Unprecedented victory against measles

Here's some encouraging news. The Measles Initiative partnership recently announced that worldwide measles deaths fell 60% from 1999 to 2005, from 873,000 down to 345,000 deaths per year. That's 528,000 lives saved every year.

“One of the clearest messages from this achievement is that with the right strategies and a strong partnership of committed governments and organizations, you can rapidly reduce child deaths in developing countries," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, Director, United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

We've seen that it can be done. What's next?

Get talking, America!

Doctors Without Borders recently released a list of the 10 most under-reported humanitarian crises of 2006, which they say "accounted for just 7.2 minutes of the 14,512 minutes on the three major U.S. television networks' nightly newscasts for 2006."

1. Central African Republic
   
2. Tuberculosis
   
3. Chechnya
   
4. Sri Lanka
   
5. Malnutrition
   
6. Democratic Republic of Congo
   
7. Somalia
   
8. Columbia
   
9. Haiti
   
10. Central India