UNAIDS to slash workforce by more than half as funding by US and other big donors disappears
The UN agency that fights HIV plans to slash its workforce by more than half and move many posts to cheaper locations as a result of drastic funding cuts from longtime donors in the United States, Asia and Europe, the agency and staffers told The Associated Press on Tuesday.UNAIDS said "the overall global AIDS response is facing a severe shock and many of the gains made in the past few decades are at risk of being reversed." It said the restructuring follows an independent panel's recommendations calling for "downsizing" its secretariat in Geneva while continuing to "prioritize the most essential functions." It said it would maintain its presence in 36 countries.Drastic US cuts in assistance under the current Trump administration, part of wider cuts for global health, strike perhaps the biggest blow ever to the world's efforts to fight HIV.UNAIDS had previously warned that unless support to its HIV efforts are restored soon, more than 6 million additional people could die in the next four years and an additional 2,000 people per day could become infected with the virus that causes AIDS.Employees were told at an internal town hall Tuesday that staff will be reduced to about 280 to 300 from about 600 currently, participants said.UNAIDS officials were considering plans to move many posts to lower-cost locations where it already has offices: in Bonn, Germany; Nairobi, Kenya; or Johannesburg, South Africa - the country with the world's highest number of AIDS cases, agency spokesperson Charlotte Sector told the AP.The agency was created in 1996, largely to address shortcomings in global HIV policy by another UN health agency, the World Health Organization, which continues to partially fund UNAIDS.The United States, under the second Trump administration, has sharply reduced or paused international funding and support for many UN-related organizations.In an interview with the AP in February in response to the US cuts, UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima said HIV infections could jump more than six times by 2029 if American support of the biggest AIDS program is dropped. She warned that more resistant strains of the disease could emerge.Byanyima acknowledged some valid criticism regarding how HIV aid has been delivered and called it "an opportunity to rethink and develop more efficient ways of delivering life-saving support."According to its website, support from the United States contributed more than 40% of the UNAIDS core program and non-core activities that totaled about $214 million in 2023, the most recent year listed. Other top contributors included the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.
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Business Standard
an hour ago
- Business Standard
Eli Lilly to raise UK price of weight-loss drug Mounjaro by 170%
Eli Lilly will raise the UK list price of its weight-loss treatment Mounjaro by up to 170%, it said on Thursday, amid a White House push to get drugmakers to raise medicine prices in Europe to allow for price cuts in the United States. The new price, which also applies to Lilly's type 2 diabetes medicine that has the same name, is effective from September. The price for a month's supply of the highest dose of the medicine will increase from £122 to £330, Lilly said. The higher price will affect those who pay for Mounjaro privately, but will not affect those prescribed the medicine through the British public healthcare system, which has a separate deal, a Lilly spokesperson said. The U.S. drugmaker said that when it launched Mounjaro in Britain it agreed to a list price "significantly below" that in its three other European markets to prevent delays in availability through Britain's National Health Service (NHS). "We are now aligning the list price more consistently," Lilly said. The move reflects how the pharmaceutical industry is navigating policy changes in the United States, by far its most lucrative market, where President Donald Trump is pushing for lower domestic prices and encouraging price hikes overseas. Last week Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks told an investor call that parity between U.S. and European drug pricing was desirable in the long run, though he warned that European governments "are not signing up to pay more for drugs". The U.S. pays more for prescription drugs than any other country, often nearly three times as much as other developed nations. Trump says he wants to narrow this gap to stop Americans from being "ripped off." Reuters reported last week that the Trump administration has been talking to drugmakers about ways to level the playing field for medicine prices. A list price is set by the drug manufacturer before any rebates or discounts. Lilly said it was working with private UK healthcare providers, such as online pharmacies, who can set their own prices, to ensure continued access to the medicines. Lilly launched Mounjaro in the UK in February last year, while rival Novo Nordisk's Wegovy treatment has been available in the country since September 2023.
News18
2 hours ago
- News18
Malnourished kids arrive daily at Gaza hospital as Netanyahu denies hunger
Khan Younis, Aug 14 (AP) The dead body of 2 1/2-year-old Ro'a Mashi lay on the table in Gaza's Nasser Hospital, her arms and rib cage skeletal, her eyes sunken in her skull. Doctors say she had no preexisting conditions and wasted away over months as her family struggled to find food and treatment. Her family showed The Associated Press a photo of Ro'a's body at the hospital, and it was confirmed by the doctor who received her remains. Several days after she died, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday told local media, 'There is no hunger. There was no hunger. There was a shortage, and there was certainly no policy of starvation." In the face of international outcry, Netanyahu has pushed back, saying reports of starvation are 'lies" promoted by Hamas. However, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric this week warned that starvation and malnutrition in Gaza are at the highest levels since the war began. The UN says nearly 12,000 children under 5 were found to have acute malnutrition in July — including more than 2,500 with severe malnutrition, the most dangerous level. The World Health Organisation says the numbers are likely an undercount. The past two weeks, Israel has allowed around triple the amount of food into Gaza than had been entering since late May. That followed 2 1/2 months when Israel barred all food, medicine and other supplies, saying it was to pressure Hamas to release hostages taken during its 2023 attack that launched the war. While better food access might help much of Gaza's population, 'it won't help the children who are severely malnourished," said Alex DeWaal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University, who has worked on famine and humanitarian issues for more than 40 years. When a person is severely malnourished, vital micronutrients are depleted and bodily functions deteriorate. Simply feeding the person can cause harm, known as 'refeeding syndrome," potentially leading to seizures, coma or death. Instead, micronutrients must first be replenished with supplements and therapeutic milk in a hospital. 'We're talking about thousands of kids who need to be in hospital if they're going to have a chance of survival," DeWaal said. 'If this approach of increasing the food supply had been undertaken two months ago, probably many of those kids would not have gotten into this situation." Any improvement is also threatened by a planned new Israeli offensive that Netanyahu says will capture Gaza City and the tent camps where most of the territory's population is located. That will prompt a huge new wave of displacement and disrupt food delivery, UN and aid officials warn. Preexisting conditions The Gaza Health Ministry says 42 children died of malnutrition-related causes since July 1, along with 129 adults. It says 106 children have died of malnutrition during the entire war. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, is staffed by medical professionals and its figures on casualties are seen by the UN and other experts as the most reliable. The Israeli military Tuesday pointed to the fact that some children who died had preexisting conditions, arguing their deaths were 'unrelated to their nutritional status." It said a review by its experts had concluded there are 'no signs of a widespread malnutrition phenomenon" in Gaza. At his press briefing Sunday, Netanyahu spoke in front of a screen reading 'Fake Starving Children" over photos of skeletal children with preexisting conditions. He accused Hamas of starving the remaining Israeli hostages and repeated claims the militant group is diverting large amounts of aid, a claim the UN denies. Doctors in Gaza acknowledge that some of those dying or starving have chronic conditions, including cerebral palsy, rickets or genetic disorders, some of which make children more vulnerable to malnutrition. However, those conditions are manageable when food and proper medical treatments are available, they say. 'The worsening shortages of food led to these cases' swift deterioration," said Dr. Yasser Abu Ghali, head of Nasser's pediatrics unit. 'Malnutrition was the main factor in their deaths." Of 13 emaciated children whose cases the AP has seen since late July, five had no preexisting conditions — including three who died — according to doctors. Abu Ghali spoke next to the body of Jamal al-Najjar, a 5-year-old who died Tuesday of malnutrition and was born with rickets, which hinders the ability to metabolize vitamins, weakening bones. In the past months, the boy's weight fell from 16 kilograms to 7 (35 pounds to 15), said his father, Fadi al-Najjar, whose lean face showed his own hunger. Asked about Netanyahu's claim there was no hunger in Gaza, he pointed at Jamal's protruding rib cage. 'Of course there's famine," he said. 'Does a 5-year-old child's chest normally come to look like this?" Skin and bones Dr. Ahmed al-Farra, Nasser's general director of pediatrics, said the facility receives 10-20 children with severe malnutrition a day, and the numbers are rising. On Sunday, a severely malnourished 2-year-old, Shamm Qudeih, cried in pain in her hospital bed. Her arms, legs and ribs were skeletal, her belly inflated. 'She has lost all fat and muscle," al-Farra said. She weighed 4 kilograms (9 pounds), a third of a 2-year-old's normal weight. Doctors suspect Shamm suffers from a rare genetic condition called glycogen storage disease, which changes how the body uses and stores glycogen, a form of sugar, and can impact muscle and bone development. But they can't test for it in Gaza, al-Farra said. Normally, the condition can be managed through a high-carbohydrate diet. Her family applied a year ago for medical evacuation, joining a list of thousands the WHO says need urgent treatment abroad. For months, Israel slowed evacuations to a near standstill or halted them for long stretches. But it appears to be stepping up permissions, with more than 60 allowed to leave in the first week of August, according to the UN. Permission for Shamm to leave Gaza finally came this week, and on Wednesday, she was heading to a hospital in Italy. A child died in her family's tent Ro'a was one of four dead children who suffered from malnutrition brought to Nasser over the course of just over two weeks, doctors say. Her mother, Fatma Mashi, said she first noticed Ro'a losing weight last year, but she thought it was because she was teething. When she took Ro'a to Nasser Hospital in October, the child was severely malnourished, according to al-Farra, who said Ro'a had no preexisting conditions. At the time, in the last months of 2024, Israel had reduced aid entry to some of the lowest levels of the war. The family was also displaced multiple times by Israeli military operations. Each move interrupted Ro'a's treatment as it took time to find a clinic to get nutritional supplements, Mashi said. The family was reduced to one meal a day — often boiled macaroni — but 'whatever she ate, it didn't change anything in her," Mashi said. Two weeks ago, they moved into the tent camps of Muwasi on Gaza's southern coast. Ro'a's decline accelerated. 'I could tell it was only a matter of two or three more days," Mashi said in the family's tent Friday, the day after she had died. Mashi and her husband Amin both looked gaunt, their cheeks and eyes hollow. Their five surviving children – including a baby born this year — are thin, but not nearly as emaciated as Ro'a. top videos View all DeWaal said it's not unusual in famines for one family member to be far worse than others. 'Most often it will be a kid who is 18 months or 2 years" who is most vulnerable, he said, while older siblings are 'more robust." But any number of things can set one child into a spiral of malnutrition, such as an infection or troubles after weaning. 'A very small thing can push them over." (AP) GSP (This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed - PTI) view comments First Published: August 14, 2025, 20:45 IST News agency-feeds Malnourished kids arrive daily at Gaza hospital as Netanyahu denies hunger Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
How much protein is too much? Experts weigh in on finding the sweet spot for daily intake
From muscle growth and weight management to better bone health, protein has earned its place as a dietary star. Yet, in the era of fitness influencers and protein-packed everything, a pressing question remains: how much is actually enough? And can you go overboard? Independence Day 2025 Before Trump, British used tariffs to kill Indian textile Bank of Azad Hind: When Netaji gave India its own currency Swadeshi 2.0: India is no longer just a market, it's a maker Recent insights from USA Today and the Mayo Clinic reveal that while protein is essential for everything from building muscle to repairing tissue, the right amount depends on your weight, lifestyle, and age — and more protein is not always better. Why Protein Matters Beyond Muscle According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, protein serves as the foundation for bones, muscles, blood, cartilage, hormones, and skin. It also boosts satiety, keeping you fuller for longer compared to carbs or fats. That makes it particularly valuable for those managing their weight. Registered dietitian Jamie Nadeau told USA Today that aiming for at least 20 grams of protein per meal can help with satiety, though she stresses individual needs vary. How Much Protein Do You Really Need? The current recommended dietary allowance (RDA) is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight for sedentary adults. That's about 54 grams a day for someone weighing 150 pounds. You Might Also Like: 6 high protein vegetarian foods that are nutrient-dense and expert-approved But many experts now recommend higher targets, especially for active individuals or those over 40. Nadeau notes that muscle-building benefits often start at 1.2 to 1.4 grams per kilogram, which for that same 150-pound person translates to around 82 to 95 grams daily. For regular exercisers, the Mayo Clinic advises between 1.1 and 1.7 grams per kilogram, depending on training intensity. However, exceeding 2 grams per kilogram daily could lead to kidney strain, higher cholesterol, or fat gain. Why More Isn't Always Better The body cannot store excess protein. Once needs are met, surplus protein is either used for energy or stored as fat. The Mayo Clinic warns that high-protein diets heavy in red meat and saturated fats can raise heart disease risk, and that portion control is just as important as hitting daily targets. Muscle growth also requires strength training — protein alone won't do the trick. A bigger steak without exercise does not equal bigger muscles. You Might Also Like: Is the protein craze making you healthier or just taking the joy out of eating? Behind the viral wellness trend Spreading Intake Through the Day Instead of loading all your protein at dinner, research suggests spreading 15–30 grams per meal could help with appetite control and muscle preservation. Breakfast, often the meal with the least protein, is a good place to start — think Greek yogurt with fruit, eggs with whole grain toast, or a smoothie with peanut butter and milk. Nadeau also recommends including a high-protein snack (5–10 grams) daily to keep hunger in check. iStock Research suggests spreading 15–30 grams per meal. Best Sources for a Balanced Plate You don't need to rely on protein powders or oversized meat portions to meet your needs. According to USDA data, top protein sources include: Lentils: 23.6 g per ½ cup dry Chicken breast: 22.5 g per 3.5 oz Salmon: 20.3 g per 3.5 oz Greek yogurt: 16.1 g per container Black beans: 9.9 g per ½ cup Peanut butter: 7 g per 2 tbsp Health experts recommend choosing lean meats, seafood, dairy, legumes, and soy over processed supplements, unless otherwise advised by a dietitian.
