Global Goal to Reduce Measles Deaths in Children Surpassed

Measles deaths have fallen by 60 per cent worldwide since 1999 - a major public health success. This exceeds the United Nations goal to halve measles deaths between 1999 and 2005 and is largely due to an unprecedented decline in measles deaths in the African region. The progress was announced today by partners in the Measles Initiative: the American Red Cross, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United Nations Foundation, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO). According to new data from WHO, global measles deaths fell from an estimated 873 000 deaths in 1999 to 345 000 in 2005. In Africa, the progress has been even greater, with measles deaths falling by 75 per cent, from an estimated 506 000 to 126 000. The data will be published in this week's edition of The Lancet.

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Half Million Children Infected with HIV in 2006

Around 530,000 children were infected with the HIV/AIDS virus in 2006, mainly from mother-to-child transmission, states a report from the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF). The Children and AIDS: A Stocktaking Report was released Tuesday on the first anniversary of the Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS campaign promoted by UNICEF and its associate organizations. In the report, UNICEF points out that without treatment half of the infected infants will die before reaching two years of age. While the report noted progress reached in some countries in prevention of the mother-child transmission and in providing treatment to children living with the virus, UNICEF maintains that many HIV positive pregnant women are not receiving the necessary antiretrovirals.

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MySpace Finding Ways to Let Parents Monitor Children

News that myspace.com has been investigating ways to allow parents to view important details of their children's myspace profiles surfaced early this week and have sparked controversy in teens everywhere. Apparently, the ever so popular online hang out for young teens and college students has recently taken steps to develop software that will allow parents to snoop on their underage children. Currently, children under the age of fourteen are banned from Myspace and fourteen and fifteen year olds can only have profiles with special privacy settings which control who can view their personal pages. Under this setting, only those signed up as a "friend" can view the details on a profile. Critics say that this setting is pointless as long as children can add whomever they wish to their friends list.

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