This week the global health community celebrates World Breastfeeding Week [9] (August 1-7). Breast milk is nutritious, clean, available, natural, and does not require special preparation or handling. Let’s take a moment to consider some of the numerous benefits of breastfeeding to baby and mom:

1. Breastfeeding is the world's most effective solution to reducing child deaths
2. Breastfeeding could save the lives of nearly 1 million children per year
3. Breastfeeding reduces deaths to pneumonia and diarrhea
4. Breastfeeding and nursing promote closeness for baby and mom
5. Nursing reduces mom’s risk of breast and ovarian cancer later in life
6. Nursing contributes to reduction in maternal mortality by helping moms space their births and prevent unintended pregnancy
7. Nursing helps lower rates of obesity among women

In addition to the individual benefits to baby and mom, breastfeeding can help the global community achieve Millennium Development Goals [10] 4 (reduce child mortality), 5 (reduce maternal mortality), and 1 (reduce poverty and hunger).

Today, as we celebrate International Youth Day [19] and the theme of “Youth Migration: Moving Development Forward,” we are reminded of difficult situations millions of young people experience every day—and of the power young people have to create change in their lives when they connect with their peers.

Adolescents and young men and women need access to quality, affordable reproductive health services. In the developing world, 52 million never-married women, aged 15-24, are sexually active and in need of reproductive health and HIV prevention services and information. Yet, adolescent girls often face greater barriers than adult women in accessing them. In the sub-Saharan Africa region, only 21 percent of married adolescents are using a modern contraceptive method; and the adolescent birth rate in the region is four times the rate in Europe and Central Asia. In the Latin America region, teenagers have doubled their proportion of the fertility rate from 8.5 percent in 1955 to 14.3 percent in 2005, despite a steady decline in overall fertility numbers.

OVCsupport.net, a global knowledge sharing website, is announcing its second annual writing contest [28], open to all those who have a story to tell about working with children affected by HIV and AIDS. The annual competition is one component of OVCsupport.net’s efforts to facilitate the exchange of ideas and experiences between people who are working in the field of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). The top three submissions will be featured on the site and in the August edition of the site’s electronic newsletter.

According to UNAIDS [29], more than 14 million children worldwide have lost one or both parents to HIV. The thousands of organizations that provide services to these children often do not have the mechanism to share experiences or receive information on best practices from one another. OVCsupport.net provides a way for these organizations to connect with one another and have access to cutting edge information. The annual writing contest is an opportunity for local organizations and writers to make their voice heard in the global forum.

MSH Global Technical Lead on HIV & AIDS, Scott Kellerman, MD, MPH, has a new article published today in the PLOS Medicine magazine [35].

Scott Kellerman and colleagues argue that the scope of the current HIV elimination agenda must be broadened in order to ensure access to care and treatment for all children living with HIV.

In 2011, despite the global initiative to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV, 330,000 new pediatric infections were added worldwide to the existing pool of 3.4 million children living with the virus. Children are more vulnerable to HIV infection and have higher morbidity and mortality. Without treatment, half of those children infected will die before the age of 2 years, yet only one third of those eligible for treatment are currently receiving antiretroviral therapy.