The theme of this year’s World Health Day, held annually on April 7th, was to promote the awareness of vector-borne diseases. Vector-borne diseases are transmitted through the bites of infected mosquitoes, flies, ticks and water snails, among other disease-carrying pests.
This year the World Health Organization (WHO) promoted the slogan “small bite, big threat,” in the hopes that they would be able to increase awareness on how people across the globe can protect themselves and their families from these pests and the viruses that they may transmit.
Vector-borne diseases have radically increased in the past few decades, aided by an increase in urbanization, international travel and environmental changes.
More than one billion people each year are affected by these diseases, which include malaria, dengue fever, Lyme disease, schistosomiasis and yellow fever.
Efforts to control the spread of these diseases have included the distribution of bed nets and insecticides, the use of body repellents and protective clothing, and the push for clean water and adequate sanitation.
WHO Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan, noted, “A global health agenda that gives higher priority to vector control could save many lives and avert much suffering. No one in the 21st century should die from the bite of a mosquito, a sand fly, a blackfly or a tick.”
The focus this year is on dengue fever, which is currently the most rapidly spreading vector-borne disease in the world.
Dengue fever, also known as “breakbone fever” due to its symptoms, is a severe flu-like disease marked by vomiting, bleeding, body aches and difficult breathing. There is no known vaccine or cure available.
During the past 50 years, dengue fever has spread rapidly to more than 100 countries. Prior to 1960, dengue had seen some 15,000 cases, whereas now over 380 million cases of dengue fever persist.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is currently working on a vaccine for dengue fever in partnership with a company specializing in vaccine development, Inviragen. They have gone through clinical trials in a number of countries including Singapore, Colombia, Thailand and Puerto Rico, and analysis of those findings is still underway.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is campaigning alongside the WHO to address this growing concern.
Previous programs to curb the spread of vector-borne diseases have proven successful, for example, the United States’ effort to combat malaria.
Malaria is the most deadly of vector-borne diseases, killing 1.2 million people every year. Multiple campaigns have been launched to prevent the spread of this disease, including the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) and the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. PMI has distributed more than 120 million bed nets since 2006, as well as delivered more than 135 million doses of combination drug therapy.
These success stories provide hope for current efforts to control other vector-borne diseases such as dengue fever and schistosomiasis.
– Mollie O’Brien
Sources: Mission of the United States, Voice of America
World Bank to Fund ACE Project in Africa
On April 15, 2014, the World Bank confirmed they would be funding 19 Centers of Excellence in Central and West Africa.
These university-styled centers will also be receiving financing for specific research in math, agriculture and health issues, science and technology.
The Africa Centers of Excellence (ACE) is a project that aims to help form scientific and research skills in adolescent Africans. With the addition of these programs, World Bank’s Vice President in Africa, Makhtar Diop, hopes that more jobs will be formed, economic standing in Africa will grow and adolescents will gain an education in areas that are growing increasingly more important, such as disease control.
World Bank has agreed to fund $150 million, with the majority amount of $70 million going to Nigeria. The other government receiving funding are: Ghana, which is receiving $24 million; Senegal, $16 million; Cameroon, Benin, Burkina Faso, and Togo, each of which is receiving $8 million.
In addition, the Gambia is also being given a $2 million credit, and a $1 million grant to go towards training for students and faculty, as well as to provide higher education to students.
During a time when the continent is facing a severe drop in skilled workers and trained health care workers, the ACE is giving hope and a chance for young students to excel in areas that also benefit Africa as a whole. These areas of study will open doors for students and also equip them with skills for jobs that will provide job security because of high demand.
The focus on Health and STEM research aims to relieve the African countries from the struggling “researcher-to-population ratio” that is negatively affecting the overall health care. Africa currently has a very high mortality rates for mothers, which is 500 maternal deaths for every 100,000 births.
The ACE’s funded program will overall benefit young students, as well as alleviate the current problems with researcher-to-population ratio, economics, health care and poverty.
– Becka Felcon
Sources: World Bank, Punch, All Africa
Marijuana Tours Help Jamaican Economy
As of January 2014, Jamaica had an unemployment rate of 14.9%, which was a decrease from the 15.4% in December 2013.
Jamaican reggae singer Bob Marley’s celebrity in the U.S. and openness about his use of marijuana has formed a reputation for Jamaica as being an island where marijuana use and sales are legal. Jamaica is in actuality a very conservative country that prohibits the use and distribution of marijuana.
The growth of marijuana crops, in fact, have steadily declined because of the war on drugs by the U.S. and other competitors, but this has not hindered American travelers from visiting Jamaica in hopes of experiencing the effects of marijuana that Bob Marley openly supported.
Regardless of the decline, Jamaica still has a vast supply of marijuana tourists from the U.S. and all over the world. Jamaica is still the lead smuggler of marijuana into the U.S., which brings a great deal of people into the country to buy weed and explore the cannabis culture in Jamaica.
Many growers are quickly learning that making money off of tourists is quite easy when it includes marijuana. Nine Mile, famous for being the hometown of Bob Marley, offers many different marijuana tours, each of which take relatively large groups of Americans, Germans and Russians through small marijuana farms.
These tours are also common in Negril, Jamaica, and are slowly adapting to become common in places such as Colorado and Washington state, where marijuana has become legalized.
With these tours, average-to-minimum waged locals are able to make a decent chunk of money by letting tourists explore their farms and sample their inventory, often leading many of the tourists to purchase their product.
One Jamaican marijuana farmer dubbed “Breezy” sells his bags of marijuana through the wall-hole of a museum, where marijuana tourists line up and smoke weed, usually just for the sheer novelty that Bob Marley smoked weed on the same island.
One tourist traveling from Minnesota stated, “I can get stronger stuff at home, but there’s something really special about smoking marijuana in Jamaica. I mean, this is the marijuana that inspired Bob Marley.”
The large amount of marijuana tourism that is illegally occurring in Jamaica begs the question of why it hasn’t been legalized.
Marijuana could prove to be a great benefit and a pillar for health tourists. One Jamaican scientist named Henry Lowe, who was a partner in developing a marijuana-based glaucoma treatment, believes that legalizing marijuana could bring in even more tourism than there already is.
By legalizing marijuana, attention and money is estimated to be pulled from gangs and arresting large criminal parties and be refocused on other important matters, such as creating official jobs for those living below the poverty line and helping lower class growers gain a larger following. Overall, the island would benefit and reap massive economic gain by legalizing marijuana and freeing up money.
– Becka Felcon
Sources: Trading Economics, The Guardian, Telegraph
Photo: High Times Caribbean
Pollution Has No Boundaries: What Can We Do?
Most recently, air pollution has become the single greatest health risk in the world, surpassing smoking, car accidents and diabetes combined.
Figures reported by the World Health Organization (WHO) show that indoor and outdoor air pollution have been linked to a total of seven million deaths, or one in eight deaths, in 2012. Indoor pollution is the result of wood-burning and coal stoves mostly in rural impoverished communities, while outdoor pollution mainly comes from traffic fumes and coal-burning plants.
The majority of deaths attributed to outdoor air pollution occurred in Southeast Asia, which is now known to be the most polluted region in the world. It is estimated that 3.7 million deaths can be attributed to outdoor air pollution, usually as a result of stroke and hearth disease.
4.3 million deaths are attributed to indoor air pollution, many of which were caused by stroke, heart disease, and respiratory diseases. The vast majority of these deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries.
These figures demonstrate the detrimental effect of air pollution on mortality and health across the globe. It is a public health issue that needs to be addressed by all countries. Maria Neira, Director of WHO’s Public Health and the Environment Department, states, “Few risks have a greater impact on global health today than air pollution; the evidence signals the need for concerted action to clean up the air we all breathe.”
It is important to note in Neira’s statement that she refers to “the air we all breathe.” Air pollution is an environmental health concern that has no boundaries; what one country emits has a direct impact on countries that are halfway around the world.
So what can we do to reduce our impact on air pollution?
Rural communities and big cities vary in what they can do to reduce their pollution emissions. But, we can all change our behaviors individually to make a difference.
At the local level, we can work on replacing inefficient coal and biomass stoves used in rural communities with electric stoves that are better for the environment. We can reduce our own carbon footprints by walking and bicycling more, instead of using our cars. Planting more trees has also become one way that people are filtering clean air into their neighborhoods.
At the political level, all countries need to reduce their carbon emissions. They need to create sustainable, urban policies that emphasize sharing resources and reducing our energy usage. Examples of this include green architecture and infrastructure, as well as bans on car usage.
One great example of someone who did this was mayor Enrique Penalosa of Bogota, Colombia. In 1998 he pedestrianized large sections of the city, raised the tax on petrol and forced commuters to leave their cars at home at least two days of the week, while making the bus system more accessible. He said, “Urban transport is a political and not a technical issue. The technical benefits are very simple. The difficult decisions relate to who is going to benefit.”
So, do we have the will to change our behaviors and lobby politicians to do the same?
I think so.
– Mollie O’Brien
Sources: The Guardian, Treehugger, The Guardian
Top 5 U.S. Philanthropists
When you think of Bill Gates, is your first thought Microsoft or astoundingly wealthy billionaire? How about philanthropist? The latter may have slipped your mind completely.
Through the joint efforts of the Philanthropic Research Institute, a nonprofit organization focused on creating philanthropic awareness, Forbes compiled a list of America’s fifty top philanthropists that have given the most money away. Below are the top five U.S. philanthropists.
Bill Gates falls into the utmost categories of the elite, leading the way as the world’s richest person with a net worth of an estimated $76 billion. Gates has lead the way as the world’s most wealthy man fifteen out of the last twenty years.
1. Not only does Gates’ hold the spot as the world’s richest man, but with the collaboration of his wife, Bill and Melinda Gates have snagged the spot as the U.S. top philanthropists donating $1.9 billion in 2012. The Gates’ lifetime giving is estimated at a whopping $28 billion.
2. Not to be outdone, Warren Buffet makes a close second having donated $1.87 billion in 2012 with a net worth of $58.7 billion. He fell short of the Gates’ by only $35 million. However, Buffet has committed to donating the remainder of his fortune before or upon his death mandating that it be put to use within ten years following the donation.
3. George Soros, founder of Soros Fund Management LLC and Forbes’ number one hedge fund manager, has donated $763 million with a lifetime giving of $10 billion putting him comfortably in third place.
4. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg secured the fourth spot. With an estimated net worth of $23.4 billion, Zuckerberg donated $519 million in 2012 thus extending his lifetime giving to $549 million.
5. The Walton family, most notably known for Wal-Mart, are brought in at the final spot as the top five U.S. philanthropists. With a net worth of $144.4 billion, they gave $432 million dollars in 2012 bringing their lifetime giving to $4.6 billion dollars.
The total amount of money given by these top philanthropists towards philanthropic work in 2012 was more than $5.48 billion. That’s nearly one-fifth of what it would cost to end world hunger with the annual shortfall sitting at $30 billion per year.
Of the top philanthropists mentioned, no one donated more than 3.2 percent of their net worth but the astounding amount given by less than ten individuals cannot be ignored.
Forbes has reported that there are currently 1,645 billionaires in the world. It will take more than a call to action by the elite philanthropists. In order to put world hunger to an end, it will take a small step from everyone capable of helping.
Just think, how much is 3.2 percent of your net worth? How can a portion of the money you spend regularly be used to make the life of someone stricken by poverty more sustainable? The answers do not lie solely in how much the monetarily elite of the world are donating, but the efforts made by those with the power to influence those groups.
– Janelle Mills
Sources: Philanthropic Research Institute, Forbes, The Borgen Project, BBC, Forbes
Photo: Skunkpot
Internet.org
Currently two-thirds of the world’s population, a staggering 5 billion, live without access to basic internet. A lifestyle difficult to imagine here in the U.S. and other countries that have integrated internet into virtually every aspect of our daily lives. Internet.org, a group of powerful allies, is dedicated to utilizing their combined resources to change this.
Internet.org is an innovative partnership spearheaded by Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook,who is committed to reducing the cost of bringing internet access to the world. The plan is to provide universal access to internet by lowering the cost of serving data by tenfold and reducing the amount of data required to run basic apps by the same amount. These major cost reductions are the keys to reducing the cost of internet access 100-fold. This is the amount of cost reduction that would make it possible to for a worldwide internet providing infrastructure to exist and this group is determined that it can be achieved through technological innovation.
According to Internet.org, providing universal internet access is a fundamental step in the struggle for global resource equality. Access power is so valuable today because the internet is “the backbone of the knowledge-based economy.” This statement recognizes the global shift currently taking place since the advent of the internet that is moving society from a mainly resource-based economy to knowledge-based economy. By providing another 5 billion people across the world to the knowledge economy an unprecedented change could take place., driving the economy up, and impacting poverty worldwide.
“The internet’s impact on global growth is rising rapidly. The internet accounted for 21% of GDP growth over the last five years among developed countries… the internet is also a catalyst for job creation,” according to McKinsey & Co. While this kind of economic growth may not be immediate, the plan has potential to stimulate economies worldwide.
In order to achieve this feat, Internet.org is delving into some large-scale innovative projects to combat even larger technological and socal challenges. Some of these include high-altitude, long-endurance planes, satellite systems and even lasers.
The founding members of this group are impressive, including tech giants Ericsson, Mediatek, Opera, Samsung, Nokia and Qualcomm. Looking at this short list of big names, it is not surprising that some have immediately questioned whether there are purely capitalist motives for these companies that are being disguised behind a humanitarian agenda.
However, in Deloitte’s study on the “Value of Connectivity” they found that “expanding internet access in developing countries to levels seen today in developed economies, we could increase productivity by as much as 25 percent, generating $2.2 trillion in GDP and more than 140 million new jobs, lifting 160 million people out of poverty,” while also having the ability to “deliver critical information on nutrition, hygiene and disease prevention. Once connected, people gain access to basic tools like health information, financial services and education that can help them live fuller, better lives and join the worldwide economy.” With the promise of this kind of massive economic benefit in the developing world, many believe that the motives behind this cooperative effort are somewhat irrelevant.
The concern over hidden agendas may provide the project with the high level of visibility both from those who are critical and those who are supportive. Ultimately, time will be what tells us if this project is able to have the kind of success that will drive the change that it expects.
– Leonna Spilman
Sources: Internet.org, McKinsey & Company
Photo: La Nacion
PYXERA Global Works to Build Emerging Economies
Since 1990, the Non-Governmental Organization PYXERA Global has worked to build up businesses in emerging economies. Their stated goal in this time is to “create(s) groundbreaking partnerships between the public, private, and social sectors.” To do this the NGO partners with a number of companies and governments to create a better living environment for people around the globe. This type of behavior by a Western-based NGO allows for greater global cooperation in a world that appears lacking for it at times.
PYXERA Global started as CDC Development Solutions and was the brainchild of former President George H. W. Bush. Its first work was based in Eastern Europe in the aftermath of the Cold War, and looked “to strengthen the foundation of free society.” Given the years of communism in that region of the world, the Citizens Democracy Corps worked to promote the new market economy and ease the transition of society.
Since that time PYXERA Global has started a number of initiatives that have entailed thousands to work for global development around the world. One of its signature programs is the MBAs Without Borders project. Since 1990, that project has placed over 1,000 advisors with MBAs around the world, encouraging economic development in places like Morocco, Mozambique and Bhutan. The experience helps move economic growth forward in some struggling communities and benefits the advisors in giving them hands-on, useful experience.
The U.S. Center for Civilian Diplomacy grew out of the first efforts proposed by President Bush in 1990 into another of PYXERA Global’s signature programs. The Center has done work in the Middle East, fostering Arab/American business relations and allowing Americans to connect with foreigners through modern technology. This is an important aspect for foreign nations that may have only had contact with United States officials and judge the nation based on that.
The Center of Excellence for International Corporate Volunteerism (CEIV) is another foundation spurred on by PYXERA Global. CEIV works close with USAID to set up volunteer missions in emerging markets, with close relationships with corporations supplying the volunteers. IBM in particular has been an important partner in this program as they have allowed volunteers from their consulting, finance, marketing and sales teams. A corporate partner like IBM as one of the world’s largest technology service providers shows the global clout that PYXERA is wielding.
The various programs that PYXERA encourages give a great alternative work for foreign assistance in developing nations. Organizations like the Borgen Project encourage this type of assistance and see it as a key method for ending global poverty. PYXERA Global is taking an innovative drive towards economic development and has improved many people’s lives as a result.
In early April PYXERA Global hosted a Forum on the relationship of the public and private sectors in affording “healthier lives for more of the world’s population.” The forum helped deliver the message of what PYXERA Global is doing and how they hope to change the world. Hopefully their message will be received and the public/private relationship can be used to greater effectiveness in ending global poverty.
– Eric Gustafsson
Sources: PYXERA Global, 3BL Media, Idealist
Photo: PYXERA
Is Eating Healthy Too Expensive?
Many experts agree that buying healthy food has a barrier: the price. By eating nutritious foods, the world’s current obesity epidemic could be reduced drastically, but unfortunately, there may be a reason for why certain socioeconomic groups are more overweight than others.
The Harvard School of Public Health has now conducted research to see whether it is too expensive to eat healthy if you are making less money.
The short answer is yes, it can be.
Mayuree Rao, lead researcher in HSPH’s study, found that lean meats compared to fattier pieces of meat were globally more expensive. She was able to study 10 different countries, convert the food prices between countries and adjust the prices to correlate with inflation.
She found that although the level of difference varied, there was in fact a correlation between the more nutritious and healthier versions of food and the price. Generally, lean cuts of meat cost 29 cents more than the fattier cuts.
Grains, dairy and snack foods have less of a price barrier and often are enhanced with added vitamins and nutrients. This does not necessarily make them healthier though. Many snack foods and cereals have added vitamins and minerals, but are also high in added sugars, fats and are not made with whole grains, but instead refined grains.
Diets that were most beneficial and balanced with lean meats, vegetables, fruits and dairy cost approximately $1.50 more a day than the unhealthy options.
This may seem like a minimal impact to your wallet, but it is actually almost $50 more a month spent on groceries. For families that are on a tight budget it is understandable why the fresher and healthier choices are sometimes skipped over for the less nutritious, but more affordable options.
For low-income areas, healthier options like full-service grocers are not available. Residents are forced to use convenience stores, which do not always have fresh produce, and when they do, the fruits and vegetables available are not always the best quality and are therefore less appealing.
The availability of full-service grocery stores may be the answer. With more options that are accessible, low-income communities will be able to get some on-sale items and not have to resort to buying convenience store foods or buy meals from fast food restaurants.
– Becka Felcon
Sources: Food Research and Action Center, CNN
Photo: The Good Calorie.com
Global Banana Disease Threatens Production
In the past few weeks we have seen the rapid spread of what could become a devastating threat to the world’s banana population – a fungus known as Panama Disease Tropical Race 4 (TR4).
TR4 is a soil-born fungus that attacks plant roots and is now known to be deadly to the Cavendish banana, which is the world’s most popular and valuable banana crop, making up 95% of banana imports.
The fungal banana disease began its devastating journey in Southeast Asia, decimating tens of thousands of crops in Indonesia, China, Malaysia and the Philippines. TR4 has most recently been discovered in Jordan and Mozambique, indicating its spread beyond Asia to Africa and the Middle East.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) notes that there is already a risk that the fungus has spread to the world’s most important banana-growing areas in Latin America. These countries include Ecuador, Costa Rica and Colombia, where hundreds of thousands of people rely on the banana trade to make a living each day.
Not only is the banana an essential component of more than 400 million people’s diets, it is also an essential component of their monetary livelihood. According to one estimate, TR4 could destroy up to 85% of the world’s banana crop by volume, decimating thousands of plantations across the globe and severely impacting the $8.9 billion banana trade.
One leading banana expert, Professor Rony Swennen claims, “If [TR4] is in Latin America, it is going to be a disaster, whatever the multinationals do. Teams of workers move across different countries. The risk is it is going to spread like a bush fire.”
The FAO has further warned that TR4 represents an “expanded threat to global banana production” and that virtually all export banana plantations will be vulnerable in the coming weeks unless TR4’s spread can be stopped or new resistant strains developed.
The Cavendish banana is not the first to fall prey to such a fungal epidemic. Prior to its cultivation, the Gros Michel banana had been wiped out by a similar strain of the Panama disease.
Current researchers are attempting to discover new banana varieties that are resistant to the fungus or develop disease-resistant GM strains. However, a concerted effort between the industry, research institutions, government and international organizations will be necessary to prevent the spread of the disease.
– Mollie O’Brien
Sources: Bloomberg, The Independent
Photo: Flickr
$6 Billion Needed for Global Education First Initiative
This week in an interview with PBS, reporter Judy Woodruff, UN Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown stated that $6 billion is what it would take to put 57 million children in primary school. This is the goal established by the Global Education First Initiative (GEFI), launched in 2012 by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. It is part of a larger goal to achieve universal primary education by December 2015, one of the Millennium Development Goals set by the UN in 2010.
In addition to the 57 million children this $6 billion would help, 71 million do not receive any education after this point. Those who do may be taught by ill-equipped teachers without the necessary books and supplies. This $6 billion would pay for teachers, classrooms, textbooks and other supplies necessary to provide education to children around the world. There are also other barriers preventing universal access to quality education, however. Child labor, denied access to education for women and the arranged marriages of girls as young as 12 are all challenges that must be met and overcome before any kind of permanent solution can take hold.
But Brown points out in his interview that in several countries, citizens are already fighting these issues. He cites campaigns against child labor, anti-rape protests and women fighting for their education and against child marriages in Bangladesh. The social climate is transitioning to one in which movements for universal education can flourish, which is proof to donor countries like the United States that this money will create positive change.
In order to make universal primary education a reality GEFI has cited three priorities: (1) putting every child in school, (2) improving the quality of learning and (3) fostering global citizenship. In a statement made in 2012 about GEFI and its goals, Ki-moon states that “education empowers people with the knowledge, skills and values they need to build a better world.” Education is necessary for creating a global community and eradicating poverty around the world.
In 2013, HR 2780, also known as the Education for All Act, was introduced and referred to committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. If passed, this bill would enact a chosen strategy for developing global education and allow the President to allot funds to foreign countries for this purpose. Each year, the United States spends $30 billion on foreign aid, less than 1 percent of the national budget. It only takes $6 billion, a relatively small amount, to expand the opportunity of education to every child in the world.
So how much is $6 billion?
What can be done with $6 billion instead?
The gains that have been made in global education in the past few decades are monumental. In the past 25 years, worldwide literacy rates have increased by 33 percent, and primary school enrollment has tripled. In the past 15 years, Botswana doubled school enrollment rates. Today, more children are in school than ever, and the world is only $6 billion away from including every child in that statistic. This may seem like a lot of money to the average citizen, but for a country like the United States it is minimal. By supporting the Education for All Act and increasing the foreign aid budget by a small amount, we can ensure that every child has the opportunity to learn, grow and escape the cycle of poverty.
– Kristen Bezner
Sources: GovTrack, PBS News Hour, Global Education First Initiative, LA Times, Forbes, The Seattle Times, Mental Floss, The Borgen Project
Photo: United Nations
Curbing the Spread of Vector-Borne Disease
The theme of this year’s World Health Day, held annually on April 7th, was to promote the awareness of vector-borne diseases. Vector-borne diseases are transmitted through the bites of infected mosquitoes, flies, ticks and water snails, among other disease-carrying pests.
This year the World Health Organization (WHO) promoted the slogan “small bite, big threat,” in the hopes that they would be able to increase awareness on how people across the globe can protect themselves and their families from these pests and the viruses that they may transmit.
Vector-borne diseases have radically increased in the past few decades, aided by an increase in urbanization, international travel and environmental changes.
More than one billion people each year are affected by these diseases, which include malaria, dengue fever, Lyme disease, schistosomiasis and yellow fever.
Efforts to control the spread of these diseases have included the distribution of bed nets and insecticides, the use of body repellents and protective clothing, and the push for clean water and adequate sanitation.
WHO Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan, noted, “A global health agenda that gives higher priority to vector control could save many lives and avert much suffering. No one in the 21st century should die from the bite of a mosquito, a sand fly, a blackfly or a tick.”
The focus this year is on dengue fever, which is currently the most rapidly spreading vector-borne disease in the world.
Dengue fever, also known as “breakbone fever” due to its symptoms, is a severe flu-like disease marked by vomiting, bleeding, body aches and difficult breathing. There is no known vaccine or cure available.
During the past 50 years, dengue fever has spread rapidly to more than 100 countries. Prior to 1960, dengue had seen some 15,000 cases, whereas now over 380 million cases of dengue fever persist.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is currently working on a vaccine for dengue fever in partnership with a company specializing in vaccine development, Inviragen. They have gone through clinical trials in a number of countries including Singapore, Colombia, Thailand and Puerto Rico, and analysis of those findings is still underway.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is campaigning alongside the WHO to address this growing concern.
Previous programs to curb the spread of vector-borne diseases have proven successful, for example, the United States’ effort to combat malaria.
Malaria is the most deadly of vector-borne diseases, killing 1.2 million people every year. Multiple campaigns have been launched to prevent the spread of this disease, including the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) and the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. PMI has distributed more than 120 million bed nets since 2006, as well as delivered more than 135 million doses of combination drug therapy.
These success stories provide hope for current efforts to control other vector-borne diseases such as dengue fever and schistosomiasis.
– Mollie O’Brien
Sources: Mission of the United States, Voice of America