Those who have visited a developing country are familiar with doctors (and parents) constantly reminding us to take our malaria pills before departure. These travelers realize that the pills will prevent them from contracting the disease, but what exactly is malaria? How do you get it? How does it spread? These are questions that many people in America and the Western world have never had to ask themselves. However, for the million people who die from this disease each year, the disease is very real and very dangerous. It all comes down to one little parasite.
Actually, there are five different types of parasites that cause malaria. These tiny organisms cannot survive without a host. The most fatal, but preventable, kind is called Plasmodium falciparu and it causes a majority of total malaria deaths every year.
The disease spreads through humans and female Anopheles mosquitoes. The infected mosquito ingests blood from a human to feed its eggs and simultaneously injects its victim with malaria organisms. The parasites now in the person’s body are absorbed by liver cells and quickly replicate, can remain dormant for up to several years, and then burst into the bloodstream, replicating and destroying blood cells.
Symptoms of malaria are often similar to those of the flu. These include chills, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle aches, and fatigue. However, if it is not immediately treated, it becomes severe malaria. The infected person will then begin to experience worse symptoms, like coma, difficulty breathing, low blood sugar, and severe anemia. When it becomes severe and goes untreated, it can lead to death. Children are particularly vulnerable because of their underdeveloped immune systems.
International health organizations are working diligently to reduce the number of the cases in the world. Ways to prevent malaria include insecticide-treated mosquito nets and insecticide spray. There are also medicines available to cure malaria infections. The World Health Organization has recommended artemisinin-based combination therapy to treat the disease, but a diagnosis is often just as important in preventing malaria deaths as medicine. Malaria researchers are developing a vaccine; unfortunately, it has not yet been perfected.
The need for new malaria treatments is imperative for everyone living in developing countries, but especially for children. Given how preventable and treatable it is, travelers need not worry; however, medicine often does not reach impoverished people in third-world countries who really need it. With public support, health organizations are working to make sure this becomes a trend of the past.
– Mary Penn
Source: MMV
Photo: X Index
Eclampsia a Threat to Women During Childbirth
During an orientation on women’s maternal health, The Target States High Impact Project (TSHIP), a non-government organization funded by USAID, released its findings that Eclampsia is the cause of 80% of deaths that occur during childbirth in Nigeria.
Eclampsia is a condition when the infected woman experiences extreme bleeding while giving birth. Pregnant women suffering from Eclampia will experience chest pains, convulsions, seizures, and hallucinations. The disease then attacks all of her multiorgans like the brain, lungs, livier, and chest.
The good news is that Eclampsia can be cured if the infected woman is treated in time. Testing urine samples and changes in blood pressuring during pregnancy can identify the disease before the woman goes into labor. Once Eclampsia is detected, it can be treated with Magnesium Sulphate, an injection that brings the woman back to consciousness while she is in labor. The best way to ensure a safe birth is by going to a doctor once labor begins.
Dr. Habib Sadauki, TSHIP Deputy Chief of Party Maternal, warned women of the dangers of giving birth at home. When having a home birth and severe bleeding occurs, the woman is at high risk of dying during labor. If pregnant women would “seek adequate antenatal services” when they are in labor, maternal deaths could be reduced by 70%.
At the conference, Dr. Sadauki explained how malaria and anemia are the other two main causes of deaths during pregnancies. Once again, he urges women to seek medical attention and also to sleep in insecticide-treated mosquito nets. Childbirth can a very dangerous time for the mother and child and Dr. Sadauki hopes that pregnant women will seek medical attention to prevent possible disease and death.
– Mary Penn
Source: Vanguard
Photo: School Work Helper
UNICEF Immunization Week
UNICEF, among other majors organizations, is known for their heavy work in immunization. Their efforts extend beyond acquiring funding for the actual products but actually probe into issues such as geographical obstacles, social stigmas against vaccinations, and political issues such as the killings in Pakistan. With its first ever World Immunization Week, UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO), and European health agencies are not only raising awareness of the life-saving capabilities of vaccines but increasing their efforts to reach children in even the most remote areas.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, many Roma communities lack access to clinics and thus vaccines. This week, with the help of funding from the German National Committee, 5,000 children vulnerable to diseases were given vaccines that protected them against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, mumps, measles, and rubella. Dr. Mitar Tesanovic, a coordinator for the program, stated that “it was unrealistic to expect those children to approach the medical institution. Therefore we decided that the system should approach them; we know now the decision was a good one.”
Jos Vandelaer, UNICEF’s Global Immunization Program director, also touched on the issue of anti-vaccination in his reddit AMA on Monday. Many parents, regardless of socio-economic background, have certain fears of constantly injecting their children with different medicines and vaccines. For example, there was the fear that vaccinations lead to autism, a link that Vandelaer discredits and said has been scientifically disproven. By partnering with local clinics and volunteers, UNICEF is able to go beyond education but really help them realize the benefits of not only having their children immunized but trying to keep records of that as well.
With 22.4 million unimmunized children in 2011, UNICEF hopes that they can jump off the plateau they have been resting on for a couple of years and start to fully eradicate diseases such as polio by next year.
– Deena Dulgerian
Source: UNICEF, The-Star
Misleading Economic Indicators and Development in Africa
The GDP, growth, and income derivatives of sub-Saharan African nations help to inform NGO’s in both the structure and deployment of a well targeted policy of development. However, what if the data linking economic indicators and development in Africa were both statistically flawed and misleading? Surprisingly, there is an increasing body of evidence showing that much of the economic numbers currently being reported to aid and development organizations are in fact fictional, and that little is actually known about the income generation of many African nations.
Sub-Saharan African nations such as Ghana and Nigeria have raised the eyebrows of World Bank leaders and policy makers with their upward revisions of their economic outputs over the last several years. Both countries initially reported their GDPs as much lower than they actually were, with the former upwardly revising their numbers by 60% and the latter increasing theirs by 15%. These numbers – although seemingly unimportant from the outset – have huge implications in regards to economic status and aid apportionment. The net result of misleading economic indicators and development in Africa means that resources allocated to specific countries by donors may in fact be better utilized by nations with lower GDP’s, and that targeted development plans may or may not be yielding the results originally reported.
Regarding the misleading economic indicators and development in Africa, New York Times author Jeffrey Sachs noted that current Malawi leadership “broke old donor-led shibboleths by establishing new government programs to get fertilizer and high-yield seeds to impoverished peasant farmers who could not afford these inputs. Farm yields soared once nitrogen got back into the depleted soils.”
The generous aid packages deployed by well meaning NGO’s have been instrumentally important in the international development of many low-income countries. However, flawed economic indicators and development in Africa leads to a misappropriation of aid that could be better used by other “high-priority” targets requiring greater attention and economic assistance. International aid is a finite resource that carries with it equal amounts of opportunity and responsibility, and should be allocated primarily to those nations that are plagued by the loop of global poverty.
– Brian Turner
Source CNN
Photo The Guardian
Peace Walk with the Dalai Lama
On April 18, the Dalai Lama took part in a Peace Walk on the Serpentine Pedestrian Peace Bridge in Derry, Ireland. The 70 year-old Dalai Lama was invited by Richard Moore, founder of Children In Crossfire, to partake in a major UK City of Culture celebration. Moore invited the Dalai Lama to speak at the event attended by 2,500 people and to walk across the peace bridge in order to reiterate to people worldwide that peace is the only path for the future. Moore invited the Tibetan spiritual leader to return to Derry in order to signify how far the city had come in the last decade and how it will continue to flourish. Moore said that the Peace Bridge was not the only symbol of a positive future, but the youth as well.
Accompanying the the Nobel Peace Laureate as he walked across the bridge were 300 school children singing Peace is Flowing like a River, the leaders of the Catholic and Church of Ireland dioceses, Monsignor Eamonn Martin, Bishop Ken Good and Richard Moore.
After crossing the Peace Bridge, the Dalai Lama addressed the crowds gathered at an old British army site, the Venue Arts Center. “This century should be the century of dialogue. The last century was the century of violence…Whenever you face problems, try to solve them through dialogue and talk,” said the Dalai Lama. Among his thoughts on peace and compassion, he also reiterated that it is not only political leaders, but every person’s responsibility to be accepting, compassionate and open-minded towards one another to ensure true and lasting peace.
– Kira Maixner
Source: Belfast Telegraph
Progress in Improving Newborn Health
Attendees of the conference are planning to release a “global action plan” in the upcoming year to present a strategy for even further reducing these newborn deaths. With this new call to action, we can hope to see the current statistics for newborn deaths and illnesses continue to decrease.
Unfortunately, newborn deaths are all too common in the developing world. In 2011, approximately 20,000 newborn babies died and, in 2009, there were over 22,600 stillbirths in South Africa. The global statistics are even more shocking. 60.9 million children died in 2011 and, of these, 43 percent of deaths occurred during the first four weeks of life, three million died within a week, and two million babies died the day they were born.
Graca Machel, the wife of Nelson Mandela, spoke urgently on the subject. She pronounced the issue of newborn health to be a top priority for UNICEF. “Too many of our newborn children here in Africa are dying too early. We are not reaching the targets we have set ourselves in the (UN) Millennium Development Goals. The issue of newborn health has long been a hidden challenge,” she said.
All organizations involved vowed to partner together to reduce newborn death rates through research and by working with the agriculture department to address malnutrition, the cause of stunted growth. The groups also plan to implement programs on training midwives and newborn healthcare education. Together, they hope to change the lives of millions of new babies.
– Mary Penn
World Vision’s 30 Hour Famine
This April 26-27 is the 30 Hour Famine weekend, and thousands of teenagers across America will go hungry to support children across the world as part of World Vision’s fundraiser. World Vision is a leading Christian ministry serving people in nearly 100 countries, and the funds from the famine go to areas of the globe that need the money the most.
QUICK FACTS:
+ about 112,000 teenagers will choose to fast for 30 hours in the pursuit of learning about hunger and making a real-life difference in the lives of hungry children around the world.
+ Just over 3,000 Famine groups will participate.
+ Millions of dollars will be raised. Remember: $1 feeds a child for a day and $30 feeds a child for a month; compounded, $360 feeds a child for a year.
As a result of this weekend alone (not the whole year), approximately:
+ 11,667 otherwise hungry children will be fed for an entire year.
+ Or, 140,000 hungry children will be fed for a month.
Not only does the famine raise money for the poor across the globe, it teaches young adults about how those people live each and every day and raises awareness of global hunger and world poverty. By participating in the famine, teenagers learn how to advocate and make a difference in the lives of others.
– Katie Brockman
Source: World Vision
Will This Generation See The End of Global Pandemics?
Nearing the conclusion of the First World War, both Western Europe and the United States were swept up once again in mass casualties. However, this time it was not mustard gas or trench warfare, but rather it was the spread of a highly virulent virus that quickly moved from epidemic to pandemic proportions. Known as the Spanish Influenza, this virus emerged from the prairies of the United States and quickly spread throughout the ravaged cities of war-torn Europe, causing catastrophic levels of death and human suffering. Much has changed in the subsequent century since the Spanish Influenza pandemic, most notably increased coordination between governments in regards to global health concerns and early warning systems of epidemics. And if current trends continue, the end of global pandemics may finally be a reality.
Primarily due to the growth of social media and greater governmental cooperation, local epidemics are being reported to World Health Organization officials at a much quicker rate, allowing for the deployment of huge networks of heath workers aimed at both containing and studying a disease prior to it mutating and becoming a pandemic. Innovative health care workers and research scientists are now utilizing the full potential of social media, and have managed to decrease the detection time of possible pandemics to 23 days, possibly ushering the end of global pandemics.
In regards to the end of global pandemics, TEDMED speaker Dr. Larry Brilliant recounted the eighty countries that came together to end smallpox which lasted for more than two centuries. “Today, we are finding diseases faster than anyone ever imagined,” he comments. “Innovations in early detection, early response and global cooperation can put an end to pandemics.”
A future free of disease-causing viruses capable of inflicting huge losses of life are primarily due to the impressive scientific advances in global health and social media that have occurred over the last decade. Moreover, as early detection times continue to decrease, will this generation be the first one to see the end of global pandemics? If health scientists such as Dr. Brilliant continue to forge ahead with their efforts, it’s more than likely a possibility. Dr. Brilliant comments that “We are closer every day.”
– Brian Turner
Source: CNN
Photo: Healthcave
Could Cell Phones End Malaria?
Harvard epidemiologist Caroline Buckee has figured out a way to use a cell phone tower in Kericho, Kenya to help in the fight against malaria. She was able to interpret data showing that individuals who are making phone calls or sending text messages in Kericho were more likely to travel to a different region in Kenya, which is a known hotspot for Malaria.
This data has fed into a new set of predictive models. These models have shown the most effective places to attack the malaria parasite, showing researchers sources and hotspots. This data mining will help to organize a currently unorganized system of record keeping. The models may also help design new measures that are likely to include campaigns to send text messages to people warning them to use bed netting, as well as to help officials choose where to focus their control efforts.
Eliminating malaria is just one of the potential benefits of this technology. It can also build tools that health-care and government workers can use to detect and monitor epidemics, disasters, and optimize transportation systems. Data mining could prove particularly useful in poorer countries where there is currently little to no actual model in place.
This type of phone tracking could also be useful for other trends and figures such as employment trends, poverty, transportation and economic activity within a given region. Countries without a functioning census could benefit quite a bit from this type of technology. Cell phones have the capability to provide researchers with all of the infrastructures that are already built in the developed world.
Careful precautions are being taken to ensure an individual’s privacy is not infringed upon. However, this has not stopped many corporations from expressing concerns about releasing their customer’s data to the wrong hands.
Data-mining is handing a road map to a population’s movements and trends pinpointing them in given locations. Researchers, like Buckee are taking every step possible to show people the importance of data-mining. Buckee has explained that with phone data, the possibility to target drug-resistant strains of the malaria parasite becomes a possibility. This could help eliminate the proliferation of the disease.
“This is the future of epidemiology,” Buckee says. “If we are to eradicate malaria, this is how we will do it.”
– Caitlin Zusy
Source: Technology Review
Photo:NPR
Malaria: Everything You Need to Know About the Disease
Those who have visited a developing country are familiar with doctors (and parents) constantly reminding us to take our malaria pills before departure. These travelers realize that the pills will prevent them from contracting the disease, but what exactly is malaria? How do you get it? How does it spread? These are questions that many people in America and the Western world have never had to ask themselves. However, for the million people who die from this disease each year, the disease is very real and very dangerous. It all comes down to one little parasite.
Actually, there are five different types of parasites that cause malaria. These tiny organisms cannot survive without a host. The most fatal, but preventable, kind is called Plasmodium falciparu and it causes a majority of total malaria deaths every year.
The disease spreads through humans and female Anopheles mosquitoes. The infected mosquito ingests blood from a human to feed its eggs and simultaneously injects its victim with malaria organisms. The parasites now in the person’s body are absorbed by liver cells and quickly replicate, can remain dormant for up to several years, and then burst into the bloodstream, replicating and destroying blood cells.
Symptoms of malaria are often similar to those of the flu. These include chills, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle aches, and fatigue. However, if it is not immediately treated, it becomes severe malaria. The infected person will then begin to experience worse symptoms, like coma, difficulty breathing, low blood sugar, and severe anemia. When it becomes severe and goes untreated, it can lead to death. Children are particularly vulnerable because of their underdeveloped immune systems.
International health organizations are working diligently to reduce the number of the cases in the world. Ways to prevent malaria include insecticide-treated mosquito nets and insecticide spray. There are also medicines available to cure malaria infections. The World Health Organization has recommended artemisinin-based combination therapy to treat the disease, but a diagnosis is often just as important in preventing malaria deaths as medicine. Malaria researchers are developing a vaccine; unfortunately, it has not yet been perfected.
The need for new malaria treatments is imperative for everyone living in developing countries, but especially for children. Given how preventable and treatable it is, travelers need not worry; however, medicine often does not reach impoverished people in third-world countries who really need it. With public support, health organizations are working to make sure this becomes a trend of the past.
– Mary Penn
Source: MMV
Photo: X Index
Eva Mendes and Half the Sky
In late 2012, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) created a documentary about women living in developing countries called Half the Sky. This documentary examines the lives of many women in third world countries who have suffered through rape, prostitution, slavery, violent marriages, and other forms of oppression. By interviewing numerous women, Half the Sky is able to construct a common bond that promotes a sense of connectivity for all women and all humanity. Eva Mendes is one of the celebrities participating in this eye-opening project.
While the documentary takes the viewer to many different parts of the world, like Cambodia and Vietnam, Eva travels to Sierra Leone to talk to women about empowerment and to raise awareness of violence against females.
The film advocates women in leadership roles who advocate for women victims of rape and physical abuse. In one instance, a woman, who was abducted at the age of 13 and forced into prostitution, now provides shelter and counseling for girls who escaped from similar situations. Eva Mendes also had the opportunity to interview a particularly inspirational woman who had the courage to press charges against the men who raped her.
Half the Sky focuses on how women are fighting back against gender-based violence and paints a relatively optimistic future. Although in some societies female violence is still the norm, many women are attempting to create and implement the concept of women’s rights. It may be a long battle in some countries, but, as Eva Mendes notes, even small progress is worth celebrating.
It is easy for some documentaries to merely show story after story about women who have suffered from violence; Half the Sky is a different kind of documentary. It shows the viewer that even in the midst of discrimination and struggle, these women are able to overcome their past experiences and emerge ready and eager to help other women. These women refuse to be silent and submissive. That is something that every gender and nationality can relate to.
– Mary Penn
Source: policymic
Video: You Tube