Information and news about disease category

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Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: Reducing Infant Mortality


Many people falsely believe that increasing healthcare in the least Developed Countries (LDCs) will exacerbate the global population growth problem. In reality, the exact opposite is true.

Statistics show that as healthcare increases around the world, families have fewer children, driving down infant mortality rates as well as population growth. On average, birth rates in More Developed Countries (MDCs) are 1.7 children per family, while in LDCs birth rates average to 4.3 children per family. In LDCs families are having more children to compensate for high infant mortality rates. Parents plan to have around 5 children as an insurance policy, to offset the children that are lost. The World Health Organization, with the help of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), has been working to reshape this ideology since 1990. By increasing planned parenthood facilities, healthcare infrastructure, and vaccinations, families are able to have fewer, healthier children. In Lesser Developed Countries birthrates dropped to 2.6 children per family. Roughly 122 million children’s lives have been saved since 1990.

BMGF has found that the best management practice for raising global health is vaccination. Vaccination rates have gone from under 10 percent in 1980 to 80 percent in 2015 in LDCs, saving countless lives from preventable diseases. This has been possible through the creation of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Gavi is an international non-government organization that serves as the middleman between pharmaceutical companies and governments willing to fund vaccination programs. According to Bill Gates, “Since 2000, Gavi has helped immunize 580 million children around the world. The US is a major donor to Gavi — with bipartisan support — along with the U.K., Norway, Germany, France and Canada. It’s one of the great things the rich world does for the rest of the world.”

While vaccinations are a great first step towards ending poverty, they have their limits. Malnutrition is another key barrier as it is linked to 45 percent of all child deaths. Children missing key nutrients experience both cognitive and physical growth stunting. This is a much harder problem in terms of economic efficacy. It costs one dollar to administer the pentavalent vaccine, which protects against five deadly infections.

Nutrition, on the other hand, is a much more costly and nuanced problem that will require considerable economic growth within the affected countries to truly fix. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation philanthropic work has been indispensable to halving global extreme poverty since 1990.

– Josh Ward

Photo: Flickr

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Bacteria that Fight Mosquito-Transmitted Diseases

Mosquito
The Eliminate Dengue Program is developing an approach to fighting mosquito-transmitted diseases by using naturally occurring bacteria that reduce the ability of mosquitoes to transmit harmful human viruses such as dengue fever.

The bacterium, called Wolbachia, is a natural bacterium that is present in several different insect species and is safe for humans, animals and the environment. However, when the bacterium is introduced to the Aedes aegypti mosquito, it stops viruses from growing inside the mosquito and from transmitting to people. Mosquitoes cause millions of deaths every year. The Aedes aegypti mosquito is responsible for the spread of several diseases such as dengue fever, chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika.

Since 2011, the Eliminate Dengue Program has been conducting trials in dengue-affected areas such as Australia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Brazil, Columbia and India. The trails include the release of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes that breed with wild mosquitoes, establishing the bacteria in the wild mosquito population. Wolbachia can sustain itself in mosquito populations, making this method sustainable and cost-effective in the long-term. The program is targeted to cost U.S. $1 per person. This distinguishes the program from other similar initiatives like the Oxitec program.

Oxitec developed genetically modified male mosquitoes that have a gene preventing offspring from surviving to maturity. The aim is to reduce the mosquito population. This is a more expensive approach because a huge number of mosquitoes have to be released continuously.

In 2016, the Eliminate Dengue Program received additional funding to roll out the program in large areas of Brazil and Colombia to stop the spread of the Zika outbreak. The program is funded by the Wellcome Trust, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Brazilian, U.K. and U.S. governments. The World Health Organization also called for large-scale pilot studies of the Wolbachia mosquito-control method to establish its effectiveness in fighting mosquito-transmitted diseases in humans.

The possibility exists that this approach might provide a similar result in the Anopheles mosquitoes that spread malaria.

– Helena Kamper

Photo: Flickr

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Fighting Non-Communicable Diseases in Africa

Diseases in Africa
Communicable diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS are still the biggest health concerns in Africa. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) projects that by 2030, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) will become the leading cause of death in Africa. Currently, only two percent of all donor funding goes to chronic diseases. NCDs in Africa is an issue that deserves more attention.

Non-communicable diseases in Africa include diabetes, cardiovascular and chronic respiratory diseases, as well as cancer. These diseases often stem from unhealthy lifestyles, like diet, smoking, drinking and physical inactivity. These behaviors can cause high blood pressure, weight gain, respiratory ailments, high blood sugar and cholesterol levels.

NCDs are already the leading cause of death in most regions of the world. These diseases cause the deaths of 38 million people each year and almost three-quarters of these deaths occur in low and middle-income countries. Projections show that NCDs in Africa will see the biggest growth globally in the next few decades.

Widespread chronic illness is detrimental to the economy and poverty reduction initiatives in developing countries because they result in decreased labor outputs, lower returns on human capital investments and increased healthcare costs. Non-communicable diseases should thus be afforded more attention in discussions about alleviating global poverty.

There are several initiatives working to address the issue of NCDs and the impact they will have on developing countries. The WHO created a Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of NCDs, which focuses on national actions to address harmful lifestyle choices that cause NCDs. This includes the taxation of tobacco and alcohol products and targets education programs on healthy living.

However, the increase in cases of non-communicable diseases in Africa will also require more resources to strengthen and adapt healthcare systems to deal with the growing disease burden. In 2014, only 49% of African countries reported that they have the necessary funds for the early detection, screening and treatment of NCDs.

One program working to solve this issue is Access Accelerated, a partnership between the World Bank, the Union of International Cancer Control and more than 20 pharmaceutical companies. The Access Accelerated initiative aims to address the access barriers to NCD medicines in low-income countries. Novartis Access, for example, is providing 15 NCD treatments in Kenya at $1.00 per treatment per month. This program will roll out in 30 other developing countries over the next few years.

Providing affordable medicines is just one of the aspects of creating sustainable solutions to the growing burden of non-communicable diseases in Africa. Other priorities include training healthcare workers to deal with NCDs, educating local communities about these diseases and improving healthcare infrastructure and distribution networks in rural areas.

– Helena Kamper

Photo: Flickr

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Top Three Diseases in Guinea

Diseases in Guinea
Although experts thought Ebola had been eliminated in Guinea, there have been fears of the disease coming back after a few cases were documented in the past two years. People are still skeptical after the largest Ebola outbreak in March 2014 even though experts have claimed that the outbreak ended at the end of 2015. However, with the country still lacking in health resources, diseases in Guinea, which could otherwise be preventable and treatable in another developed nation, are rapidly distributed. Here are the top three diseases in Guinea.

  1. Malaria: According to the Center for Diseases Control, 10% of deaths in Guinea are caused by malaria. In 2015, tens of thousands of malaria cases went untreated. Because of the ebola outbreak, people avoided health clinics for fear of being sent to an isolated Ebola treatment center. People might have died from malaria more than Ebola, and the entire population is at risk for malaria. To try to control this disease, the President’s Malaria Initiative distributes insecticide-treated nets (ITNS) and supports malaria diagnostics, as well as treatments at health facilities.
  2. HIV/AIDS: AIDS plagues so many parts of Africa, and Guinea is no exception. Four percent of deaths are caused by HIV or AIDS, and almost 7,000 children are living with HIV. AIDS has been considered a death sentence since only 27% are receiving antiretroviral medication. Hopefully, treatment will come to more people. The countries of Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Namibia and Tanzania have been receiving antiretroviral treatment programs from the Global Fund since 2010.
  3. Lower Respiratory Infections: Currently, lower respiratory tract infections are the leading cause of death among children under the age of five. Forty-two percent of these deaths occur in Africa, and the infections can cause pneumonia, influenza and bronchitis.

Guinea has one of the poorest populations in West Africa. Little of its people have access to good healthcare. Diseases in Guinea can be curable and treatable if organizations continue to provide healthcare to treat these diseases.

– Emma Majewski

Photo: Flickr

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Top Five Preventable Diseases Caused by Poverty

Top 5 Preventable Diseases Caused by Poverty
While the causes of some diseases are debatable, a lot are easily preventable. However, because of a lack of access to healthcare and poor sanitation, a lot of people in developing nations die from these preventable diseases. With education and better healthcare, the people of these nations could be saved.

  1. Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus (MNT) and Other Prenatal Conditions: Neonatal tetanus is the result of unclean birthing practices. The illness can cause extreme pain to the infant at birth, often leading to its death. However, with cleaner birthing practices and immunizing the expectant mothers with the inexpensive Tetanus Toxoid-Containing Vaccines, babies and mothers can be saved. Organizations such as Circle K and UNICEF have been working for many years to eliminate this disease and have been highly successful. The number of countries containing the disease went from 21 in 2015 to 18 in 2016, and the number of newborns dying from MNT has decreased by 96% since the late ’80s.
  2. HIV/AIDS: HIV/AIDS kills about 7.2% of developing countries’ populations, and by the end of 2007, 33.2 million people were living with HIV. HIV is also the leading cause of death in Africa. Many organizations are continuing their prevention practices by allowing access to affordable condoms, HIV testing and counseling as well as sexual health education in schools and communities. There is also hope for a cure as scientists are still researching for a vaccine. In 2016, a vaccine trial called HVTN 072 tested if the HIV infection could be prevented among South African adults. Research regarding a vaccine gets more in-depth each year.
  3. Measles: There are many preventable diseases that can be stopped with a vaccine. However, in developing countries, health services for those vaccines are either unavailable or inaccessible. While measles is very rare in industrialized countries like the United States, the illness has a 40% mortality rate among children in developing nations who contract it. In 2003, measles took the lives of more than 500,000 children.
  4. Malaria: Another one of the diseases preventable with vaccines, malaria kills more than one million people a year. It is especially prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa.
  5. Tuberculosis: The countries of India, Indonesia, China, Nigeria, Pakistan and South Africa account for 60% of total deaths caused by tuberculosis. It is one of the top 10 causes of death in the world, yet it is also a treatable and preventable disease. Tuberculosis is caused by bacteria in the air which eventually affects the lungs. People living with HIV are more at risk of dying from the disease. To treat this disease, patients take a six-month course of four antimicrobial drugs.

In our developed worlds with advanced medical work, people don’t usually have to worry about these types of diseases affecting them. Developed nations, however, need to continue allowing healthcare to their people in order to truly eliminate these preventable diseases.

– Emma Majewski

Photo: Flickr

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Top Diseases in Guatemala

GuatemalaGuatemala is a center for disease monitoring in Latin America. The Center for Disease Control Central American Regional Office was placed in Guatemala City in 2005. Here are four of the top diseases in Guatemala.

  • Lower Respiratory Infections
    Lower respiratory infections killed about 10,000 people in Guatemala in 2012. It’s possible that lower respiratory infections in Guatemala and other developing nations come from air pollution from solid fuels.
  • Neonatal and Nutritional Issues
    Neonatal and nutritional issues killed about 600,000 Guatemalans in 2012. Still, Guatemala is working on fighting against it. In 2005, the government strengthened the Extension of Coverage program to provide basic healthcare to even the most vulnerable and impoverished people in rural communities. This program included the World Bank’s Maternal-Infant Health and Nutrition Project, which along with other programs helped reduce malnutrition in children under two years old and helped with other issues related to maternal health.
  • HIV, TB and Malaria
    About 2,000 people died of HIV, TB or malaria in 2012. Sex workers, sexually active gay men, prison inmates and street children are among those most at risk of contracting AIDs, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Guatemala has adapted prevention standards from the WHO and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to test for and treat HIV.Tuberculosis is spread very quickly in overcrowded areas. One can obtain tuberculosis through contaminated air or certain milk products. Malaria is most present in low altitude areas (not Guatemala City or Antigua). It is spread by the anopheles mosquito. People may get bitten by these mosquitoes without even realizing it because the mosquitoes are silent and do not leave bite marks.
  • Zika
    Women who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant should have the most concern about Zika because it causes birth defects. Almost 1,000 pregnant women were suspected of having the Zika virus, and 275 women were confirmed with having it in 2016.

These are just four of the top diseases in Guatemala. The Center for Disease Control and other organizations are working to alleviate these and other diseases in the nation.

– Jennifer Taggart

Photo: Flickr

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Top Diseases in Lesotho

Top Diseases in Lesotho
Lesotho is a small landlocked country in Southern Africa. The country, with a population of 2.1 million, suffers from high rates of poverty with more than 50% of the population living below the income poverty line of $1.25 a day. The majority (72%) of the population lives in rural areas far away from services, like healthcare.

Many people in Lesotho thus face barriers to accessing healthcare because of the cost of traveling to distant healthcare facilities. A shortage of skilled health workers only adds to this problem.

Lesotho has one of the highest mortality rates in Southern Africa and an average life expectancy of only 49 years. These are the top diseases in Lesotho:

  • HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis: Lesotho has the third-highest HIV infection rate in the world, with almost 23% of adults aged 15-49 affected and more than 9,000 AIDS-related deaths in 2014. Of the people infected with HIV, 80% are also infected with tuberculosis.
  • Lower respiratory infections: Lower respiratory infections like pneumonia affect many people in Lesotho. Lower respiratory infections result in an annual mortality rate of 120 deaths per 100,000 people. One of the main causes of these infections is household air pollution from solid fuels used for cooking and heat.
  • Diarrheal Diseases: Lack of access to clean water and adequate sanitation contributes to high rates of diarrheal diseases. While diarrheal diseases do not necessarily cause many deaths, they contribute greatly to the overall disease burden in the country.
  • Non-communicable diseases: Like many other countries in Africa, Lesotho has seen a spike in cases of non-communicable diseases in recent years. This rise is due to various lifestyle risk factors like smoking, alcohol consumption, high blood pressure and obesity. The most common non-communicable diseases are cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer. In 2014, non-communicable diseases accounted for 27 % of total deaths.

While most of the top diseases in Lesotho are infectious diseases, lifestyle diseases are increasingly contributing to the overall disease burden of the country.

– Helena Jacobs

Photo: Flickr

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Top Diseases in Russia

Top Diseases in Russia
Geographically the largest nation in the world, Russia is known as a formidable global power. However, in terms of medical care, only 7% of GDP is spent on health, lagging significantly behind the world average of 10%. With that, the impact of this policy is seen in the prevalence of several disease outbreaks throughout the country.

Here are the top diseases in Russia:

  1. Heart Disease. Amounting to approximately 737,000 fatalities in 2012, Ischemic Heart Disease or Coronary Artery Disease is the leading cause of death in Russia. Historical reports show diagnoses increased by 30% in the 1990s, reportedly brought about by a combination of economic factors and worsening nutritional habits. These rates have been sustained since and remain the ninth highest in the world.
  2. Tuberculosis. According to the State Department, Tuberculosis is endemic in Russia, and there is a rising incidence of multi-drug-resistant strains of TB. The disease is an airborne bacterial infection that can be transmitted by breathing contaminated air droplets from coughing and sneezing or by ingesting unpasteurized milk from infected cows. While more than 90 percent of infected people do not experience symptoms, the bacteria can remain inactive in the system for many years. Cases in Russia have frequently been reported around forms of public transportation.
  3. Encephalitis. Encephalitis refers to a viral infection that causes swelling of the brain. The most common instances reported in Russia are tick-borne encephalitis and Japanese encephalitis transmitted by mosquitoes. The disease is found throughout Siberia and another major outbreak has been occurring in eastern areas of the country near Vladivostok. Symptoms can be neurological or flu-like, and the risk has been shifting northward due to climate change.
  4. HIV/AIDS. Russia is unique within the European region as the only area still reporting rising infection rates of HIV. According to the World Health Organization, more than one million people live with HIV in Russia and it represents the third leading cause of death in the country. Cases are transmitted primarily by sexual contact and increasing drug use. Further, another contributing obstacle is the government’s refusal to acknowledge scientific research regarding treatments such as Opioid Substitution Therapy. These are dismissed as being too “narcoliberal” while other health programs simply receive no funding or are punishable with jail time.
  5. Other Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Including syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia and hepatitis, many of the top diseases in Russia are also sexually transmitted. These diseases are passed on via bacteria, viruses or parasites through sexual contact, and can manifest with a variety of symptoms. Increasing rates in Russia are due to poor health education and a prominent sex tourism industry.
  6. Rabies. Due to the vast wilderness, rabies is another common disease in regions with many mammals where people could be easily scratched or bitten. Untreated, rabies is the most lethal on the list due to how quickly it attacks the nervous system. Of note, some remote areas with known outbreaks do offer daily vaccines, but health reports indicate these are unsafe and often result in serious side effects.
  7. Regional Diseases. Given the immense size of Russia, there are also many diseases that are only prevalent in specific areas of the country. Soil-transmitted helminths, or parasitic worms that live in the gastrointestinal system and lungs, are frequently reported near the Caucasus region. A West Nile outbreak also recently took place in more than eight southwestern states. Spread from cattle to humans via bacteria, anthrax is known around the Yamal peninsula. Finally, transmissions of Lyme disease from infected ticks are common in the Ural Mountains.

Combined with shortages of medical supplies and inadequate standards, this list highlights a number of public health challenges for the country. While not exhaustive, many of the top diseases in Russia are treatable or preventable. Therefore, many solutions could be as easy as allocating proper funding and taking reasonable precautions in risk-prone areas.

– Zack Machuga

Photo: Flickr

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Top Diseases in Cuba

Top Diseases in Cuba

Following former President Obama’s efforts to reconcile and progress relations between Cuba and the U.S., travel opportunities to the previously forbidden country are now viable. Given that this has been uncharted territory for many decades, it is crucial that travelers are made aware of the top diseases in Cuba so as to take preventative measures before, during and after their travels.

Similar to any internationally planned trip, certain immunizations are required. If traveling to Cuba, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends vaccinations for Typhoid, Rabies and Hepatitis A and B. There are, however, current vector-borne diseases present in Cuba that cannot be vaccinated against, particularly mosquito-borne diseases.

Zika Virus

The ongoing Zika Virus is especially concerning in Cuba given its tropical location where mosquito-borne diseases are prevalent. A global update given on January 23 by the Public Health Agency of Canada affirmed the ongoing issue of Zika, emphasizing that pregnant women should continue to avoid travel to countries that have reported cases of the virus. Typical symptoms such as a fever, headache, conjunctivitis, skin rash, joint and muscle pain can be resolved with regular care.

Dengue Fever

In 1981, a Dengue Fever outbreak in Cuba took the lives of 158 people. Because of this and other past epidemics, thorough safeguarding to further prevent top diseases from growing have been implemented. Nonetheless, Dengue Fever is still a concern in Cuba without a vaccine to protect against it. Symptoms include a fever and headache and can lead to physical shock and hemorrhage.

Chikungunya

Another top disease in Cuba, also carried by mosquitos and insects alike, is Chikungunya. Symptoms include fever, arthritis-like pain and skin rashes.

Thus far, the variance of these mosquito related diseases are vector-borne and do not have a vaccine to prevent or end the contagion. Because of this, the CDC recommends that residents and travelers take any preventative measure necessary to decrease the risk of exposure. Suggestions to protect oneself include caution around food and water sources, using repellent, covering exposed skin, keeping netting around living quarters, avoiding sharing body fluids and keeping away from animals.

After numerous cases of residents being infected with these diseases, Cuba has employed intense preventative measures. Mosquito control workers are assigned to routinely monitor households and local clinics have sent out 15,000 workers to help contain mosquito exposure.

Hepatitis A

Within Cuba are many areas that lack proper sanitation, consequently contaminating water and food sources with fecal matter. Exposure to this type of contamination has been known to cause Hepatitis A, weakening liver function as a result. Although there is a vaccine available for Hepatitis A, those that contract the disease can experience symptoms such as fever, jaundice and diarrhea for up to nine months.

The diplomatic break between Cuba and the U.S. led to a decline in Cuba’s healthcare system causing an insufficient supply of medicine and medical equipment. Infrastructure was also diminished which created impoverished conditions and a spike in water-borne diseases. As the United States and Cuba continue to establish camaraderie, a unified international effort could work toward alleviating the top diseases in Cuba.

– Amy Williams

Photo: Flickr

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The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations

Preparedness InnovationsWhen the Ebola virus broke out in 2014, the world was ill-prepared to respond. In all, there were more than 15,000 confirmed cases and 11,000 deaths. Although the outbreak was concentrated in West Africa, a handful of cases reached the United States and Europe. With the rise of globalization and intercontinental travel, the next epidemic could easily become a pandemic.

To combat this danger, a multinational coalition is needed. The formation of such a group — the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) — was announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations is backed by the governments of Norway, India, Japan and Germany. These countries are partnering with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust to invest in vaccines to prevent diseases that have the potential to cause the next great epidemic.

Given the cost-efficiency of immunization programs, the development of vaccines is an effective component of epidemic preparation. With an initial fund of $460 million, CEPI will be well worth the investment. Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Lione lost approximately $1.6 billion in GDP in 2015 alone. A worldwide pandemic would be drastically more costly; the World Bank estimates a flu pandemic would cost $3 trillion globally.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations will initially focus on three viruses: MERS-CoV, Lassa and Nipah. These viruses are among the diseases identified by the World Health Organization that warrant prioritization. For each virus, CEPI hopes to develop at least two vaccines. This head start is critical, as vaccine development is a long, arduous process. On average, a vaccine takes about 10 years to reach the market, and epidemics take far less time to spread.

Although CEPI is a major step in the right direction, a more comprehensive strategy is necessary to control a potential pandemic. As shown by the Ebola outbreak, a global surveillance system is needed. In addition, vaccines cannot prevent all cases of disease; treatment development is also needed. The current members of CEPI have demonstrated admirable initiative in showing the world that everyone is a stakeholder concerning global health.

– Rebecca Yu

Photo: Flickr