Archive for category: Global Health

Information and stories about global health.

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United Nations Plans For The Eradication of AIDS by 2030

eradication of AIDS
Recently, the United Nations unveiled its plan to combat global health concerns. If earnestly implemented, the international community could see the eradication of AIDS by 2030. The plan is a part of the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which identified 17 developmental goals and 169 sub-targets.

The SDGs were constructed on the successes of the recently concluded Millennium Development Goals, which addressed global development issues through “time-bound and quantified targets.” The eight U.N.-brokered goals have become synonymous with the “the most successful global anti-poverty push in history” as it has reduced HIV infections by 33% since 2001.

Despite the unprecedented developmental success, the United Nations General Assembly wanted to pursue a refined and more robust approach to the eradication of AIDS. Therefore, in 2015 as the Millennium Goal expired, the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development announced a program aimed at eradicating AIDS, particularly through United Nations General Assembly Resolutions.

Notably, Resolution A/69/856 identifies that the eradication of AIDS and prevention must go beyond providing sufficient doses of anti-retroviral treatments. In addition to medicine, it is necessary for governments alike, the international community and civil society to advocate for safe-sex practices.

The task of implementing treatments towards pursuing a world free of global health concerns should not disproportionately fall on the United Nations, however. Moreover, other actors have provided significantly to health movements such as the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). PEPFAR is a bipartisan policy that supports HIV testing and counseling for more than 14.2 million pregnant women; HIV testing and counseling for more than 56.7 million people as well as training for more than 140,000 health care workers.

Other efforts are being made by NGOs and nonprofits such as The Global Fund, which has given $22.9 billion to over 1,000 initiatives in 151 countries.

– Adam George

Photo: Flickr

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Treatment and Prevention: On the Cusp of Ending Malaria by 2020

Within the Cusp of Ending Malaria
The end of malaria could possibly be closer than expected. With the recent success of Sri Lanka officially declaring itself as Malaria free after withstanding three years without a single case of infection. The World Health Organization (WHO) Reported a 60 percent decrease in global malaria mortality rates between 2000 and 2015.

According to the Guardian, “Public health officials said 13 countries, including Argentina and Turkey, had reported no cases for at least a year and may well follow the success of Sri Lanka…” Sri Lanka was near ending malaria 50 years ago and it has finally been able to do so becoming a catalyst for other countries.

The local transmission of malaria is slowly but surely being reduced as countries invest more in treatment and prevention strategies. Earlier this year the WHO estimated that “21 countries are in a position to achieve this goal, including six countries in the African Region.”

The Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016–2030 is currently in place. Four crucial points make up the plan, which includes reducing the rate of new malaria cases by at least 90 percent, reducing malaria death rates by at least 90 percent and eliminating malaria in at least 35 countries.

This plan was devised before the triumphant victory of Sri Lanka over malaria. Recently the members of the WHO of the African Region have adopted a framework that goes hand-in-hand with the goals outlined by the Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016–2030.

Within the document issued by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) titled President’s Malaria Initiative Strategy 2015-2020 the optimism to end malaria within this time period is evident. The document goes on to state “Innovative approaches to deploying existing tools also are being tested, including presumptive insecticide rotation to mitigate the spread and intensification of resistance.”

The U.S. has made it a priority to partake in ending malaria along with the other countries trying to terminate the disease from its country by 2020.

– Mariana Camacho

Photo: Flickr

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Christopher Reeve Foundation: Spinal Cord Injury Research

Spinal Cord Injury ResearchThose who are disabled have more than their personal limitations to consider. Medical bills and in some cases finding lifetime assistance also become priorities. After a horseback riding accident that left him paralyzed, Christopher Reeve was faced with these challenges and recognized the need to empower and motivate others with similar circumstances through spinal cord injury research.

The story of Christopher Reeve became the impetus for the establishment of the foundation. With as much of a passion for horses as he has for helping others, Reeve loved to participate in the horseback riding leisure activity known as eventing, which included show jumping. In May 1995 during the cross-country aspect of an eventing competition in Culpeper, Virginia his horse hesitated at the rail and pitched him forward. Reeve landed head-first and fractured the top vertebra in his spine causing him to be paralyzed immediately. With medical help and surgery, his spinal cord was stabilized yet he would never be able to walk again.

Reeve died in October 2004 after going into cardiac arrest due to an antibiotic response to an infection. Dana Reeve passed away two years later in March 2006 from lung cancer. However, they leave behind them a legacy of making a global impact and improving the lives of the disabled through their spinal cord research programs.

The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation is identified as the leading spinal cord injury research organization worldwide. The foundation recruits new scientists to the field of spinal cord injury research and provides them with capital for new developments supported by the National Institutes of Health.

The main purpose of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation is to give medical help and empowerment to those living with spinal cord injuries. The foundation offers multiple ways to facilitate the treatment of these individuals. One of the rehabilitation treatments offered by the foundation is activity-based therapy, which reteaches patients the movement they lost. The organization aims to find research and medical solutions to spinal cord injury that will benefit patients around the globe.

Before becoming the founder of the Christopher Reeve Foundation in 1996, the actor partnered with philanthropist Joan Irvine Smith to build the Reeve-Irvine Research Center in California.

The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation continues to give multinational hope to those who are experiencing disabilities from paralysis. In the words of the late Christopher Reeve, “And now that I am disabled, of course, my main focus is on the quality of life for all disabled people and doing everything I can to help scientists make progress toward cures.”

– Shanique Wright

Photo: Flickr

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Top Diseases in Mexico: Symptoms, Prevalence & Treatment

Top Diseases in Mexico
Diseases can prove very hard to prevent, control, and treat; and, many countries suffer from maladies that cannot be tamed. Mexico is no exception, and the top diseases in Mexico can inflict a great deal of damage. A summarization of each disease can be found below, including details on how the illness is transmitted and treated, the symptoms, and prevention tactics.

Top Diseases in Mexico

  1. Hepatitis A
    Hepatitis A can be spread via contaminated food or water or spread through person-to-person contact. A person-to-person transmission can occur when an infected person’s stool is ingested by a non-infected person through poor hygiene practices. Poor hygiene and sanitation practices are the results of letting half the country’s population live in abject poverty; without clean drinking water or sewage services, hepatitis A spreads easily and is now endemic to the population of Mexico. To clarify, if a disease is endemic that means the illness is regularly found among a population; for Mexico, hepatitis A is found throughout the entire country.
  2. Dengue Virus
    This virus is transmitted by mosquitos. Symptoms at the beginning of incubation of the virus include a sudden high fever, joint pain and headaches. Dengue is endemic to all of Mexico as well, except for the state of Baja California Norte and other areas of higher elevation because mosquitoes carrying the virus cannot survive at the higher elevations. Dengue may progress into dengue shock syndrome, a rare complication including a hemorrhagic fever, damage to lymph and blood vessels, bleeding from the nose and gums, enlargement of the liver, and even failure of the circulatory system, which can cause death. Taking aspirin accelerates the onset of symptoms of dengue shock syndrome, as aspirin thins the blood, so it is important to quickly ascertain that dengue is causing a patient’s symptoms before administering medication. Protection against contracting the dengue virus is easy: use bug spray, wear layers outdoors, and make sure bug screens in the home have no holes or tears for mosquitoes to fly through. Although seemingly simple, these precautions are monumental tasks for the poor of Mexico, who struggle to provide food for their families, let alone mosquito repellant.

Elevating the Impoverished

Diseases transmitted by mosquitoes are more likely to disproportionately affect those in lower economic classes. The Baker Institute mentions that these diseases, also known as neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), are widespread in Mexico’s poorest southern states such as Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Mayan villages on the outskirts of the Yucatan Peninsula.

Elevating the status and resource access of the impoverished in Mexico is an absolutely essential measure to alleviating the top diseases in Mexico.

– Bayley McComb

Photo: CNN

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OpenMRS: Open Source Health Database for sub-Saharan Africa

Health DatabaseIn Sub-Saharan Africa, nearly one in every 25 people lives with HIV. With a population of around 1 billion people, this number is astounding. In fact, according to the WHO, those living with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa account for nearly 70 percent of the population of HIV carriers around the entire world. There is no question that a health database would be invaluable for tracking HIV and other diseases in this region.

HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa

Although the prevalence of HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa has been declining since 2000 due to prevention education and treatment programs, but it is a slow process. And where these programs are lacking, infection rates tend to rise.

Without the proper information regarding how to protect oneself, HIV can be spread easily throughout a population. Unfortunately, HIV prevalence can only currently be reduced through prevention education and treatment programs due to the nature of the virus.

HIV or Human Immunodeficiency Virus gradually attacks the body’s ability to fight infections and diseases. With this symptom comes a serious need for medical assistance. Regrettably, medical assistance in Sub-Saharan Africa is limited in terms of accessibility and effectiveness.

One doctor, Judy Gichoya, saw how difficult it was for medical personnel to treat patients in Sub-Saharan Africa, mostly due to a lack of proper patient information. When patients come for medical help, doctors had very little idea of what the patient had received in terms of previous medical assistance and what they currently needed.

Essentially, without an efficient system for storing patient information, doctors have to dedicate more time to diagnosis and learning clerical information about the patient rather than giving treatment.

OpenMRS

As a result, Gichoya joined a group of others who noticed the same issue and were working to fix it. From here, OpenMRS was born. OpenMRS is a software platform for an open source health database well as a reference application that allows users to create a system of medical records to fit the specific needs of a hospital or health center.

According to the OpenMRS website, no knowledge of programming is necessary to use the software successfully. It is secure, easy to use, summarizes information without difficulty and allows many computers to access a server at the same time. This accessibility allows an ease of adoption and hopefully a reduction in unnecessary effort, allowing more time to be focused on patient treatment.

Aiding a Variety of Groups

Currently, OpenMRS is being used in developing countries including South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and others. The software is currently used by non-profits, government aid groups, for-profit groups and NGO’s. This is where OpenMRS’s open source origins shine. Its ability to be modified allows it to be changed for every specific need of each user and could even potentially allow it to be used in a variety of fields.

So far, the wide adoption of the health database created with OpenMRS shows that it is not only usable but also effective. Open source technology is becoming very prevalent and it seems to be the perfect format for technology destined to help those in poverty around the world. Hopefully, this trend continues and great minds keep working on technology, improving it and making it more accessible to those in need like those who struggle with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa.

– Weston Northrop

Photo: Flickr

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The Top 10 Diseases in Afghanistan and their Treatment

Diseases _AfghanistanAfghanistan is the 15th least developed country in the world, where thousands of people die each year from preventable diseases. The World Health Organization (WHO) uses age-adjusted rates to compare these diseases and see which ones cause the most deaths. Age-adjusted rates are the rates/dates that would have existed if the population under study had the same age distribution as the “standard” population. Based upon this data, the following are the top 10 diseases in Afghanistan:

  1. Coronary Heart Disease: A disease in which a plaque builds up in the coronary artery and blocks oxygen-rich blood from reaching the heart muscle.
    Based on an age-standardized death rate taken in 2014, coronary heart disease ranks number one of the top diseases in Afghanistan taking thousands of lives each year. Of all the deaths in Afghanistan according to the 2014 data, coronary heart disease accounted for a little more than 9 percent. The age adjusted death rate for this disease calculates to 193.21 per 100,000 people ranking Afghanistan twentieth in the world.
  2. Pneumonia: Lung inflammation caused by bacterial or viral infection.
    Influenza: Also known as the “common flu.”
    According to data recorded in 2014, deaths caused by influenza or pneumonia totaled 28,841 people. The age-adjusted death rate is 97.78 per 100,000 people making it the second most prominent disease in Afghanistan. Unfortunately 72 percent of children who suffer from pneumonia are unable to reach the necessary care of a doctor.
  3. Tuberculosis: a bacterial disease caused by growth of nodules in the tissues.
    The age-adjusted death rate for tuberculosis as of 2014 is 70.41 per 100,000 people. This ranks Afghanistan number 13 in the world regarding mortalities from tuberculosis. Early treatment and proper diagnosis needed to cure tuberculosis and therefore upwards of 13,000 Afghans die each year from the preventable diseases in Afghanistan.
  4. Diarrheal Diseases: Loose bowel movements that often cause dehydration.
    In 2014, 15,977 people or 7.10 percent of the population died because of diarrhoeal diseases. This often can be prevented by drinking safe, clean water and access to adequate sanitation which many Afghans cannot accomplish. Only 48 percent of those with a diarrhoeal disease receive the proper rehydration needed to survive. With many diseases causing early childhood deaths, diarrheal diseases account for 25 percent of them.
  5. Diabetes Mellitus: The most common form of diabetes.
    In 2015 there were 935,800 cases of diabetes in Afghanistan and 19,698 deaths. The age adjusted death rate for tuberculosis as of 2014 ranks diabetes mellitus in Afghanistan number 71 in the world regarding mortalities.
  6. Lung Disease: A problem with the lungs that prevents the lungs from working properly.
    Lung disease caused 2,874 deaths according to data recorded in 2014. The age adjusted death rate is recorded as 27.77 per 100,00 people ranking Afghanistan number 43 in the world regarding lung disease mortalities.
  7. Rheumatic Heart Disease: The age adjusted death rate for this heart disease is 27.57 per 100,000 people as published by data in 2014. Rheumatic heart disease is a condition in which heart valves are damaged (caused by the rheumatic fever). The rheumatic fever is a disease caused by untreated strep throat or scarlet fever.
  8. Hypertension: Abnormally high blood pressure.
    The age adjusted death rate ranks hypertension in Afghanistan at 25th in the world for deaths from hypertension. Without the proper access to professionals and doctors, diagnosing then implementing a way to fix hypertension is extremely difficult.
  9. Breast Cancer: A group of cancer cells that begin in the breast and often spread to other parts of the body.
    One in eight Afghan women are affected by breast cancer. According to the Minister of Public Health Affairs, “[Breast cancer] is not a fatal disease if we seek treatments.” However, the age adjusted death rate of breast cancer ranks Afghanistan number 20 in the world.
  10. Liver Disease: Some type of damage or disease to the liver.
    One of the most serious liver diseases in Afghanistan is hepatitis or inflammation of the liver. In 2013, almost 30,000 cases of viral hepatitis were diagnosed. The WHO is dedicated to fighting the “silent killer” by raising awareness and providing cures.

While deadly, the top 10 diseases in Afghanistan are treatable with the proper awareness and care.

– Casey Marx

Photo: Flickr

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Sesame Street: Improving Global Health One Muppet at a Time

Sesame Street
Sesame Street uses its influence to improve global health through its unwavering support of Youth Day and Global Goals — both of which are recognized by the United Nations — to encourage young children to act as voices of change.

Youth Day

Youth Day is celebrated on August 12, and this year’s theme is centered around the eradication of poverty and achieving sustainable consumption and production. Sustainable consumption means meeting Earth’s present and future needs by simply being aware of everyday actions that affect the planet and learning to minimize waste and pollution.

The beloved children’s show shared the following important message on Facebook: “With the help of our friends around the world, we hope children continue to be inspired and empowered to be the change they deserve!”

Iconic Sesame Street characters such as Big Bird and Elmo are pictured carrying signs that promote multiple Sustainable Development Goals like quality education, clean water, and sanitation.

Sesame Street and Sustainability

The U.N.’s list of Sustainable Development Goals comprises 17 other objectives including no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being. According to the U.N., these plans to transform the world can be met with the collective efforts of government authorities and regular individuals alike.

Sesame Workshop’s shows use media outlets for the greater good in more than 150 countries. Since it first aired in 1969, Sesame Street has aimed to give disadvantaged children equal opportunities through numerous educational outreach programs. Additionally, Muppet characters are created to address specific and relevant concerns.

One such character is Khokha — lead Muppet of Sesame Street coproduction Alam Simsim — is a model for girls’ education in Egypt. Another Muppet, Kami, is an HIV-positive Muppet living in South Africa. She destigmatizes HIV/AIDS by telling children that it is okay to touch someone affected by the disease.

With everyone working together, the reality of a brighter future is more than attainable. Sesame Street is drastically improving global health by getting involved and spreading the word about the need to care for the planet and its people.

– Mikaela Frigillana

Photo: Flickr

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Buffett Donates $2.2 Billion to Gates Foundation

Gates Foundation
This year, as part of his annual pledge to eventually contribute 500 million shares of the Berkshire Hathaway Inc to the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation, Warren Buffett recently donated nearly $2.2 billion worth of class B stocks in support of improving global health and embarking on a new challenge to assist U.S. education.

In 2010, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett created the Giving Pledge, which rallied the world’s billionaires to donate at least half of their fortunes to charity. Since the pledge has been put into place, 154 affluent individuals have made the oath.

Gates acknowledges the possibility of failure in some projects, but remains optimistic, stating “we not only accept that [projects will fail] we expect it—because we think an essential role of philanthropy is to make bets on promising solutions that governments and businesses can’t afford to make.”

Bill and Melinda Gates are both optimistic about the future of the Foundation, which is aimed at alleviating extreme poverty and poor health in developing countries in addition to improving the failure of America’s education system.

According to a SEC document filed on Thursday, July 13, 2015, Buffett donated 14,968,423 shares of Class B Common Stock valued at $145.93 per share to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Buffett also donated 1,047,785 shares of Class B Common Stock to foundations owned by his three children: the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the NoVo Foundation.

Warren Buffett believes philanthropy is associated with taking risks and remains steadfast and patient whenever Berkshire investments bear no fruit. “If you succeed in everything you’re doing in charity, you’re attempting things that are too easy,” Warren Buffett declared in 2011.

The philanthropist also donated $215 million worth of stocks to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, which is named after his late wife. The main objective of the Susan Thompson Buffett foundation is to provide scholarships for eligible recipients within the Nebraska region on a competitive basis.

Buffett has vowed to give away 99 percent of his wealth in support of charitable causes and innovative solutions to end global poverty. After over 10 years of donating to the Gates foundation as well as other nonprofit organizations, Buffett’s fortune is now estimated at approximately $65.6 billion.

Buffett’s recent donation to the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation, when added to the other donations made over his lifetime, brings his total donations to more than $28.5 billion.

– Shanique Wright

Photo: Finance Buzz

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Harvard Medical School Gets $20 Million for Global Health

Harvard Medical SchoolHarvard Medical School recently received a generous and philanthropic gift of $20 million. Billionaire and medical technology tycoon, Ronda E. Stryker and her husband, William D. Johnston supplied the donation, which will allow Harvard Medical School’s Department of Global Health and Social Medicine to expand its research facilities.

The Department of Global Health and Social Medicine dedicates itself to training impactful healthcare workers and policy makers as well as develop important partnerships with medical and social experts. This camaraderie and dedication creates an effective network that promotes and delivers quality healthcare necessities to areas in need.

Chair of the University’s department and professor Paul Farmer said in a press release, “This gift gives us the ability to solidify our foundation of collaborative research, care delivery and education for global health equity, while also providing crucial flexibility to respond to the needs of the communities we serve, as defined by the people within them.”

Stryker and Johnston’s gift will also grant funding for junior faculty and fellows focused in the fields of global epidemic research, including studies on diseases such as HIV and Ebola.

Faculty and fellows belonging to the department are grateful for the flexibility and resources provided by Stryker and Johnston’s donation. Harvard Medical School Dean, Jeffrey S. Flier said in the press release that it will allow the school to “continue to improve the lives of people throughout the world.”

Recently, the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine served as cosponsors and partners to the Rwanda Human Resources for Health Program (HRH), which works toward expanding the health workforce in Rwanda.

Essentially, this $20 million donation will not only serve to alleviate financial struggles facing applicants seeking to join the Harvard Medical School’s global health initiatives, but will also fund various University projects and further their progress in global health and well-being.

– Jenna Salisbury

Photo: Flickr

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Lab At Your Fingertips: The Power of Low-Cost Diagnostic Tools

Low-Cost Diagnostic ToolsWhen health clinics are a two-day excursion away, diagnosis and early detection are crucial. While it is estimated that the practice of diagnostics comprises only three to five percent of healthcare spending, it impacts about 70 percent of healthcare decisions, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry. Therefore, investing in low-cost diagnostic tools has the potential to drastically impact the prevention and treatment of the leading causes of death in the developing world.

Diagnostics For All, a non-profit organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, strives to create innovative, point-of-care, low-cost diagnostic tools specifically designed for those that live in “resource-poor” communities. Among their research endeavors, Diagnostics For All has developed a paper-based diagnostic tool the size of a fingernail that can be used to diagnose a myriad of diseases including tuberculosis and diabetes.

Dr. George Whitesides, co-founder of Diagnostics For All, describes the paper microfluidic tool as a more advanced, quantitative version of a pregnancy test in a 2009 Boston TED Talk. The paper chip is used to wick away fluid such as urine and changes color depending on the micronutrients being tested.

Next, the idea is to have the user take a picture of the color-developed paper “microchip” and send it to a laboratory for analysis. This technology has the potential to eliminate the need to send doctors to these developing regions, lowers the risk of disease transmission that can occur when using “sharps” such as needles and can be inexpensively repeated various times for efficacy.

Why choose paper over other materials? “One reason for using paper is that it’s everywhere. We have made these kinds of devices using napkins and toilet paper and wraps, and all kinds of stuff,” says Whitesides. “So, the production capability is there. The second is, you can put lots and lots of tests in a very small place.”

Although paper is an economical resource, it would cost an estimated $800 to fund a single printer that is used to embed wax reading-strips into the chip to complete the device. Even then, the wax printer pays for itself when considering its ability to create 10 million tests per year if it ran 24 hours a day—each chip costing a mere five cents.

Cornell University’s Interaction Design Lab is currently developing a low cost diagnostic tool called Nutriphone. Nutriphone is a smartphone application and micronutrient testing device. Users add a dab of blood to a test strip that’s then inserted into a custom phone accessory which triggers the phone’s camera to take a photograph of the test strip. The Nutriphone app then analyzes the blood results to provide accurate health markers such as testing Vitamin B12—low levels of which may indicate anemia.

However, the main drawback of both Whitesides’ paper microfluidic chip and the Nutriphone app is cellular access in impoverished regions. While the spread of cellular technology is increasing in the developing world, 10 percent of the world population still lacks access to basic voice and text services, according to the Consumer Technology Association.

If increasing access to mobile phones in tandem with funding for the development and distribution of low-cost diagnostic tools were prioritized, the potential to bring DIY-medical testing to underprivileged communities could empower the world’s poor.

– Daniela N. Sarabia

Photo: Flickr