Archive for category: Health

Information and stories on health topics.

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Violence Against Women is Global Health Epidemic

Violence Against WomenPhysical or sexual violence against women is causing a global health problem of “epidemic proportions,” according to a new study released by the World Health Organization on June 20.

The report, “Global and regional estimates of violence against women: prevalence and health effects of intimate partner and non-partner sexual violence,” was released in partnership with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the South African Medical Research Council. According to the report, more than 1 in 3 women globally are impacted by physical or sexual violence. The perpetrator of such violence is usually an intimate partner: it affects an estimated 30 percent of women worldwide.

The new study compared this violence in high-income countries with that in other countries. The study found that 23.2 percent of women living in high-income countries experience intimate partner violence, as compared with 36.6 percent in Africa, 37 percent in the Eastern Mediterranean region, and 37.7 percent in South-East Asia.

“These findings send a powerful message,” said Margaret Chan, director-general of WHO. “We also see that the world’s health systems can and must do more for women who experience violence.”

The report looked at the impact of violence on both the physical and mental health of girls and women, including broken bones, pregnancy-related complications, impaired social functioning, and mental problems.

Other findings on the health impacts of intimate partner violence were staggering. The report found that 38 percent of all women who were murdered were killed by their intimate partners. Women who experienced this were twice as likely to have alcohol-use problems and were 1.5 times more likely to acquire syphilis, chlamydia or gonorrhea. In some regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, those women were also 1.5 times more likely to acquire HIV.

The report called for a major scaling up of violence-prevention efforts by addressing social and cultural factors that could be impacting the prevalence of violence. It also called for better health care for women experiencing it. Simply teaching health workers how to respond to violence could be helpful, the report noted.

The report pulled data from dozens of regional and national studies for the first time. By using regional data it was also able to highlight regional patterns. For example, women in Africa are almost twice as likely to experience violence as women living in lower and middle-income countries in Europe.

– Liza Casabona

Source: World Health Organization, The Guardian
Photo: The Guardian

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Slums, Sanitation and Misery

Slums, Sanitation and Misery

For the people living in the Korogocho slums in Nairobi, Kenya, life can be a constant struggle. The threat of disease and unclean drinking water looms in the minds of those who have no other options but to live in areas with broken sewage pipes and “flying toilets.” These unsanitary conditions put the people in Korogocho at risk for health problems and leave them vulnerable to exploitative water companies.

The typical day for someone living in the slums may involve the use of a flying toilet, a plastic bag used to dispose of human waste. While there are some pay-toilets, most people cannot afford the money to use one. As a result, these plastic bags can be found discarded in the streets of the slums among the broken sewer lines.

As the population in Nairobi grows, more slums are popping up. In Kenya, the number of people without access to toilets has risen to 20%. Access to piped water is even lower in urban areas, 38.4% (and 13.4% of the rural population). These numbers are likely to mimic the sanitation circumstances in Nairobi.

The health implications of unsanitary water systems are illnesses including malnutrition, diarrhea, cholera and typhoid fever. When water mixes with sewage, it creates a breeding ground for inimical viruses and germs. International health organizations and Kenya’s government are eager to improve sanitation in order to save lives. Currently, one in five African children dies from diarrhea before the age of five.

Simple ways to improve the sanitation system in Korogocho include mobile toilets, bucket removal, and dry composting toilets. However, even these solutions can result in human remains ending up in the Nairobi River. The Kenyan population is expected to increase by one million people every year, which will further exacerbate the struggling water and sanitation system. Until these problems are seriously addressed, Kenyans will continue to endure preventable illnesses.

– Mary Penn

Source: IRIN News
Photo: The Guardian

Obesity: Not Just a First World Problem

Obesity: Not Just a First World Problem
Obesity is not just a first-world problem. The World Health Organization has issued a report highlighting obesity as a global health issue. More than 42 million children under the age of five are considered overweight, with 83% of those children living in developing countries. According to the World Health Organization, “the number of overweight children in Africa has almost doubled in the past 20 years.”

The issue of obesity is paradoxically related to the problem of undernutrition. In many cases, both conditions stem from a lack of funds for purchasing nutritious foods. Undernutrition occurs when a person cannot afford enough food to sustain a healthy weight. Obesity, on the other hand, occurs when a person can only afford poor quality foods, often ones that are calorically dense but lacking in healthy nutrients.

Both obesity and undernutrition have negative consequences for the human body. Undernutrition leads to a weakening of the immune system, resulting in an increase in the frequency and duration of infections contracted by an individual. Obesity leads to more chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer.

The new report from the World Health Organization emphasizes the importance of ensuring that a proper diet not only contains an adequate number of calories but is also nutritious. This is especially true for infants and young children. A diet that does not deliver “a sufficient amount of quality food can lead both to poor growth and to excess weight gain.”

The World Health Organization states that “many low and middle-income countries are neglecting overweight and obesity as major health threats.” Hopefully, with the new publicity that the World Health Organization has placed on the issue, these countries will understand the health risks at hand and work to end all forms of malnourishment.

To learn more about the worldwide obesity epidemic, and how obesity is related to a country’s GDP and happiness levels, check out this interactive map from the organization’s Desirable Body.

– Jordan Kline

Sources: Deseret News, Kids Health, WHO
Photos: Deseret News

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A Look at Lutheran World Relief

A Look at Lutheran World Relief
Lutheran World Relief has been offering emergency aid to people around the world for more than 60 years. The group formed in the aftermath of World War II, which rendered an estimated 20% of Lutherans homeless. In response to this need, 20 Lutheran churches in the US organized themselves to send aid to their fellow church members.

Most of the aid in that initial period went to Germans and Scandinavians, but LWR founders soon came to believe that they should distribute aid to people regardless of their religious affiliation. In the decades immediately following World War II, the organization sent emergency aid to the Middle East, Hong Kong, Korea, and Bangladesh. Currently, they reach out to people needing emergency help on nearly every continent.

Since then the mission of LWR has evolved even further from providing aid for emergency food, shelter, and medicine, to implementing a comprehensive sustainable development program. The organization now works to address needs in a number of areas, including health, agriculture, and the environment. In pursuing that mission, LWR regularly:

  • Helps farmers learn about new techniques and gain access to microcredit loans.
  • Partners with local communities to dig wells to provide clean water.
  • Educates people about malaria and other infectious diseases.
  • Encourages civic participation by fostering grassroots community organizations to help marginalized groups communicate effectively with their governments.

In addition, the groups on the ground emergency programs are designed to continue recovery efforts long after disasters strike.  LWR is committed to helping afflicted communities build resiliency and recover for the long-term.

Over the years, Lutheran World Relief has earned respect around the world for their efforts.  The group has one of the highest ratings from the site CharityNavigator.org, which rates organizations for their transparency and efficient use of donations. To learn more about Lutheran World Relief, or to donate to the organization, visit www.lwr.org.

 – Délice Williams

Sources: LWR, Charity Navigator
Photo: Lutheran World Relief

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World Bank Grants Loans for Brazilian Projects

World_Bank_Loans_for_brazilWhile Brazil ranks as one of the world’s highest GDP rates, it still struggles with inequality and inefficiency. The World Bank has seen it fit to grant Brazil $500 million in loans to fund 3 projects that will help end inequality in Brazil. The loans fund three projects located in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte.

The first project is the Sao Paulo State Sustainable Transport Project. This project aims to improve environmental and disaster management as well as the safety of the transport system in Sao Paulo. Sao Paulo is home to over 40 million people and an efficient and safe transport system is essential to keep this region competitive with the world. More importantly, this project will extend the transport system to regions that have not had access to public transportation. This project will give citizens the opportunity to find jobs in the metropolitan area and hopefully lift them out of poverty.

The second project will help millions of citizens in the South East of Brazil. It is the Belo Horizonte Urban Inclusive Development Policy Loan. This $200 million loan will help with the development of this region, which has been plagued with inequality. This project will focus on development strategies to provide safe housing to all citizens. Belo Horizonte has had increasing economic growth but an increase in irregular housing. The hope is to increase the quality of life of the low-income population.

The third project involves the municipality of Rio de Janeiro which received a $16.2 million loan for the Rio de Janeiro Strengthening Public Sector Management Technical Assistance Project. In the past decade, the administration of Rio de Janeiro has implemented several different programs such as The Family Health Strategy and new education programs to combat the high levels of poverty and inequality in the region. However, the administration does not have the money or power to implement all of these reforms immediately. This loan will help the administration to achieve these reforms.

– Catherine Ulrich
Source: World Bank, Political Press
Photo: Professional Jeweller

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What is Handicap International?

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Handicap International is an “independent and impartial organization working in situations of poverty and exclusion, conflict and disaster.” Founded in 1982 to help 6,000 Cambodian amputees living in refugee camps along the Thai border, it evolved from being mainly focused towards improving the living conditions of the disabled to implementing prevention programs through “weapons and landmine clearance, risk education activities, stockpile management, and advocacy to ban landmines and cluster bombs.” This comprehensive approach comprises a series of preventive and effective actions to ensure that disabled people all over the world enjoy basic human rights and respect.

One billion people across the globe -15 percent of the world’s population- live with a disability. Today, the issue of access for the disabled is sorely under-treated in developing countries, and there are still many places with no facilities for the disabled at all. The story of Hodan, suffering from multiple disabilities including hearing, physical and intellectual impairments, is a heartbreaking illustration of this problem.

Hodan had to stay home all day long and had no friends because her school made no adjustments for disabled children. It was not until she turned 17 that she was finally able to go to school as a first grader because Handicap International set up a series of training programs to compensate for the lack of accessibility. Unfortunately, her story is just one among many. In Ethiopia alone, of the 4.8 million children living with disabilities, only 3 percent go to school according to Handicap International.

In 2011, Handicap International helped 768,050 disabled people through Health and Prevention; 424,600 through the management and distribution of aid; 332,320 through demining campaigns and 118,550 people through rehabilitation. In the past, Handicap International has intervened in crisis situations such as the Balkan wars (1993), the Rwanda Genocide (1994), the Sierra Leone civil war (1996) and the 2001 earthquake in India, to name a few examples. In total, Handicap International has operated in more than 60 countries, providing equipment and training to better the conditions of the forgotten and the ostracized.

Today, Handicap International centers its actions around the Syrian refugee crisis and condemns international inaction in the face of the atrocities committed. Thanks to its prevention and training programs, Handicap International will have helped almost 37,000 Syrians by June 2013 while teaching 9,000 others how to spot and avoid weapons and explosive war remnants.

It also launched an International Campaign to Ban Landmines which has saved thousands of lives and for which it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after the 1997 Mine Ban treaty was passed. It is now actively fighting to make this treaty a reality across the globe.

– Lauren Yeh

Sources: Handicap International, ICBL
Photo: Monsoon Adventure

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The Secret to Combining Healthcare and Women’s Empowerment

The Secret to Combining Healthcare and Women's Empowerment|
For decades now BRAC, a Bangladeshi anti-poverty organization formerly known as the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, has been providing a different approach to healthcare services.  While most health care around the world is provided by doctors and nurses in a hospital setting, BRAC has been using a door-to-door method of healthcare.  BRAC hires women to deliver primary health care or locally by visiting people at their homes without a doctor or nurse.   Not only does this create healthier communities, but it also elevates these women to a higher status in society and broadens the perceptions of the role of women in these rural communities.

These women join BRAC as frontline community health promoters.  After they receive training from BRAC, they travel from house to house in order to promote many health practices that we hold as staples in the Western world.  Among these is the adoption of contraceptives, identifying pregnancy, proper health while with child, and education about children’s health.  While there, the women also treat basic illnesses among family members.  Further training from BRAC allows these women to raise awareness about other diseases like hypertension and diabetes while giving them access to equipment such as blood pressure gauges and primary medicines.

This sort of medical service without a doctor or nurse is made possible by the fact that many diseases in poverty-stricken and developing areas is the result of simple ailments that do not need extensive medical training to diagnose and treat successfully.  One of the most significant examples of this is diarrhea.  According to the World Health Organization’s website, “diarrheal disease is the second leading cause of death in children under five years old…Globally, there are nearly 1.7 billion cases of diarrheal disease every year.” These women can help stave off the malnutrition which results from diarrhea with simple oral rehydration solutions.

BRAC has evolved from a small relief organization in 1972 into the largest development organization in the world by enacting these types of strategies that utilize poor communities’ own human and material resources to create environments and situations that enable the poor to take control of their own development.  This community health program is a prime example of the best type of development strategy.  It does not consist merely of throwing resources at a community but empowers members of that community to take an active role in development.  This strategy holds even more impact because of its use of women as employees, as the empowerment of women is the key to overcoming global poverty, due to women’s large investment in their own communities.

– Martin Drake
Source: Huffington Post, World Health Organization, Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee
Photo: Global Voices

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Profile: the Better World Fund

Profile: the Better World Fund
The Better World Fund was founded in 1998 by media mogul, philanthropist, and humanitarian Ted Turner.  The man who brought us the cable station CNN started the Fund as an umbrella organization to facilitate public-private partnerships to address a range of global concerns, including health crises and environmental problems.  The fund also serves as an advocacy and outreach organization to support the work of the United Nations and to lobby for the US Government to provide political, financial and sometimes military support for UN humanitarian and peacekeeping efforts.

The major initiative of the Better World Fund is the Better World Campaign, whose publicity and advocacy work currently focuses on what the organization calls its “key issues.”  The top three of those issues are climate change, global health, and international security.

In each of these areas, the Better World Fund and the Better World Campaign work to build support for UN initiatives.  On climate change, they advocate for the adoption of the Copenhagen Accord, which establishes a registry to keep track of the ways that different nations are responding to climate change. The Accord also commits developed countries to provide up to $100 billion per year by 2020 to reduce emissions and take other measures to address climate change.

In the area of global health, the Better World Fund supports UN education and treatment efforts to combat HIV/AIDS and malaria, and it supports vaccination efforts to eradicate polio.  In the area of international security, the Fund advocates for UN efforts to end nuclear proliferation, to combat international terrorism, and to enforce maritime laws governing the activities of governments and businesses, and the management of marine natural resources.

The Fund’s Board of Directors includes former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, civil rights leader Andrew Young, and Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan.

– Délice Williams
Source: Better World Campaign, Charity Navigator
Source: Glogster

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Kenyan Girls Protected from Cervical Cancer

kenya_girls_students_smiling_cervical_cancer_opt
Every year, approximately 275,000 women lose their lives to cervical cancer. The vast majority of these women live in developing countries where it is difficult to access the necessary healthcare, and where the ability to screen, diagnose and treat the life-threatening cancer is rarely available. However, the fight against cervical cancer in developing countries received an unprecedented boost when the GAVI Alliance announced recently that it had guaranteed a record low price of $4.50 per dose for the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines.

For the first time, the GAVI Alliance will make the vaccination available to girls of a school age on a widespread scale, and at an affordable price. The GAVI Alliance has already begun their vaccination program in Kenya where cervical cancer is responsible for the deaths of more Kenyan women than any other cancer. In the past, most of the HPV vaccine programs have only been available in richer countries despite the fact that the need for these programs has always existed in developing countries. Dr. Seth Berkley, CEO of the GAVI Alliance, said that through their partnership with WHO and UNICEF, their support for HPV vaccines is “bridging the gap between rich and poor countries, enabling HPV vaccines to reach girls no matter where they live.”

The vaccine is distributed in three doses, and since Kenya has high enrollment rates among girls, schools will become the main centers for the HPV vaccines. With the support of community health workers, the treatment will also be available to girls who are unable to attend school, and who are often at higher risk of contracting the disease.

Seven other sub-Saharan countries will also receive support from the GAVI Alliance in the near future; Ghana, Lao PDR, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Sierra Leone and Tanzania. The GAVI Alliance estimates that by 2020, it will have immunized more than 30 million girls in 40 countries. In these countries, where access to diagnosis and treatment is seldom available, providing a preventative vaccine is the clearly preferred option. This news provides hope to millions of girls and women in developing countries who remain at risk of contracting cervical cancer.

– Chloe Isacke
Source: GAVI Alliance,Impatient Optimists
Photo: WUSC

Peace Corps Case Study Helps Senegal’s Pharmacies

Peace Corps Case Study Senegal Pharmacy
In the wake of AidData’s unveiling of the huge data set of tracking Chinese Aid to Africa, there has been a rather unsettling backlash against the use of data in development. Data is not the problem, it is the overgeneralization of data that is problematic. The Peace Corps case study detailed here focuses on site and project and is time and space specific, resulting in quantifiable success.

One of the latest case studies out of Senegal is about a health system in Karang that was consistently out of stock of urgently needed medications. This Peace Corps Case Study of the Senegalese town on the northern border of the Gambia details the problem and data-driven solutions. The Karang health system has been under the charge of Pauline Sene for 12 years. During this period over 20,000 individuals have been impacted by out of stock medication. The privately owned pharmacy has brand name drugs that are far too expensive for many residents.

Peace Corps Volunteer William Leborgne and Ms. Sene undertook the case study to identify the problems, trends, and solutions to the stock outs.

Ms. Sene and the head pharmacist identified the problems. Peace Corps Volunteer, Mr. Leborgne, aided in research design, data collection, and proposing solutions.

The problems consisted of three parts. First, there was little oversight. The management structure of the health system gave Ms. Sene little ability to oversee the purchasing and daily needs of the medication distribution centers. Second, there was no inventory management system in place to alert upcoming shortages. Finally, the supplier also had stock outs.

The first stage of the case study was data collection. Data collection was conducted over a year and consisted of reorganizing the medicine cabinets, cataloging the inventory, and collecting data on monthly usage. Excel was used for data entry and management. Monthly minimums of medication stock were determined by minimum monthly consumption. Peace Corps Volunteer Leborgne set up an algorithm to alert the staff when a reorder was necessary. By using some of the most common software and accounting available to US retail establishments, Leborgne helped solve the first two problems: oversight and inventory management.

The second stage of the case study was calculating how to minimize stock outs of important medications. Important medications were determined by manipulating the data collected over the year to find peak medication consumption periods. Peace Corps Volunteer Leborgne used the Senegalese government priorities for the medication categories of Malaria prevention, family planning, diarrhea prevention, and high blood pressure.

Findings and recommendations were as follows:
• “The two peak sales periods are Feb-May and Sept-Oct, the biggest month being Oct with sales of half a million CFA – purchasing price (approx. $1000).
• “The base months are Jul-Aug and Nov-Dec where sales drop drastically. The lowest month is December with half the sales of October – approx. $500.
• “We discern a gap in Sept and the start of Oct as these were the peak stock out periods, which coincides with the peak sales periods. This demonstrates the lack of foresight and planning for these peak sales periods.
• “We observe here that 90% of the sales are for just 10 of the 60+ types of medication for sale.”

Spotlighting the 10 medications and using predetermined categories provided by the Ministry of Health, Peace Corps Volunteer Leborgne made the following recommendations:

• “Completely restock the entire inventory in January and August, before the two peak sales cycles.
• “For the 10 top sellers – utilize the data to create an alert system immediately before their peak sales period.
• “Take into consideration the pinnacles of certain illnesses and prepare accordingly, e.g. resupply on Malaria prevention medication in August and Anti-Diarrheal in May.
• “When ordering more, consider the top sellers and the most likely to have shortages – order additional units of these as a precaution.
• “Exploit the alert algorithm within the Excel file in order to keep track of pharmacy stock and re order in a timely fashion.
• “If possible create a 2 month buffer’s worth of medication for the 30 top sellers to counteract the stock outs at the Sokone Hospital (their supplier).”

The grass-roots level of integrated collaboration between the Peace Corps Volunteer Mr. Leborgne, Senegal Government Health Post Ms. Sene, and local pharmacist Salimata Baudian made data collection and commitment to the solution successful. Once implemented by Ms. Sene and the pharmacists, Leborgne’s recommendations proved effective in mitigating stock outs. Between January –April 2013, there have not been any stock outs.

– Katherine Zobre

Source: Peace Corps
Photo: Senegal Health Institute

Editor’s note: PCV William Leborgne gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the AP Statistics classroom at the Edmund Burke School in Washington DC: teacher Rachel Braun, and students Enesh Annaberdieva, and Elizabeth Bennett. As a side benefit, seeking their assistance in the production of statistical tables and summaries has allowed Mr. Leborgne to nurture enthusiasm for international public health among American high school students.