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How the Wellcome Trust Fights Infectious Diseases

The Wellcome Trust Fights Infectious Diseases
Amongst many others, three prevalent issues that continue to burden citizens across the world are mental health problems, weather changes and infectious diseases. Thankfully, organizations such as the Wellcome Trust specialize in these areas and hope to alleviate public health issues through research initiatives and partnerships. It incorporates work with businesses, academia, philanthropies, governments and the public to support the role science takes in solving health challenges. Not only does its work advance the study of science and medicine, but it also benefits under-developed countries needing assistance. Here is some information about the ways the Wellcome Trust fights infectious diseases around the world.

About the Wellcome Trust

The founder of the Wellcome Trust is Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome, a former philanthropist, and pharmacist who worked tirelessly to advance medical research. Born in 1853, Sir Henry Wellcome had an interest in pharmaceuticals and other cultures from an early age. After studying pharmacy and becoming a traveling pharmaceutical salesman, Wellcome formed Burroughs Wellcome & Co. in 1880 and worked to register a new form of tablets that were safer than traditional pills. He went on to profit handsomely from this company and used his wealth to fund many different scientific research laboratories, as well as collect different historical objects and books relating to medicine. Toward the end of his life, Sir Henry Wellcome formed the Wellcome Trust. This organization emerged to benefit those hoping to further biomedical research by providing funding. Today, the Wellcome Trust serves as the second-largest medical research charity in the world.

The Wellcome Trust strategizes to make improvements in public health by supporting various research programs. Wellcome works to advance research in the biomedical science sphere in hopes of bettering the understanding of health and disease. Its areas of scientific research include:

  • Genetics, Genomics and Molecular Biology
  • Infectious Disease and the Immune System
  • Cell and Developmental Biology
  • Physiology and Non-communicable Disease
  • Neuroscience and Mental Health

The Wellcome Fund’s Research Grants

The trust provides research grants to scientists, artists, educators and innovators in 70 countries. Many major collaborations have resulted from Wellcome-funded or co-funded research initiatives, such as the Cancer Genome Project and the Ebola Emergency Initiative. The trust provides funding schemes for potential grantees looking to increase research in biomedical science, population health, product development and applied research, humanities and social sciences, or public engagement and creative industries. In 2016, the Wellcome Trust received the title of the largest philanthropic funding of health research and others noted it for its people-focused funding.

The Wellcome Fund’s Initiatives in Africa and Asia

Wellcome’s work in Africa and Asia has resulted in significant impacts for those regions, such as recognizing treatments for infectious diseases and implementing programs that benefit African-led initiatives.

It has administered numerous programs in Africa and Asia, such as the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP) in partnership with the Kenya Medical Research Institute, as well as The Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI). Both of these programs take a special interest in researching to understand the diseases that cause high mortality rates in their regions and use this information to improve public health in their area. The ability to understand the health of a population enables the use of intervention to improve the overall quality of life in that area. One significant impact that has resulted from this focus on Africa and Asia is the discovery of a more effective treatment for severe malaria, which went on to become the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global policy recommendation. Additionally, The Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA) emerged.

This organization fosters scientific excellence through mentoring upcoming research leaders and translating research into products and policies that improve the lives of people in Africa. With innovators in Africa leading it, the organization hopes to transform health research on the African continent to benefit citizens.

Distribution of Vaccines

The Wellcome Trust fights infectious diseases through the advancement of vaccines and helping distribute them to under-developed countries, which benefits impoverished citizens in more ways than one. About 2 million deaths each year are due to inadequate access to vaccines in low and middle-class countries. In impoverished countries that possess weak health care systems, easily preventable and treatment illnesses can run rampant and result in the death of children and already ill individuals. Many of these struggling nations also lack strong, well-established governments that can provide resources to help their citizens. This is why Wellcome supports the development of new and improved vaccines and hopes to enable vaccines that already exist for use in a broader context.

The Wellcome Trust understands that low and middle-income countries with high rates of infectious disease need to create their own immunization policies based on research evidence and prioritize cost-effectiveness. Therefore, it works with predominant organizations, such as Gavi, to fund and share relevant research with these areas to help them with their decision-making. Vaccines hold the potential to not only prevent sickness and death in impoverished nations but can also bolster education and economic development in struggling areas.

Ultimately, Wellcome uses its renowned research grant programs to cultivate discoveries involving global public health. Its initiatives reach across the entire world and result in new research that forces scientists to re-evaluate how to approach medicine and infectious diseases. Its discoveries also benefit struggling nations, such as areas in Africa and Asia, that greatly need invention to help their communities. The Wellcome Trust fights infectious diseases by helping the world gain a better understanding of science and supported some of the brightest minds in the scientific field to uncover improvements in public health.

– Hope Shourd
Photo: Flickr

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COVID-19 in India: Pandemics in the Global South

COVID-19 in IndiaThe COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating to nations all over the world, but especially the Global South. India, for example, has an enormous population of 1.3 billion people, with labor forces large enough to create the world’s fifth-largest economy. However, as of September 3, 2020, total confirmed cases across the country had reached 3.85 million, with 67,376 total deaths. As COVID-19 spreads throughout India, it leaves behind long-term effects on issues from medical resources to economic scarcity.

Income and Unemployment

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic in India, economic disparity existed in many forms. In 2019, the average per capita monthly income was approximately 10,534 Indian rupees.

To put this in perspective, 10,534 Indian rupees equals $143.42 USD, meaning the annual income of the average Indian citizen was just $1,721.04. Over the past five years, India’s unemployment rate has been increasing steadily, but in April 2020, it skyrocketed to 23.5%. Factories and construction sites, known for housing and feeding temporary employees, threw their workers onto the streets. About 95% of employed women worked in informal positions, but many lost jobs as households and businesses determined outside workers were too dangerous. As restrictions are slowly lifting across the country, frightened people return to work because fears of starvation hold more weight than fears of COVID-19 infection.

Lack of Medical Resources

For those in need of COVID-19 medical care, options for help are slim. According to reports from The New York Times, public hospitals are so immensely overwhelmed that doctors have to treat patients in the hallways.

For those with non-COVID-related medical needs, options are almost nonexistent. On March 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that to “save India,” a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the virus is necessary as well as the postponement of non-essential surgeries. For Ravindra Nath Singh, a 76-year-old man with Parkinson’s, this meant being discharged from the ICU in a hospital in Lucknow just minutes after becoming stable on a catheter and feeding tube. For a young woman in New Delhi, this meant eight hospitals turning her away while in labor for 15 hours, only to die in the back of an ambulance.

Child Labor and Education

The spread of COVID-19 in India forced schools to shut down, which proved unhelpful to students’ already low attendance rates. According to a study in 2018 by DHL International GmBH, India hosts the highest population of uneducated children with a  staggering 56 million children out of school. As restrictions across the country lift, one of the biggest hurdles will be encouraging enrollment, especially with uncertain learning conditions. Enrollment hesitation enables another widespread issue in India: child labor. Experts claim the most significant spike in child labor is yet to come as immense economic losses will compel large corporations to seek cheap labor.

The lack of in-person education also has a significant impact on child mental health. An Indian girl, 12-year-old Ashwini Pawar, once had dreams of becoming a teacher, but now must reconsider her life’s ambition. In an interview with TIME magazine, she considers her family financial burdens, saying “even when [school] reopens I don’t think I will be able to go back…” These circumstances push concerns of economic inequality as the pandemic might dissolve great strides made in development over the past decade.

Deaths and Infection Rates

In very little time, India has become the new epicenter of the coronavirus. The daily number of confirmed cases shot up from about 40,000 to 80,000 in just a few weeks. Unlike most of the world, this virus is heavily affecting the workforce demographic. More than 50% of COVID-19 deaths in India have occurred between the ages of 40 and 64, an interesting contrast to developed countries where 70% of deaths have occurred in age groups 70 and older.

According to Sanjay Mohanty, a lead scientific author from the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, this contrast is due to India’s age distribution. Mohanty states, “the median age in the country is 24 years and therefore more younger people are available for virus transmission…” Unfortunately, the road to recovery is a long one as millions of people are still susceptible to infection.

The Good News

Despite the seemingly daunting situation, there are many reasons to have hope for India. Well-known organizations such as UNICEF and Give2Asia are focusing aid on India, pushing the nation’s needs into the limelight.

Newly-risen charities are also making impressive strides on the ground. Snehalaya ‘Home of Love’ is a charity based out of Ahmednagar dedicated to feeding impoverished families during the pandemic. In Ahmednagar’s 17 official slums, the organization has fed more than 17,000 families and raised more than $80,000 of aid in just six months.

Hope also goes beyond organized help. As seen in various reports, neighbors are sharing all types of resources, from food to hygiene products. Amid a global pandemic, and even beyond it, India’s path to healing will accelerate with charity aid and attention.

– Amanda J Godfrey
Photo: Flickr

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Trypanosomiasis in the Central African Republic

Trypanosomiasis in the Central African Republic
Trypanosomiasis, a parasitic infection that is transmittable to humans through bites from the tsetse fly, is an illness common only among those living in sub-Saharan Africa. People living in rural areas and those who depend on agriculture, hunting or fishing for their food are most exposed to the infection. Poverty, war and failed healthcare systems can contribute to the spread of trypanosomiasis. Proper diagnosis requires a skilled staff and early treatment can help prevent the infection from worsening. The Central African Republic (CAR) has the highest number of cases of the disease in the world. Trypanosomiasis in the Central African Republic is a pressing health issue, which demands sustained funding for treatment and medical training.

About the Infection

Also known as human African sleeping sickness, trypanosomiasis is most prevalent in the 36 sub-Saharan African countries, including the CAR. There are two types of trypanosomiasis. Depending on which parasite causes the disease, an infected individual could have Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense or Trypanosoma brucei gambiense (the more common of the two). If an individual becomes sick with the latter, symptoms can go unnoticed for months or years before the infection begins to affect their central nervous system. Symptoms include fever, headaches, confusion, poor coordination and irregular sleep patterns. Transmission of trypanosomiasis can occur from mother to child, a tsetse fly bite or sexual contact with an infected person.

If trypanosomiasis goes untreated, an individual can experience worsening symptoms and can eventually enter a coma — hence the infection’s nickname (sleeping sickness). People in the CAR are especially susceptible to contracting the disease from doing agricultural work. Much of the population of the CAR lives in rural areas, depending heavily on subsistence farming to survive. More than 55% of the nation’s GDP stems from agriculture and 80% of the workforce is in the farming industry. Since citizens are dependent on farming and hunting for their food, they are at a higher risk of exposure to the tsetse fly and thus, have an increased rate of contracting trypanosomiasis.

Treating Trypanosomiasis

Infected individuals’ symptoms often go unnoticed or untreated. The CAR’s political climate, high poverty rate and lack of proper healthcare centers all facilitate the spreading and worsening of the infection. As of 2018, more than 71% of the population lived below the world’s poverty level, meaning that medical staff and treatment were inaccessible to most citizens living with trypanosomiasis in the Central African Republic. The country is also recovering from the violence of late 2013, which left many hospitals and offices ransacked or closed. Due to these various factors, citizens suffering from trypanosomiasis in the Central African Republic have few options for testing and medication.

There is one well-known medication that can treat the disease, called nifurtimox-eflornithine combination therapy (NECT). Though NECT can significantly help patients with trypanosomiasis, the treatment includes multiple injections and close monitoring of the symptoms — both of which are usually unavailable or difficult to follow through to completion.

The Good News

However, with combined efforts from the government and other organizations, more patients suffering from the illness are receiving treatment. With help from the World Health Organization (WHO), CAR’s government is monitoring the cases and number of deaths from trypanosomiasis and working to provide more clinics, healthcare professionals and medication. The WHO and CAR’s health sectors aim to eliminate transmission of the disease by 2030. With only 997 cases and 164 deaths reported in 2018 (the lowest number in the 80-year battle with the disease), the CAR is on track to reach this goal partially due to consistent outside aid.

One notable international organization, Médecins San Frontières, mobilizes doctors and nurses throughout the CAR to provide free diagnoses and medication for those who have trypanosomiasis. Citizens are made aware of the free medical care and the organization can screen thousands of patients.

Over the next few years, help from organizations like the WHO and Médecins San Frontières can lead to adequate testing and medication for citizens with trypanosomiasis in the Central African Republic. It is imperative that organizations and countries in a position to help — contribute trained medical staff, funding and medicine to aid in the CAR’s fight against trypanosomiasis.

– Danielle Kuzel
Photo: Flickr

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Infection Prevention and Control in Sierra Leone

Infection Prevention and Control in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone did not have an existing infection prevention and control program before its 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic. However, infection prevention and control is an essential element aiding in eradicating and preventing cross-infection among the community, patients, health care providers and hospital visitors.

The Current Course of Action

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation, with the help of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has made significant strides in an attempt to get Sierra Leone’s health sector back on the right track. This partnership involves the implementation of the National Infection Prevention and Control Action Plan (IPC) to prevent future infection and disease. The IPC will enable the equipping of health facilities and open up conditions for the resources required for standard and transmission-based precautions. Further, the goal of the IPC aims to prevent and contain health care-associated infections.

The CDC’s Involvement

Disease threats are spreading faster than ever before but the CDC’s efforts in Sierra Leone have helped improve the country’s prevention, detection and ability to respond to infectious disease outbreaks. These abilities remain especially key before outbreaks become epidemics with the potential to affect global populations.

The CDC has played an important role in infection control in Sierra Leone, even establishing a country office in 2015 to focus on global health security. The CDC has been diligently working with Sierra Leone on surveillance, emergency management, strengthening laboratory and the workforce capacity to respond to disease outbreaks.

More than 700 CDC staff members served on over 1,000 deployments to Sierra Leone after the Ebola outbreak. Further, this makes it the CDC’s largest outbreak response ever in a single country. Sierra Leone, as of November 2015, is Ebola-free.

Keeping Infection and Disease Under Control in Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone has taken a different approach to sustain the infection prevention and control. The country has invested in ongoing training for its health care workers. These efforts have helped ensure a safe working environment for all, with lower health care-associated infection risks. Health care workers and hospitals have improved their disposal of waste practices, hiring individuals to clean, along with disposing of the waste.

In addition, Sierra Leone has heightened awareness of infection prevention and control with the aid of supported sanitation and hand hygiene campaigns. These campaigns aid in the creation of a culture of hand-washing and have drastically reduced cross-infection among patients, thus eradicating Ebola.

As Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the WHO Assistant-Director General, states, “When health workers are infected at work, this puts other health care workers at risk. Understanding where the breach in these measures is occurring and taking the steps needed to fully implement infection prevention and control measures can put an end to these infections.”

– Na’Keevia Brown
Photo: Flickr

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Project Healthy Children in Tanzania

Project Healthy Children

Global hunger is one of the most pressing and visible poverty-related issues in our world today. People can easily recognize the defined ribs, sunken eyes and bone-thin limbs of starvation. However, there is another side to hunger that is not as obvious: micronutrient deficiency.

Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals such as zinc, iron, iodine, vitamin A and folic acid. In developed nations like the United States, most people get these critical nutrients from maintaining a well-rounded diet or taking a daily supplement. But it isn’t always that simple in some other parts of the world. In fact, micronutrient deficiency remains a big problem in Eastern and Southern Africa but often does not get the attention it deserves because the effects are not immediately visible. For this reason, micronutrient deficiency has been nicknamed “hidden hunger.”

Hidden hunger has real and long-lasting consequences. Insufficient amounts of vitamins and minerals can result in learning disabilities, mental retardation, low work capacity, blindness and premature birth. These deficiencies lower overall health and weaken the immune system, thus making it much harder to survive infections like HIV and measles. They can cause extreme birth defects in children and are the leading cause of maternal death during childbirth.

Background

Clearly, micronutrient deficiency is a pressing issue that deserves the attention necessary to mitigate it. An organization called Sanku’s Project Healthy Children (PHC) is doing just that through a process known as food fortification: essentially, they add critical micronutrients to the flour people already consume.

PHC is based in Tanzania and currently supplies almost 2 million people with fortified flour to help them get the vitamins and minerals they need. Flour is a staple food that many people consume regularly; according to the PHC website, “over 50 million Tanzanians eat maize flour every day,” but more than 95 percent of it is produced without added nutrients in small, rural mills. Countries like Tanzania are in desperate need of better access to micronutrients—here, about 35 percent of children under 5 years old have stunted growth due to under-nutrition. Project Healthy Children uses the mills and distribution systems already in place to simply add essential micronutrients to the flour with no additional cost for the consumer. This way, people can get the nutrition they need without changing their eating or purchasing habits.

Why Food Fortification?

  1.  It is cheap: Food fortification is very inexpensive, typically costing no more than $0.25 per person annually. In other words, one quarter donated is enough to supply someone with adequate nutrients for an entire year.
  2. It is effective: Improving nutrition can be highly beneficial to overall health, work capacity and productivity. Women who sustain good nutrition before getting pregnant greatly reduce the risk of maternal death and birth defects.
  3. It has a huge payback: The economic rewards of food fortification are astounding. The WHO estimates that the consequences of micronutrient deficiency (birth defects, learning disabilities, premature death, etc.) can cost a country about 5 percent of its GDP per year. Supplying people with critical vitamins and minerals puts less pressure on a country’s health care system and allows for a more productive workforce. In addition, the Copenhagen Consensus estimated that for every dollar spent on nutrition in young children, a country will save an average of $45 and sometimes as much as $166.

The Future of Project Healthy Children

In the past few years, Project Healthy Children has become even more streamlined in its approach to food fortification. A partnership with Vodafone, a mobile network based in the United Kingdom, allows PHC staff to remotely monitor flour mills so that they instantly know when a machine is down or a mill is low on nutrients. The partnership saves money, time and manpower, allowing PHC to run more smoothly.

Project Healthy Children currently helps nourish about 1.7 million people in sub-Saharan Africa but hopes to reach 100 million people by 2025, an ambitious goal that would be instrumental in lifting communities in Southern and Eastern Africa out of extreme poverty.

– Morgan Johnson
Photo: Flickr

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Drug Resistant Infections: A Global Crisis

Drug Resistant Infections
Antibiotics have long been considered one of the greatest marvels of modern medicine. Since their discovery in the early 1900s, antibiotics have promoted a previously unprecedented large-scale fight against disease. Their effectiveness, however, is starting to show its limits.

CDC Analysis

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), antibiotic resistance—also known as antimicrobial resistance or general drug resistance—is becoming more and more prevalent, with over 23,000 people dying from a drug-resistant infection or disease in the United States alone. Studies have shown that over 700,000 people die annually worldwide from drug-resistant infections. Diseases once thought to be treatable, such as tuberculosis and common bacterial infections, are slowly becoming harder to cure with standard antibiotics and antimicrobial drugs.

A Mounting Crisis

The sheer overuse of antimicrobial drugs, such as antibiotics, antimicrobials, or antifungals, is often cited as a factor in the rise of drug resistance. Numerous studies show that these medications are grossly overprescribed, specifically drugs in the antibiotic category. The overexposure of antimicrobial drugs to different bacteria drastically reduces the drug’s ability to fight infections and diseases, leading to a resistance that is almost impossible to treat. This phenomenon is only growing, with the United Nations estimating that resistant infection could kill up to 10 million people annually by the year 2050.

The Developing World at Risk

Developed nations like the United States and Western Europe have far greater chances of eliminating the problem by fighting diseases from the backend, with access to clean water, food and sanitary living conditions. But for underdeveloped countries where over half of the population lives below the poverty line, drug-resistant infections pose even more serious risks. These countries rely on antimicrobial drugs and vaccines to stave off epidemics and diseases and cannot afford to develop drug resistance of any kind. The United Nation’s (UN) latest findings point towards economic hazards of drug resistance as well, showing that if resistance continues to develop, healthcare costs and lack of resources could potentially send the economy into a decline similar to that of the 2008-2009 era.

Innovative Solutions

Finding innovative ways to combat drug resistance is the most urgent goal. The UN is among several groups looking to solve the resistance crisis, calling upon major pharmaceutical companies, research groups and investors to accelerate funding and assistance. Emphasizing the need for a worldwide plan, Dr. Margaret Chan, Director General for the World Health Organization, has stressed the need for a timely response, “Antimicrobial resistance is a crisis that must be managed with the utmost urgency. As the world enters the ambitious new era of sustainable development, we cannot allow hard-won gains for health to be eroded by the failure of our mainstay medicines.”

As a part of the much-needed urgent response plan, the WHO proposed a new strategy to the World Health Assembly in 2015 that highlights five main goals to fight drug resistance:

  1. Raise awareness
  2. Gain knowledge
  3. Reduce risk of infections overall
  4. Optimize the current use of antimicrobial drugs
  5. Increase investment in research and technology for new antimicrobial drugs

Hope for the Future

The CDC has also constructed what is known as the National Action Plan, a five-year goal with similar objectives working under their Antibiotic Resistance Solutions Initiative. Despite the imminent threat of drug resistance, the crisis is being taken seriously with appropriate responses in progress and clear plans of action to follow.

– Olivia Bendle
Photo: Pixabay