Medical Humanitarian Aid Can End Epidemics Around the World

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an epidemic is a significant and sudden increase in the number of cases of a particular disease in a specific area or within a certain population. Epidemics can present themselves all over the world. However, epidemics are most common in impoverished, war-torn and developing countries.

Medical humanitarian aid can help end epidemics in many impoverished countries. Most countries that receive foreign humanitarian aid are not properly equipped to deal with disease outbreaks, nor do they have the trained medical professionals needed. This is how a disease outbreak quickly turns into an epidemic.

Many international medical relief groups focus their efforts on controlling epidemics by providing adequate medical training, professionals and equipment. Listed below are some of the international medical relief groups that are working toward ending epidemics.

Medical Teams International

Medical Teams International is a Christian-based international relief group that has been using medical humanitarian aid to help end epidemics. The group works by delivering medical supplies and trained volunteers to areas in need. The mission of the group is to provide medical, dental, humanitarian and holistic relief to diverse areas without discrimination.

For over 25 years, Medical Teams International has been providing relief for refugees in impoverished and war-torn countries. For example, in 2017 the United Nations declared a famine in South Sudan as a result of the civil war that has been ongoing since 2013. Shortly after the declaration, Medical Teams International dispatched massive relief efforts to combat the Cholera and Malaria epidemics.

Currently, Medical Teams International has provided medical humanitarian aid to over 520 thousand Sudanese refugees, severely curving the disease epidemics in that area.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

Medecins Sans Frontieres, also known as Doctors Without Borders, is one of the most well known international medical-based relief groups in the world. For over 45 years, the group has dispersed trained medical professionals and medical humanitarian aid across the globe. Medecins Sans Frontieres is also on the cusp of many medical initiatives in impoverished countries.

Medecins Sans Frontieres is known for tackling large disease outbreaks and epidemics in poor and dangerous areas. In 2017, Medecins Sans Frontieres dispatched relief efforts to Uganda after the country was declared in a state of humanitarian emergency. The group focused its efforts on the recent Cholera outbreak spreading through Uganda, setting up multiple Cholera clinics to help treat and prevent the spread of Cholera to other refugees in Uganda.

Direct Relief

Direct Relief is another nonprofit humanitarian aid organization that primarily focuses on medical relief to devastated areas. The goal of the organization is to provide proper and comprehensive medical aid for impoverished areas and emergencies. In 2017, Forbes ranked Direct Relief among the top United States charities.

Over the past five years, Direct Relief has provided medical humanitarian aid to over 80 countries, many in Africa and South Asia. They have supplied over two thousand healthcare facilities and have sent billions of U.S. dollars worth of medical equipment and supplies.

These international organizations and many more have worked hard to make medical humanitarian aid more accessible to impoverished countries. Many epidemics that have started due to unsafe food, unsafe water and a generally poor environment have been contained and even eliminated by medical humanitarian aid. These organizations believe that with the right aid and volunteers, diseases around the world can be eradicated.

– Courtney Wallace

Photo: Flickr

The Water Crisis and the Top 10 Clean Water Solutions

Worldwide, 844 million people do not have access to clean water, meaning that one in nine people are living with water unsafe for human consumption. This is referred to as The Water Crisis.

The Water Crisis surpasses its effect on global health by affecting children, education, economics and women. Every 90 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease. Children are often tasked with collecting water for their families, taking time away from education opportunities. School attendance increases with increased access to clean water.

Globally, there is a $260 billion deficit each year due to lack of basic water and sanitation. With the provision of clean water, time and effort previously spent collecting water can refocus on other opportunities. Universal access to basic water and sanitation could result in a $32 billion reduction in healthcare costs.

Women are disproportionately affected by The Water Crisis, as they spend an estimated six hours collecting water every day; this time could be spent on education, family life and work.

The water crisis and its detrimental effects can be resolved with the provision of basic water and sanitation; this resolution can be reached with the top 10 clean water solutions.

Top 10 Clean Water Solutions:

1. Educate: Educate the population to change consumption and lifestyle habits.
2. Innovate and Conserve: Water sources, such as aquifers and rainwater, are prone to evaporation and unpredictability. The invention of new water conservation techniques will counteract this issue.
3. Recycle: Recycling wastewater decreases water imports and encourages self-sufficiency in developing countries.
4. Agriculture and Irrigation: Approximately 70 percent of the world’s freshwater is used for agriculture. Improving agriculture and irrigation practices can appropriately distribute clean water for human consumption.
5. Water Catchment and Harvesting: Areas without clean water rely on water catchment systems. Efforts to establish water harvesting systems provide independent control of resources.
6. Infrastructure: Poorly managed infrastructure devastates the economy by wasting resources, increasing costs, diminishing quality of life and facilitating the spread of water-related diseases. Improved infrastructure conserves resources and enhances quality of life.
7. Water Credit: The Water Credit Initiative utilizes microfinancing to provide affordable loans to those who require additional help in establishing clean water solutions.
8. Water Equity: Water Equity relies on social impact investing to increase funds for water and sanitization loans.
9. New Ventures: New Ventures funds research and development of new approaches to The Water Crisis.
10. Global Engagement: Global Engagement is the foundation for lasting change on local and international levels

Although these are the top 10 clean water solutions, they are not the only solutions to The Water Crisis. Clean water access improves health, education and work opportunities for families across the world.

– Carolyn Gibson

Photo: Flickr

What Is PATH and How Does it Improve Global Health?

The Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) is an international, nonprofit organization that is a leader in innovating global health solutions. The program’s aim is to bring about effective and cutting edge technologies and products to underserved areas of the world and to work toward providing major healthcare needs. PATH works closely with partners around the world to bring passion and innovation to solving these problems and to scale them on a global level.

PATH has five primary vehicles of innovation, being:

1. Vaccines, which are developed to be quickly deployed to where they are needed most. Using its own Center for Vaccine Innovation and Access, PATH brings in top innovators from around the world to work on vaccines at every stage – from testing and producing to deployment technologies that promote safe usage.
2. Drugs, where PATH works closely with partners to provide affordable medicines targeting low income countries. This allows life-saving medicines to be accessible by more people and more quickly where they are needed most.
3. Diagnostics, which are an integral part of managing people’s health, is hugely developed by PATH. It is creating and implementing fast-acting, single use “point‑of‑care” diagnostic exams in order to get fast results when time matters and to ensure sterility.
4. Devices, which PATH helps accelerate, are primarily focused on sterilization. Water, air, food and medical supplies all need to be clean in order to be effective and safe. This is where PATH steps in, reinforcing markets for water sanitation products, developing sterilization devices and making all of these available to areas without access.
5. System and service innovations, which involves working with the current infrastructure, or, as in many cases, strengthening the currently standing one to allow the flow of medical innovations from suppliers to the local communities in need. Included in this is the training of local personnel where there are shortages and providing them access to digital aid to help local medical systems.

PATH works hard to take the most innovative medical solutions available to countries that need it most, and in many cases, develops its own solutions to issues as well. By strengthening methods that give people access to important medical supplies, medicine, newer technologies and practices, PATH is an important ally in underserved areas.

– Rebekah Covey

Photo: Flickr

Increased Tobacco Control Methods Implemented Globally

The World Health Organization found that the number of countries implementing tobacco control policies has quadrupled since 2007. Today, 63 percent of the population is covered by tobacco control methods. Tobacco control methods may come in the form of advertising bans, restricting smoking in public areas and other limitations on the use of tobacco.

One in 10 deaths around the world is caused by tobacco, and deaths caused by tobacco are entirely preventable. Tobacco-related illnesses also place a large burden on the healthcare system; each year the cost of healthcare and productivity loss due to tobacco is $1.4 trillion. Economic productivity is also impacted by tobacco use. Premature death and disability due to tobacco decreases the size of the workforce and potential output of a country.

The burden of tobacco-related deaths is higher in developing countries. More than 80 percent of deaths caused by noncommunicable disease, such as heart and lung disease, occur in low and middle-income countries. Tobacco is the leading risk factor for noncommunicable diseases. People of lower economic status and education levels often use tobacco at higher rates than people in a higher economic class.

The World Health Organization created the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to lay out methods for governments to limit tobacco use. Published in 2005, this was the first international public health treaty negotiated by the WHO. This framework puts forth the MPOWER tobacco control methods that aid governments in monitoring tobacco use and prevention policies, protecting people from tobacco smoke, warning people of the dangers of tobacco and enforcing bans on tobacco.

Since the framework was published many countries have taken action to reduce the prevalence of tobacco in their population. For example, after monitoring tobacco use within the country, Nepal placed the largest health warnings on tobacco packages; the warnings cover 90 percent of the package. In India, a survey showed that one in two tobacco users wanted to quit. India created a program and toll-free quit line in 2016 to support and encourage those who wanted to quit. The Philippines passed the Sin Tax Reform Law in 2012, which taxed tobacco products. A followup survey in 2015 showed that there were far fewer smokers in the country.

Today, one-third of countries monitor tobacco use. More countries need to design policies to measure tobacco use; these plans will help countries promote overall health and save healthcare costs. Upon gathering data, governments can create tailored and successful programs to reduce tobacco use.

– Sarah Denning

Photo: Flickr

How Students Plan to Reduce Neonatal Mortality in Nigeria

The winning team in Northwestern University’s 4th Annual Global Health Case Competition proposed a sustainable, long-term health plan in the form of a “birth kit” to reduce neonatal mortality in Nigeria.

Every day, nearly 2,300 Nigerian children under the age of five lose their lives. According to UNICEF, essential medical care during childbirth and the weeks following would have prevented most of these deaths.

Neonatal mortality in Nigeria constitutes a quarter of deaths among children under five. A majority of these deaths occur within the first week after birth and are caused by birth asphyxia, infection and premature birth.

On Feb. 18, 2017, Northwestern conducted its annual health case competition. For the fourth year, the university invited students to propose solutions to a 21st-century global health challenge to raise awareness and encourage innovative thinking. The 2017 competition included six teams consisting of five students each from different schools.

The 2017 case centered around neonatal mortality in Nigeria and the implementation of chlorhexidine, an inexpensive and effective antiseptic gel. Severe infection and sepsis, an immune response to bacterial infection in the bloodstream, are two of the leading causes of neonatal death in Nigeria. The students’ assignment involved integrating chlorhexidine into “Nigeria’s healthcare institutions, culture, and maternal care regime.”

The winning team’s three-year implementation plan centers around a “birth kit,” which includes the chlorhexidine gel and other materials essential for home births. The umbilical cord is a common entry point for infectious diseases, so the gel would be used to sanitize and protect mothers and their newborns. Sustainability was the team’s focal point. They proposed a partnership with a nonprofit to help cooperatively create a demand for the birth kit, then slowly normalize chlorhexidine in Nigeria’s childcare culture.

Courtney Zhu, a member of the winning team and a sophomore studying journalism and global health, said, “From this experience, I gained insight into the mechanism of tackling modern health challenges, and realized just how valuable collaboration is in a multidimensional field like global health.”

– Madison O’Connell

Photo: Flickr