Climate Change is Biggest Health Threat to Children of 21st Century

by Mike Smith

Published November 06, 2009 @ 09:24AM PT

Climate change could kill up to 400,000 children a year. That's the assessment of Save The Children who explain that not only will does climate change represent a huge global health problem that will kill hundreds of thousands every year, but it's singled out as the biggest health threat to children in the 21st century. Save the Children estimate that up to 175 million a year will be effected as natural disasters increase over the next decade.

There of course is no-one immune to climate change, and no immunization being developed, or hopes that the Gates Foundations can step in and fund research to diagnose the causes. We know the causes, and know some things to can do to fight it. We are relying on governments to pass strong climate change legislation, cut emissions, and help the developing world do the same. If this doesn't happen, deaths by diarrhea will increase to kill an extra 100,000 kids every year, whilst malnutrition, which today effects 178 million, will hit another 25 million children by 2050.

Photo credit: suburbanbloke

Lower Fertility Rate is Improving the World in Incredible Ways

by Mike Smith

Published November 05, 2009 @ 06:59PM PT

Climate change, hunger and malnutrition, women's rights, war and conflict are all causes in which the situation is likely to dramatically improve should global fertility rates continue to decrease. Soon a milestone will be reached as "only half of humanity will be having only enough children to replace itself," writes the Economist. We aren't going to disappear as a race, oh no, but population growth is likely to slow and with it more people will enjoy a higher standard of living at no-one's expense. More pairs of hands won't be needed to improve your family's chances of survival, and the incentives to having a large family will decrease.

Incentives will change as more people live in urban areas, close to schools, markets, and factories. Women will work more, and education will increasingly need be funded — both will lead to smaller families. Family planning improves things further.

This won't happen for at least another generation, not quick enough for us to disregard changing how much we are destroying and polluting the planet. But creating a lower population helps: it's five times cheaper than conventional solutions to combating climate change. Quite simply fewer feet mean a smaller footprint. A smaller population won't weigh so heavily on Earth, especially for those least able to shoulder the burden.

Photo credit: UN Photo/John Isaac

World Pneumonia Day 2009: Join The Fight

by Mary Beth Powers

Published November 02, 2009 @ 06:06AM PT

Pneumonia is preventable and treatable; so why does a child die from pneumonia every 15 seconds? Today is the first World Pneumonia Day, and Save the Children is taking action to protect children from a disease that takes nearly 2 million lives each year – that is one child every 15 seconds. Every day in 40 countries around the world we work with parents and community health workers to provide these children with the medicine and expertise to help children survive pneumonia.

Why all the effort around the first World Pneumonia Day? It's not just the toll that pneumonia takes on children that has created an organized movement to combat this life-threatening infection. It's the fact that affordable, effective treatments exist but children in developing countries are not getting them. This is both heartbreaking and frustrating.

Many low-income countries have developed effective health strategies for protecting children from pneumonia and other childhood illnesses. Where hospitals and health clinics are beyond the reach of families, community health workers are trained to diagnose and treat pneumonia and other childhood illnesses in their own communities.

Consider 1-year old Marta who lives with her family in a Mayan community in the highlands of Guatemala. She came down with pneumonia when she was 7 months old. Her grandfather took her to the community health worker, Juan Lux, who quickly diagnosed Marta with pneumonia and gave her a dose of antibiotics. But Marta was still not out of danger and Juan referred her to the nearest hospital -- an hour-long walk over the mountains to catch a bus for the 19-mile trip to the hospital. (And on those treacherous mountain roads, 19 miles is a long, long trip!) Marta was hospitalized, treated with antibiotics and is now doing fine.

Marta is one of the lucky ones: Lucky because her grandfather sought help quickly. And luckier still because Save the Children had trained and equipped Juan Lux to provide health care for children in their little village. Without his correct diagnosis, proper treatment and referral, Marta might not have survived.

Now we are asking you to join this fight by going to www.missionpneumonia.org and getting the facts about childhood pneumonia. Should you accept your mission, this site will provide you with opportunities to make a real world difference by:

• Recruiting friends, family and colleagues to play www.missionpneumonia.org by sharing on Facebook, Twitter and email with different facts about pneumonia and the obstacles family and community health workers face
• Signing our petition to Congress on the Newborn, Child and Mother Survival Act. Show your elected officials that you support expanding the reach of life-saving tools – vaccines, antibiotics and trained health workers – to more mothers and babies in poor countries.
• Helping to provide the supplies and training Community Health Workers around the world need to help diagnose and fight pneumonia.

Our mission doesn't end with World Pneumonia Day, but it can make a strong step in the right direction. Even as I sit at my computer writing this blog post, I know that health workers like Juan Lux are making rounds in remote villages, checking the progress of sick children and following up with their parents. This makes me hopeful that we can save millions more lives by making affordable health measures to the poorest children and by bringing health care closer to children's homes.

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Ecuador Breaking 2,000 Drug Patents, Big Pharma Says No Problem

by Mike Smith

Published November 01, 2009 @ 06:16PM PT

Ecuador are breaking drug patents left, right, and center, bypassing patents on 2,000 drugs "in order to produce them locally or buy cheaper versions elsewhere." And that's not the most interesting bit: 14 of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies accept the decision. So why is big pharma happy for this to happen?

Well, it's legal, so they have little option but to agree.

"We accept the democratic decision... to legally implement this extraordinary measure ... No legal right is superior to the requirements of public health," the companies explained. Under rules agreed by the World Trade Organization, Ecuador is also on solid ground internationally. And they aren't just stealing. WTO rules allow countries to issue "compulsory licenses" to disregard patents. But, and here's the crux, this can only ordinarily happen after negotiating with patent owners and compensating them through royalty payments. But if a national emergency was declared, Ecuador wouldn't even have to negotiation with the pharmaceutical companies. This time around negotiations did occur.

Ecuador join Brazil, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia in the issuing of a "compulsory license" for the importing of certain drugs. Industry groups are eager for this not to happen too often, with Thailand landing itself on a US copyright watch list for its disregard of patetns. But when public health is such a huge concern, this is hardly top of their priorities.

Photo credit: Yamil Salinas Martínez

Save A Village, Learn About World Pneumonia Day

by Mike Smith

Published October 30, 2009 @ 01:56PM PT

Want to learn about Pneumonia? Well it's World Pneumonia Day on Monday, so whether you want to or not, you should: Every fifteen seconds a child dies of pneumonia. In global health terms it doesn't receive the sort of status it deserves — it is not enough of a priority on the global health agenda.

Go and learn about pneumonia with Save the Children's game and interactive quiz — work your way around the map learning about pneumonia and help 'cure' each village. After completing each quiz Save the Children explain the work they're doing to help fight pneumonia. Here's some of what I learned: Pneumonia effects children all around the world, those infected with HIV are more susceptible, with poor nutrition also contributing to the disease. Good hygiene can help prevent pneumonia, but most frightening is that pneumonia kills more children than Aids, malaria and measles combined. Save The Children set up the game to raise awareness by testing your awareness, and helping you learn too.

Pneumonia is the "forgotten killer," and a million deaths a year could be prevented if more children received existing vaccinations. Don't take my word for it: Go and play the game and find out for yourself, or jump straight into the success stories, with Save The Children's contribution saving hundreds of thousands of lives.

Photo credit: Save The Children

Obesity Spreads to Developing World, Bigger Killer Than Being Underweight

by Mike Smith

Published October 29, 2009 @ 06:17AM PT

Focusing on five health factors could prevents millions of premature deaths, extending global life expectancy by five years the World Health Organization explained this week. A report explains that poor childhood nutrition, unsafe sex, high blood pressure, alcohol, and bad sanitation and hygiene are responsible for 60 million premature deaths.

One of the most startling parts of the report explains that obesity and being overweight causes more deaths worldwide than being underweight. Even worse, though smoking and obesity is one of the main causes of premature deaths in the developed world, these problems are increasingly occurring in the developed world. Reuters report the morbid death statistics: "high blood pressure (responsible for 13 percent of deaths globally), tobacco use (9 percent), high blood glucose (6 percent), physical inactivity (6 percent), and obesity or being overweight (5 percent)."

The World Health Organization explain that the developing world is now experiencing a double burden — having to deal with poverty and under-nutrition, and increasingly facing simultaneous problems of obesity and high blood pressure. Had these issues been dealt with, life expectancy around the world would be a decade longer.

Photo credit: Nick J Webb

Gates Casts Himself as "Impatient Optimist" in Global Health Speech

by Mike Smith

category: Gates Foundation

Published October 28, 2009 @ 06:19PM PT

Bill and Melinda Gates continue to raise their voices for global health asking the U.S. government to expand its initiatives, specifically targeting child birth deaths. They're hoping to reduce deaths by one third. The Gates Foundation explained that they would not able to accomplish this goal without the help and resources of the U.S. government. They're hoping to also expand program of immunization and step up the fight against malaria.

On Tuesday Bill and Melinda Gates delivered a major speech which explained that they are "Impatient Optimists." They continue to emphasize the Living Proof project, highlighting individual examples of where U.S. money has improved lives, not just statistics, but millions of individual lives that have been saved and improved.

Global Health isn't just one of Bill and Melinda Gates' pet projects, they've invested heavily themselves, and now are asking for government support, explaining that the investments they propose provide "America's best investment for saving lives." In addition to the speech, Bill and Melinda Gates met with Congressmen, policy makers, and administration officials, demanding that the progress made during the Bush administration not fall victim to budget cuts, and instead be expanding. With the world's richest couple of Global Health's side, we too have an opportunity for some optimism.

Photo credit: World Economic Forum