State of the World's Vaccines: Must Raise Coverage To Save Two Million Young Children

by Mike Smith

Published October 21, 2009 @ 08:04AM PT

Immunization is at its highest ever level, but we've still got work to do. That was the message of an important and comprehensive assessment by the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and the World Bank on the state of the world's vaccines and immunization (executive summary PDF here). It's presented as "a call to action to governments and donors to sustain and increase funding for immunization in order to build upon the progress made so far in meeting the global goals."

Immunization is essential to meeting Millennium Development Goal #4 of reducing deaths of children under five. In developing countries, millions of lives are being saved through immunizations. The next step that the WHO demand is to insure that vaccines already available are more widely distributed, with the hope to raise vaccine coverage to 90% by 2015, which would save the lives of two million young children. Immunization is one of the most cost effective health interventions. "The overall picture," the report concludes, "is one of cautious optimism, enthusiasm, energy, and dedication."

The press conference happened this money with hashtag #VAX2009. I've just skimmed the feed, and here are some highlights:

• Helen Evan, deputy CEO of GAVI, says that more manufacturers are making vaccines, creating more competition and lowering costs. @amanda4gavi
• Rakesh Nangia: Hard to reach kids: in many cases, vax are there, delivery systems are not. @DCScience
• Rakesh Nangia: Costs going up: $18 per child up from $3-$5, heading up to $30 per child as pneumo and others added. @amanda4gavi
• 2 new vaccines, pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines, could prevent 1.3 million deaths annually. @amanda4gavi

Photo credit: Cambodia4kidsorg

Rising Temperatures Aid The Plague's Comeback

by Mike Smith

Published October 20, 2009 @ 01:22PM PT

Is the plague making a comeback? Well it never went away, and unless we kill all rodents, it won't ever disappear completely. Drug resistant strains in Madagascar have scientists worried. Globalization, urbanization, and even climate change is helping the plague return. Scientists explained to Foreign Policy that "every 1 degree Celsius increase in the spring temperature, there's a whopping 60 percent increase in the incidence of plague among the gerbils that play host to Y. pestis." And let's not even go into the plague being spread by bioterrorism.

Every year about fifteen people in the U.S. contract the plague from the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis. Around the world, the number is around 2,000, killing 200. It's so dangerous that here on the Global Health blog earlier this year it beat Malaria in the Tournament of Pandemics, eventually losing out to Tuberculosis (which went on to win our morbid tournament, taking the crown of the most dangerous pandemic).

The take-away message is that a plague pandemic could get very bad, and you've got to take seriously a disease that once killed of a third of Europe's population. The good news is that face masks help slow the spread of plague, and drugs work to significantly reduce mortality. The potential recurrence of the plague is yet another reason to pass climate change legislation. How many reasons is that? I've got 290 so far.

Photo credit: Otisarchives2

"No Toilet, No Bride" Campaign in India is Good News For Health

by Mike Smith

Published October 19, 2009 @ 01:13PM PT

With more TV sets in India than toilets, toilets are increasingly providing a condition of marriage in India. With the gender imbalance putting women in the minority they've got more power to bargain in prenupital arrangements and they're using this leverage to their advantage. Following a "No Toilet, No Bride" campaign, 1.4 million toilets have been built in one of India's northern states by men eager to please potential wives. Soap operas have been pushing the message to the people, and this development is good news for public health.

Defecating in the open is a big cause of diseases, including diarrhea and polio. Each year over 1.5 million children die from diarrhea related diseases in Africa and south Asia. Along with better sanitation the World Health Organization explain urgent action that needs to be taken to reduce that number including improving water supply, vaccination, and promoting handwashing. Child deaths from diarrhea outnumber those from Aids, malaria and measles combined.

Photo credit: r000pert

Smart Cell Phones Help Diagnose TB and Save the World

by Mike Smith

Published October 16, 2009 @ 11:59AM PT

Smart cell-phones, with increasingly powerful processors, aren't just unnecessary Western indulgences, they're helping doctors everywhere from Bangladesh to the Philippines. Non profit organization Moca has created software that helps increase diagnosis time when patients are being tested for tuberculosis by reducing the time it takes to get x-rays to a radiologist.

This software, and many other similar innovations, has emerged from the NextLab at MIT, funded by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim. He hopes to bring mobile technology to those who fall outside the marketing plans of phone companies, and the organizations hopes that mobile technology can help change the world and have a positive impact on people's lives.

The popularity of cell-phones around the world is not question — the BBC recently explained that 40-50% of traffic to their Mobile News site comes from Africa. Now we need to continue thinking of ways to put these cellphones to good use.

Photo credit: Ken Banks, Kiwanja.net

Climate Change Is Undoing Global Health Progress

by Mike Smith

Published October 15, 2009 @ 07:40AM PT

Climate change will be felt the most by those least able to combat it: people in the developing world who already struggle. Emissions by the developed world is changing the climate, causing more extreme weather events and sea-levels rises that the developing world just won't be able to handle. Indeed, poorer nations will bear 75-80% of the cost of floods, desertification, and other disasters. Climate change is a huge problems for global health, fiercer for those already experiencing problems. With climate-related problems of malaria, malnutrition and diarrhoea adding even more billions to the global health bill, negating so much positive action.

Indeed, an increasing number of diseases, which peak in warmer months, are being attributed to the changing climate. Warmer weather has some positives: it may allow a little more food be grown in parts of Russia, but it will also bring longer droughts, famine and food shortages to the rest of the world: "2.7 billion people live in regions where climate change will interact with underlying economic, social and political problems, with a high risk of violent conflict." More wars, more famine, more disease. As we struggle to end all three, our work is being undone every year that we fail to take significant, international action to cut our dependence on fossil fuels, invest in renewable energy, and rethinking our destructive habits.

Governments can take the most significant action and make the biggest difference. Today, I'm joining with 9,000 blogs around the world as part of Blog Action Day to demand action on climate change, and right now I'm signing the action demanding Obama takes bold and significant action. Next year, I'll be reducing my emissions by 10%.

Photo credit: Silus Grok

US Creates Institute to Help Feed the World, But Growing Biofuels Will Negate Progress

by Mike Smith

Published October 14, 2009 @ 04:14PM PT

A new agricultural research institute launched by the Obama administration and the National Institute of Food doesn't sound like good news for global health, right? More research into how to feed ourselves even more food whilst so many miss out. Not so fast: Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack explains that the institute will be international and focus on "global food security and hunger, climate change, sustainable energy, childhood obesity and food safety."

Vilsack is hoping the research will allow U.S. agriculture to continue to compete internationally, whilst simultaneously working to end hunger. The hope is that this new institution will link industry, academia and non-profits with government efforts. It's a much needed push, with so many wondering how we will be able to feed the few billion more people that arrive on this planet by 2050.

But they've got it all backwards if they continue to invest in biofuels, as they plan to do as part of the new institute's work: "Obama has set ambitious but achievable goals for securing America's energy future from new domestic sources, including 60 billion gallons a year from biofuels by 2030."

This is a really bad idea if fighting hunger is a priority. Biofuels either require new arable be created (cutting down rainforest etc) or arable land used for food production is re-purposed in land for biofuels. Doing this in countries that suffer food insecurity and hunger (as often happens) is utter madness. And worse than that, the research indicates that biofuels actually produce more emissions than oil. The benefit of biofuels of course being that they cut our dependence on foreign oil.

So instead of polluting the world with C02, we're going to starve it. Great!

Photo credit: Sam Beebe / Ecotrust

Kristof: We Can Stop Women Dying In Childbirth, We Just Need More Money

by Mike Smith

Published October 13, 2009 @ 02:16PM PT

Sometimes it takes less than 140 characters to get the message across. In a tweet earlier today, Nicholas Kristof wrote: "Maternal mortality: 540,000 women die annually in childbirth, equivalent of 5 jumbo jets crashing a day." 89 characters that can provide a real shock.

The tweet was in reference to “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide,” a book co-written by Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, a former New York Times correspondent who works in finance and philanthropy. It was excerpted at length in the New York Times. In that piece they make an obvious point: we know how to avoid maternal mortality (it's 1 in 47,600 in Ireland, but 1 in 7 in Niger), it's just that "poor, uneducated women in Africa and Asia have never been a priority either in their own countries or to donor nations." Kristof is demanding action and aid to help save lives, advocating tried and tested methods that just need funding in order to make a real difference.

Photo credit: LaBelleVida