Most Popular Global Health Posts
US Fears Feeding Terrorists, Delays Emergency Food Aid for Somalia
Published November 09, 2009 @ 04:27PM PT
The U.S. recently delayed emergency food aid to Somalia out of concerns that it would end up in the hands of terrorists. Now, the impact of the interruption is becoming clear and causing huge problems, with rations to starving people being cut. The decision in October to suspend millions of dollars worth of aid came due to fears that food and money was going to an Islamic insurgent group, with the U.S. assuring the UN that the delay would be brief.
But now the World Food Program has suggested “The food supply line to Somalia is effectively broken.” Food is stuck in Kenya until bureaucrats can decide better regulations — regulation that makes demands that the UN fear are unrealistic in such a chaotic environment like Somalia. The US donates almost $1 billion in aid to Somalia, but the distribution of this aid is only loosely monitored. The UN has communicated the urgency of the situation to USAID, but as I wrote yesterday, with USAID still lacking an administrator, the call may go unanswered. New mechanisms for distributions and monitoring must be constantly considered and reworked, but surely that can happen whilst aid is being delivered. This operation needn't shutdown completely to reboot with new regulations: millions of people rely on the US keeping the aid coming.
Photo credit: UN Photo/M Grant
Obama Still Hasn't Appointed Leader to US Agency for International Development
Published November 08, 2009 @ 05:36PM PT
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) still doesn't have a confirmed leader. Issues that need a full-time voice lack the volume necessary to really move the White Hosue. All five previous administrations appointed someone quicker than President Obama, and confirmation hearings need to happen within a month else USAID will have been left without an administrator for over year.
The Center for Global Development is appalled by the speed of the Obama Administration to appoint someone considering the huge importance of restoring America's standing in the world. Someone needs to be secure at the helm in order to fully consider how the US will execute its promises in global health, food security and even climate change/
A petition was started on Change.org back in August to get someone on board, but we still lack a leader. Back then we explained "An acting administrator just doesn't have the stature to guide the agency at a time of huge change for US foreign assistance." Now, nothing has changed, and the longer the post is left vacant, the more that international development will be neglected — it clearly isn't a priority at the moment and it should be.
Climate Change is Biggest Health Threat to Children of 21st Century
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.
Lower Fertility Rate is Improving the World in Incredible Ways
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.
Anti-Malarials Often Ineffective But Historic First Vaccine Could Save 500,000 a Year
Published November 03, 2009 @ 11:24AM PT
It's not just a lack of funding causing millions to die from malaria. Even where provision for anti-malaria medicine exists, too often it's ineffectual. But there is hope with a new vaccine.
ActWatch have just released a study of seven African countries which explains that most people were receiving ineffective anti-malarials. The study, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, found that the lack of quality medication is usually down to the high-cost and low-availability of the better drugs which can cost twenty times as much — up to 65 times the average daily wage in some of the studied countries. Dr Chevasse, Project Director of ActWatch, says that "this is ultimately what’s leading to the fact that most children in Africa are either not being treated at all for malaria - or they’re being treated with ineffective drugs."
So quite simply, even where malaria medication does exist, we've got to ensure it works. But there is hope due to a new vaccine which appears able to prevent malaria in 50% of children. This could account for an incredible 500,000 lives saved each year. When it passes final testing it will become the first vaccine against a human parasite. It will only prevent the African strain, but it's a huge leap forward in squatting malaria. Children, who are at high-risk, will be immunized and then left to develop a natural immunity as they grow older. Developing the vaccine has cost more than $500 million, funded in part by GlaxoSmithKline and ... you guessed it ... the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation who fund part of the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative. Even better news is that "pricing will never be a barrier to access for this vaccine" said GlaxoSmithKline.
World Pneumonia Day 2009: Join The Fight
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
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.
