Call to Action on diarrheal disease

A "Call to Action" was released on the issue of diarrheal disease. Diarrhea remains the #2 cause of child death worldwide. It is both preventable and treatable. The solutions are inexpensive.

The Call has been endorsed by 90 reputable organizations (Partners in Health, UNICEF, PATH, Save the Children etc).

What will this Call do? Hopefully it will raise awareness which will ultimately turn into funding, policy-decisions and so forth. Here is the statement:



Over the last three decades, the global community has shown that it has the tools to dramatically reduce childhood death and illness from preventable and treatable diseases, such as diarrhea. During that time, for example, millions of children’s lives have been saved by protecting them against diarrheal disease and its consequences through proven and affordable solutions.

Yet diarrheal disease still unnecessarily takes the lives of more than 4,000 children daily, despite the fact that we hold in our hands more cost-effective and proven solutions for preventing and treating diarrhea than any other childhood illness. By increased and effective allocation of resources in a portfolio of improved treatment, nutrition, and water and sanitation interventions, we can help ensure that this common disease is no longer a leading killer of children in low-income countries.

We ask our leaders to consider the burden that diarrheal disease imposes on billions around the world and within their own countries, and to recognize that our investment in deploying solutions must be commensurate with the toll that diarrhea takes. To that end, we call upon donors, international health policymakers, national leaders, and the private sector to:
Invest the resources to ensure that funding for diarrheal disease, including both prevention and treatment interventions, is commensurate with the scope of the burden the illness places on families and communities around the world;
Redouble our commitment to reducing child mortality by 2015, as stated in the WHO/UNICEF joint statement on the Millennium Development Goals, with a focus on diarrheal disease as a strategy for clear and rapid progress towards that goal;
Invest in the research and development of new effective, appropriate and affordable prevention and treatment options for diarrheal disease;
Prioritize the implementation of an appropriate combination of diarrhea interventions, including improved water, hygiene and sanitation; optimal infant and young child feeding; increased access to and uptake of vitamin A, ORS and zinc and rotavirus vaccination;
Include diarrhea prevention and control in international, regional and country plans on sanitation, water and hygiene. Conversely, include sanitation, water and hygiene interventions in health efforts, and commit to strengthening health systems capacity to address the environmental determinants of diarrheal disease.

Video: Built to Last

Malaria vaccine: Phase 1 trial

Phase 1 trial of whole-parasite malaria vaccine to begin

According to this news bit:
"While most malaria vaccines in clinical development consist of recombinant or genetically engineered proteins that represent small portions of the parasite, Sanaria’s Plasmodium falciparum sporozoite vaccine candidate contains a weakened form of the entire malaria parasite. While unique to the malaria vaccine field, such live vaccines are used for other diseases including smallpox, polio, and measles. When the attenuated parasite is given to individuals, they are expected to become immune to malaria and not get sick."


You can read more about Clinical Trials at wikipedia.

Immunization week: Tetanus

See what you think about this approach to immunizations.
In the US we commonly immunize kids when they come in for Well Child visits. In other settings, however, immunizations are given in a coordinated 'swat team' fashion. Look especially at the different ways the message was given to the patients. Do you think this approach was effective?

An immunization week for tetanus elimination in Mauritania

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania, 18 May 2009 – It was 14-year-old Aichetou’s first time in the health centre in her small village. Her community received an invitation call via radio to attend the tetanus vaccination campaign being held at Lejouad, 200 km from Nouakchott.

Dr. Farmer and the US

We'll want to keep our eye on this one:

Harvard's Paul Farmer could oversee US global initiatives
By: James F. Smith - Boston Globe

We had the great honor of hosting Dr. Farmer on campus recently (you can see the video of his presentation here).

I was going to title this entry "Dr. Farmer and the World", but I think Dr. Farmer's greater challenge, if he does take on this role, will be how to interacts with US policy-makers and US sentiment. Our government has made some good movement in the right direction over the past decade on global health, and these have been more than simply placating steps. Dr. Farmer would have opportunity to propose at high levels (and potentially accomplish) some really big steps, but not without resistance.

I think Dr. Farmer is well-acquainted with resistance, however. This has not stopped him in the past. He is a rare individual whose rhetoric is astonishingly well-supported by his life's work.

Birth Certificates and Health

Here's something we may not think much about: birth certificates. But this news bit from UNICEF brings up an important point:

National campaign accelerates birth registration in Burkina Faso

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso, 13 May 2009 – In Burkina Faso, as in many developing countries, millions of children are still making their way through life impoverished, abandoned, malnourished and uneducated. Having gone unregistered since birth, they are in danger of being forgotten and denied access to essential social services.

We take birth certification for granted in the US. But as the article points out, is a very important step that most impoverished/developing countries cannot take, largely due to the administration burden that it presents. Just consider what is required to log all births, especially in rural areas where there is very little health system access. A system needs to be put in place that captures data on all the kids being born. And who pays for this system? Would you rather the government of an impoverished country spend their funds on providing education, health care, clean water and sanitation, birth certificates?

But without birth certificates there are very real problems and challenges. For example, last year 4 hurricanes ran through Haiti. The news reported some low number about the number of people who were killed. But I saw photos of more people that were killed than the news reported. Since there are no records of how many people ought to be accounted for, there is no good way to figure out how many people really died, how many people are missing, and so forth. From a health systems standpoint, as you work with a community you realize how important it is to have good records so that you can monitor for progress in your work.

The article does a nice job of summarizing some of these issues.

One Laptop Per Child

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is an organization that has been building a nifty laptop that is quite durable and has some incredible capability. Here's their mission statement:
To create educational opportunities for the world's poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning. When children have access to this type of tool they get engaged in their own education. They learn, share, create, and collaborate. They become connected to each other, to the world and to a brighter future.

This shows a Google Map of where the OLPC has already started to deploy:



View OLPC Deployments as of Feb 2009 in a larger map

Universal health care?

This is a news headline from today:

Businesses sign on to health care reform, Obama says

In the early 1990s US health care reform was unsuccessfully attempted. Now, however, it appears that it's not just politicians and 'common folk' who want to see health-care-for-all. Also from this same article, "Six major trade associations representing the drug industry, hospitals, insurers, medical device manufacturers, physicians and organized labor have signed on to the cost reduction commitment."

The major players appear to have something at stake. It's almost as if everyone has had an epiphany: spending 17% of our GDP on health care is no longer sustainable and will soon undercut the ability of various organizations and businesses to carry on as normal. Pharmaceutical companies are concerned, for example, because they are seeing that when people cannot afford health care, they simply do not buy the medications that they need. Not good for the patient; not good for the drug companies. Patients who lose insurance are more likely to go to the ER for their care, and when they do seek care it is often more advanced (read: expensive). This is bad for the patient, and for the hospital. And so on and so forth.

Red Cross/Crescent @ 150 years old

The Red Cross Red Crescent released a new website to bring awareness to some of the most pressing issues the world faces. It's got a pretty snazy look and once you enter the site there are more things to check out.

Here's a video from the site: