Carolyn Worthge and Adeela Tajdar “shine a light” on a new faith campaign against malaria.
Sometimes, it’s hard for us to believe that something as small as a mosquito can be responsible for a child’s death, but the reality is that half the world’s population is at risk of getting bitten by a malaria-infected mosquito every day. Although this deadly disease is entirely preventable and treatable, we lose a child to it every 60 seconds. Nearly 655,000 lives are lost each year, mostly children under the age of five and pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa.
These numbers can be hard to comprehend, but they are real. For both of us, our time studying and volunteering in West Africa and sub-Saharan Africa had a profound impact on our lives; it has helped bring these statistics to life and place them in context. The lessons we learned helped to plant a seed of passion in our hearts, moving us to strive to live true to the common call in our religions to work with our brothers and sisters, wherever in the world they are.
In November 2011, a team from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) visited Zambia to produce a video on vaccination efforts -– their value, their implementation and the challenges they face. In the current global environment of austerity and ever-decreasing budgets, immunizations represent one of the pillars of global health that is a cost effective, proven intervention.
ONE pulled a lot of legs yesterday. We launched our new spot “I Predict” across the web and in an April Fool’s Day email to our members with a series of crazy predictions for what could happen by 2015 — “kittens will be banned from YouTube,” “Charlie Sheen will be president,” “fax machines will make a comeback.” We got your attention. Now we want you to act to support the one prediction that can actually come true: the beginning of the end of AIDS.
Calling all thespians! Drama for Life, an HIV/AIDS awareness theater program out of Johannesburg’s Wits University, is now accepting applications from African artists to participate in their summer 2012 Sex Actually Festival. The boldly named festival, scheduled for Aug. 23 to Sept. 1, brings together activists and artists (and activist-artists) from across the continent who have a common purpose: using the stage to put a human face on HIV/AIDS.
Even for those of us who can’t apply, the festival stands as a reminder that amid all the statistics, HIV/AIDS remains first and foremost a human issue, sitting at the busy crossroads of sex, sexuality, gender, human rights, and health. While antiretroviral therapies (ARTs) save millions of lives by actively suppressing development of the virus, programs like those featured at the Sex Actually Festival work to evaluate, decipher, and appreciate the disease’s cultural complexities.
ONE member and Peace Corps volunteer Brandon Green will be sharing his experiences in Burkina Faso with ONE Blog readers in the series, “Back to Africa” over the next few months.
In honor of World TB Day, Ive decided this year to share the fact that I have TB, previously only my immediate family and very close friends knew. Its not that great a story in the least. But at least it shows that its possible to get treatment and its ridiculous that people are dying from this.
I remember the day I was diagnosed with it. In order to become a Peace Corps volunteer, I had to go through an extensive medical exam that took months of filling out paperwork and taking different kinds of tests, one of which was for TB. I remember the fear I felt. Not only was I afraid this disease would keep me from getting into the Peace Corps but I also knew that TB is one of the leading killers in the world. In fact, every minute, three people die of TB.
Brandon Green and some of his students in Burkina Faso
Tuberculosis is a disease that primarily attacks the lungs but can also attack other parts of the body. Once I was diagnosed, I had a chest x-ray to see if my TB was latent or active. Active TB shows symptoms such as a chronic cough and may eventually lead to death. Only active TB is contagious through contaminated saliva in the air. Mine was latent. That means I am infected but show no symptoms and am not contagious. Only 1 in 10 people with latent TB become active. And without treatment, 50 percent of those will die.
Every year, malaria kills approximately 655,000 people—mostly children under the age of five. About 90% of all malaria deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, where a child dies of malaria every minute of the day. Yet, ten dollars is all it costs to protect a child against malaria. For only ten dollars, a bed net treated with insecticide can be purchased and distributed, and its recipients—primarily mothers and children—can be educated on how to use it.
Just a few decades ago, an HIV/AIDS diagnosis used to be a death sentence. Even when highly-effective treatment was newly available, it cost upwards of $10,000 per person—a way to stay alive, but financially far beyond the reach of the majority in need. Fortunately much has changed since then; thanks to negotiation and partnership, the drugs that make up life-saving antiretroviral treatment now cost as little as 40 cents per day. Antiretroviral therapy (ART), consisting of combinations of antiretroviral drugs, has saved millions of lives by suppressing the body’s viral HIV load and halting progression of the disease. ART is not a cure for HIV or AIDS, and the drugs must be taken every day for the rest of one’s life, but it can prolong the onset of illness and enable a person to live a healthy, productive life for many years.
Currently, there are 6.6 million people around the world receiving ART, up from about 300,000 people in 2003. The number of people on treatment in sub-Saharan Africa increased from 50,000 in 2002 to more than 5 million people in 2010. The Global Fund and PEPFAR, the two largest donors providing ART treatment, support nearly 5.6 million people on ART combined. Since the introduction of ART in the mid-1990s, an estimated 2.5 million AIDS-related deaths have been averted.
Right now, some of the world's biggest oil companies are fighting to keep some of their deals with foreign governments secret. Let's tell big oil we won't be bullied.
Cuts to poverty-fighting programs won't balance the budget, but they will set back progress on Canada's development priorities and risk jeopardizing existing investments.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
Just a few decades ago, an HIV/AIDS diagnosis used to be a death sentence. Even when highly-effective treatment was newly available, it cost upwards of $10,000 per person—a way to stay alive, but financially far beyond the reach of the majority in need. Fortunately much has changed since then; thanks to negotiation and partnership, the drugs that make up life-saving antiretroviral treatment now cost as little as 40 cents per day. Antiretroviral therapy (ART), consisting of combinations of antiretroviral drugs, has saved millions of lives by suppressing the body’s viral HIV load and halting progression of the disease. ART is not a cure for HIV or AIDS, and the drugs must be taken every day for the rest of one’s life, but it can prolong the onset of illness and enable a person to live a healthy, productive life for many years. 
