PATH
Check out this great news on rotavirus, courtesy of Candace Rosen at PATH (from PATH’s RotaFlash newsletter), which you all helped to support with your advocacy for GAVI last spring!
Diarrhea is the third biggest killer of children under five years of age in Zambia (40 per day; 15,000 each year), and rotavirus, the most common cause of severe and fatal diarrhea in young children, is responsible for nearly one-third of those deaths. As in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the region with the highest rates of rotavirus mortality worldwide, rotavirus contributes heavily to the tremendous drain on the health and economic resources in Zambia:
Approximately 41 percent of young children hospitalized for severe diarrhea are infected with rotavirus.
An estimated 4,506 children under age five die from rotavirus diarrhea annually.
Vaccines are the best way to protect children in Zambia and the rest of the world from severe rotavirus diarrhea and the deadly dehydrating diarrhea that it causes.
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Rachel Wilson, senior director of advocacy and public policy at PATH, explains why supporting foreign assistance not only saves and improves lives, but also improves morale here at home.
Rachel’s quilt patch
This year, I commemorated World AIDS Day at ONE and (RED)’s event in Washington, DC, where I listened to sitting and past presidents, members of Congress, corporate leaders, health workers from other countries, activists and even a few rockstars. At a time when every government cent is under scrutiny, I was reminded of just how far we have come in the fight against AIDS and many other diseases that disproportionately affect the developing world. I left the event feeling energized by the significant progress we have made and the leadership that has been shown by the US in addressing so many global health problems.
It wasn’t until I returned to my office and saw an email from a dear friend, who had chosen to stop taking the medication that is no longer protecting him against an ever-growing list of AIDS-related complications, that I was brought crashing back to reality. This juxtaposition between a community’s accomplishment and personal tragedy gave me pause. To be sure, we are winning the war against AIDS; but we also have a long way to go before we can declare victory.
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Marc LaForce, director of the Meningitis Vaccine Project at PATH, gives an update on the MenAfriVac rollout from Burkina Faso.
I had to return to Burkina Faso, one of the hottest countries in Africa, during one of the hottest months of the year. A surveillance team from the World Health Organization (WHO) was sending me weekly updates from the West African country. Still, I had to see for myself whether our ten-year effort to rid Africa of one of its most devastating diseases was succeeding.
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Mercy Ahun of the GAVI Alliance looks back on the horrible meningitis epidemics that hit her native country of Ghana. But thanks to a new vaccine, Ghana may be able to rid itself of the disease.
Growing up in a Ghanaian coastal village, the dry and dusty trade winds that blew in from the Sahara were associated with Advent, Christmas and happiness.
But as I moved inland with my work, they also became linked with meningococcal meningitis A (men A), Ghana’s most common form of meningitis, which brought major epidemics every eight to 12 years.
Men A strikes children and young adults suddenly, causing severe headaches, fever and a stiff neck. Patients can die within 48 hours.
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John Wecker, director of Vaccine Access and Delivery at PATH, calls for multilaterism in action to help protect children from deadly diseases.
The world has been watching a drama unfold in Libya as NATO struggles to create a functional multilateral partnership capable of delivering on the mission of protecting civilians. Clearly, mobilizing a complex, multicountry, multi-organizational alliance is hard work fraught with complications and unforeseen stumbling blocks.
While multilateral efforts cannot stop every political upheaval or the devastation of natural disasters, they can prevent the unnecessary deaths of millions of people. One of the best examples is the GAVI Alliance. As a person who works to bring lifesaving vaccines to vulnerable children around the world, I see how this committed multilateral partnership is quietly, yet profoundly protecting the world’s poorest children from the most deadly childhood diseases.
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Our friends at PATH are on an amazing mission to bring a new meningitis vaccine to Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Follow their stories on the ONE Blog as the journey unfolds.
Amadou Francois Dipama is a town crier. Every day between the hours of 3 and 6 p.m., he steadily traverses the streets of Saaba, Burkina Faso by bike or foot, doing the local version of the evening news.
Amadou François Dipama with his bullhorn.
For a small fee, Amadou, 54, will raise his bullhorn to his weathered lips, flip the switch, and, after a punishing blast of feedback, declaim items of interest to the people of Saaba. He might announce a show, a dance or a community meeting. Lately, he’s been talking about meningitis A.
All of the young people need to come get the vaccine, Amadou says.
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Alidou Ouedraogo, along with a drawing he made at school.
Our friends at PATH are on an amazing mission to bring a new meningitis vaccine to Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Follow their stories on the ONE Blog as the journey unfolds.
Alidou Ouedraogo can’t remember when meningitis stole his hearing. He frowns slightly as he watches his teacher’s fingers spell out the question in sign language. He gently touches his head, to indicate he’s thinking. Then he signs, “When I was very small.”
It’s been at least 16 years since Alidou recovered from meningitis, but not without experiencing one of its most common side effects: hearing loss.
Age 19 now, he began school at the Integrated Education and Training Center of Deaf and Hearers in his hometown of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso when he was three.
The school, which is known by its French acronym, CEFISE, is directed by Théresè P. Kafando, who helped her late husband build the school from 19 students in 1988 to about 3,500 today.
From the start, CEFISE has accepted an exuberant mix of deaf and hearing children on the theory that they help each other learn. Today, about 450 of her students are deaf, Madame Kafondo says. At least 80 percent of those students, she estimates, are deaf because of meningitis.
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