Watch Global Pneumonia Summit Live Right Now

Nov 2nd, 2009 5:20 PM EST
By Virginia Simmons

Today is World Pneumonia Day and you can watch the Global Pneumonia Summit live right now.

Child advocates from around the world are gathering in New York City to hear the latest on how we can raise the profile of child pneumonia and get policymakers everywhere to act.

Speakers include:

• Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University and Special Advisor to the United Nations’ Secretary-General
• Singer-songwriter and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Angélique Kidjo
• ABC News’ senior health and medical editor Dr. Richard Besser
• WHO and UNICEF present a new report, the Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia, which provides a road map for preventing and treat child pneumonia in the world’s poorest countries.
• And leading global health experts, philanthropists, faith-based leaders, corporate representatives and child advocates to begin to change the way the world responds to the #1 killer of children—pneumonia.

WHO says all children should receive a vaccine to prevent diarrhea

Jun 8th, 2009 2:32 PM EST
By Lisa.Fleisher

The World Health Organization’s expert advisory panel on immunizations announced today that all children should receive a vaccine that can prevent a severe type of diarrhea and vomiting caused by the rotavirus.

Every year, 600,000 children die from severe diarrhea caused by rotavirus around the world.  Although most of these deaths occur in developing countries, rotavirus also afflicts children in the developed world.  In the United States, 55,000 children are hospitalized because of rotavirus infections every year. 

Research to determine whether the rotavirus vaccine is safe and effective in countries with high child mortality has proven successful: cases of severe diarrhea were reduced after administration of the vaccine.  Funded by the GAVI Alliance, and conducted by PATH, WHO, and GlaxoSmithKline, as well as many research institutions in South Africa and Malawi, this research “clears the way for vaccines that will protect children in the developing world from one of the most deadly diseases they face,” said Dr. Tachi Yamada, President of the Global Health Program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

As one of the diseases that causes the greatest number of deaths and illness in the developing world but receives little attention and resources, the prevention and treatment of diarrheal diseases is a priority area for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  Their work involves funding research to determine the causes of diarrheal disease in developing countries, supporting the development of a vaccine, including the rotavirus vaccine, and efforts to develop medicines and other treatments for diarrheal disease.

Delivering the rotavirus vaccine with a package of other essential interventions including improving water and sanitation to children in need in Africa and Asia will be critical for reducing child mortality.

-Lisa Fleisher

Back to the Basics

Oct 15th, 2008 12:11 PM EST
By Nora Coghlan

Government ministers and global health advocates from across the world are making their way to Almaty, Kazakhstan this week to focus on primary health care. The summit marks the 30th anniversary of the Alma-Ata Conference, which took place in the Kazakhstani city before the collapse of the USSR.

In the years since 1978, Alma-Ata has become somewhat of a hallmark and source of nostalgia in global health circles. The conference was the first of its kind to put the concept of health equity on the international agenda. Aiming to launch a campaign for health for all, attendees laid out their vision of primary health care. Identifying health as a fundamental human right, they argued that health care should not only be universal and affordable, but should be delivered in collaboration with local citizens in a way that is appropriate to the context.

These tenets were laid out in the Alma-Ata Declaration, which gave countries and international organizations a target date of 2000 for implementation.

Thirty years later the ideals of Alma Ata are far from being realized. Here at ONE, we know the stats on the global health deficit all too well: over 9 million children die before their fifth birthday every year from preventable, treatable causes; half a million mothers die every year during childbirth. While many at the time branded Alma-Ata and utopian, in retrospect its failure was more a result of unforeseen social and economic challenges that shaped the global health landscape of the 1980s and 1990s. WHO Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan, speaks to this in a recent article featured in the Lancet:

Nor could the visionary thinkers in 1978 have foreseen world events: an oil crisis, a global recession, and the introduction, by development banks, of structural adjustment programs that shifted national budgets away from the social services, including health…The emergence of HIV/AIDS, the associated resurgence of tuberculosis, and an increase in malaria cases moved the focus of international public health away from broad-based programs and towards the urgent management of high-mortality emergencies.

(more…)

WHO Warns that Climate Change May Worsen Health Crises

Apr 7th, 2008 2:34 PM EST
By Nora Coghlan

In commemoration of World Health Day, Dr. Margaret Chan, the director of the World Health Organization, warned that climate change stands to exacerbate health crises in the world’s poorest communities.

Reuters reported:

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said that new patterns of global rainfall, droughts and storms could accelerate the spread of diseases such as malaria and dengue fever in some regions, creating serious problems for poor nations.
“The climate change-sensitive diseases and conditions are already creating huge burdens in many countries… The impact of climate change can act as an amplifier,” she told a news conference in Geneva, where the United Nations agency is based.

Confronting the health challenges from global warming will require concerted efforts to forecast changing weather patterns, fight mosquitoes and other disease-spreading bugs, distribute vaccinations and boost medical coverage, Chan said.

In sub-Saharan Africa, projections indicate that changing climate patterns will have serious implications on agricultural productivity, water availability and human health.

-The areas suitable for agriculture, the length of growing seasons and the yield potential of food staples are all projected to decline- some African countries could see agricultural yields decrease by 50% by 2050 and crop net revenues could fall by as much as 90% by 2100.

-Rising temperatures can alter runoff patterns and increase water evaporation rates, which can severely reduce the availability of water. By 2020, an additional 75-250 million people in Africa are projected to be exposed to increased water stress due to climate change.

-Previously malaria-free highland areas in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi could experience modest incursions of malaria by the 2050s, with conditions for transmission becoming highly suitable by the 2080s. In total, an additional 260-320 million people worldwide could be living in malaria infested areas by 2080.

While these trends and events can not be attributed solely to climate change, they are the types of challenges that will become more frequent and intense with increasing climate variation.

Read about World Health Day 2008: Protecting Health from Climate Change

Read more about how climate change will impact sub-Saharan Africa.

-Nora Coghlan