CGDev Lecture – Achieving an AIDS Transition: Preventing Infections to Sustain Treatment (video)

by ihsection, posted in Information and Social Media


Mead Over presents his latest book, Achieving an AIDS Transition: Preventing Infections to Sustain Treatment. As one of the leading health economists focused on the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Over is well-placed to propose solutions to the widening gap between funding and persons needing treatment for AIDS. As it stands today, there are two new infections each year for every individual enrolled in treatment. This book presents the AIDS Transition–lowering new infections to reverse the upward trend in persons living with HIV–as a goal for all participants in the fight against HIV. He outlines steps that donors, policy makers and practitioners can take to successfully stem the tide of HIV by incentivizing prevention while sustaining treatment.

Global Health Vaccines: Shaping Policy to Accelerate R&D (ASTMH/GHC Lecture in Philadelphia, PA)

by ihsection, posted in Research

Featuring the 4th Annual Beth Waters Memorial Lecture
Date: Thursday, December 8, 2011
Time: 12:30-5pm
Location: Philadelphia Marriott Downtown
1201 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA
Franklin Hall 11 & 12

At Global Health Vaccines: Shaping Policy to Accelerate R&D, public and private stakeholders will examine current barriers to vaccine research and development, especially those that disproportionately affect vaccines for use in developing countries. Discussions will focus on regulatory issues, innovative financing and incentives, and partnerships. The event will serve as an opportunity for stakeholders to collaboratively identify common obstacles and propose unified solutions to stimulate vaccine R&D for global health vaccines.

Dr. Peter Hotez, President, ASTMH and Founding Dean, National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, will begin the summit by delivering the 4th Annual Beth Waters Memorial Lecture. This will be followed by an interactive panel discussion and breakout groups that will develop policy recommendations surrounding vaccine R&D issues. The recommendations will then be presented to all attendees for discussion.

This event is open to all ASTMH Annual Meeting registrants and Global Health Council members. Please register using the link below.

Lunch will be provided at 12:30pm and the Beth Waters Memorial Lecture will begin promptly at 1:00pm.
To register, click here: http://my.globalhealth.org/ebusiness/events/default.aspx?pid=573

Video: Children’s Global Health Initiative

by ihsection, posted in Information and Social Media

The vision of Children’s Global Health Initiative (CGHI) is to enable sustainable global health for children and their communities through education, training, clinical care and translational research.

Global Health TV travels to Phu Tho in Northern Vietnam to take a look at a new study by CGHI to improve nutrition for pregnant women by providing them with locally made, high protein food supplements.

Occupational Health – The Need to Go Global

by ihsection, posted in Environmental and Occupational Health, Guest Blog

Guest blogger: Dr. Isobel Hoskins

I never come away from the APHA meeting without being inspired.

This year, the inspiring speech for me came right at the end. I attended the closing session almost by chance when I realised I had a little time. The theme was occupational health so as someone keen on global health I didn’t think it would be all that relevant. When the second speaker took the stand I realised how wrong I was.

Leo Gerard from the United Steelworkers Union showed how health and safety is a global issue and exactly why we need to address occupational health worldwide to match the globalisation of trade. Have you ever thought about who made the clothing you wear, the conditions they work under and the impact that has on their health?

He showed a short video about the Triangle fire – a fire that happened in 1911 in New York at a garment factory. Fire broke out in the factory and panicked workers rushed to the two exits only to find them blocked by fire or locked. The workers couldn’t get out and in desperation some even threw themselves from the upper floors to escape the fire. 146 of them died. This event was one of the drivers of health and safety regulation in theUSA. Those workers were low paid and not allowed to unionise and so negotiate their conditions.

Fast forward to 2010. Gerard described a fire at a garment factory in Bangladesh and guess what? The exits were locked. 29 people died trying to get out, some threw themselves from the upper floors. No regulations prevented this accident in Bangladesh and there was no union to help protect the low paid workers.

Nothing has changed except the geography.

In the rush of globalization, developed country companies are getting round regulation at home by exploiting places where there is none. What does this mean for regulation at home? It means it is under pressure. We could lose all that has been gained since the Triangle fire. In the race to the bottom and the lowest prices, people’s health is being put on the line.

Trade regulations preventing import into the US of goods made in sweatshops or by children, for example, could be a way of forcing global companies to adopt safe working conditions, said Gerard. Having stronger more global unions is another way. Leo’s union the United Steelworkers Union has just gone global – forging partnerships and mergers with other unions worldwide.

Individually I think we can make a difference as well- reading the label and knowing the reputation of companies you buy from could help prevent exploitation. Consumers have power….

Triangle fire: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire
Bangladesh fire: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/14/bangladesh-clothes-factory-workers-jump-to-death

Dr Isobel Hoskins manages the Global Health database at CABI.

Another Disease in the Crowd? Pneumonia back in the spotlight on World Pneumonia Day

by ihsection, posted in Infectious Disease

Nearly every disease, cause, and social issue claims a calendar date for itself to raise awareness, from well-known causes such as HIV/AIDS and cancer to somewhat more obscure issues, such as parental alienation.  World Pneumonia Day, which was yesterday, is no exception.  It, like many others, came amid general fanfare, advocacy, and, well, awareness, but it will undoubtedly step back into the crowd of causes competing for attention and funding.

But should it?

In this climate of fiscal austerity, foundations and organizations competing for an ever narrowing stream of donor funding.  Times are tight, so each disease has to make its case, so to speak.  Without a doubt, all of them are worth funding, but none of them will get the funding they need.  The question, then, becomes one of priority: how do donors decide how to make their dollars count?

Pneumonia can make a compelling case for being at the front of the line.  It is simultaneously the world’s number one killer of children under five and one of the world’s most preventable diseases.  We have effective vaccines and proven interventions, including reducing indoor air pollution (which will also make the clean cookstoves people happy) and increasing breastfeeding during the first six months (which will make the breastfeeding advocates and MCNH people happy).

Unfortunately, the impact of pneumonia and the ease of treating it do not diminish the importance of other diseases.  Many NTDs, for example, are extremely debilitating and only cost of a few cents to treat.  Tuberculosis is re-emerging with a vengeance and frightening antibiotic resistance. And recent shortfalls in contributions to the Global Fund endanger the gains we have made against HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria.

So what is a cause to do? Own its awareness day and get the word out, which is precisely what the major players, like the GAVI Alliance and IVAC at Johns Hopkins, have done.  Dr. Orin Levine is making his usual rounds.  IVAC
has published a report card on the progress made by the 15 countries with the highest rates of childhood pneumonia, which examines their vaccination, treatment, and breastfeeding rates, in addition to progress in reducing pneumonia-related mortality.  Extra points for getting their recent
vaccine drive in Nicaragua on PBS, too.

I am no judge of which global health causes should be prioritized when it comes to funding – but then again, who among us is?  All advocates can do is make their own individual cases.  Let us hope that pneumonia can get the respect it deserves among the other worthy global health causes and not just go back to being another disease in the crowd after World Pneumonia Day.