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A diverse look at global health issues.

May 24, 2013 06:22

As Boston recovers from Marathon attack, emotional trauma may be just setting in

PTSD and related stress disorders can take weeks or months to develop — and local organizations are prepared to help.

 

BOSTON, Mass. — Traffic flows down Boylston Street toward the Public Garden, past scurrying shoppers and T-riders, no longer pausing before the faded signs and soggy sneakers in front of Trinity Church. Joggers dart in and around Back Bay with purpose, angling for escape to the Charles River and its stretched, smooth track of pavement. And crowds gather at watering holes around the city, cheering on the Bruins and Red Sox.

As stories about the Boston Marathon bombings have slid off the front page — and out of many Bostonians’ day-to-day thoughts — by many measures, the city has returned to normal. But for some of the thousands of athletes, fans, and emergency personnel on Boylston Street last month when two homemade bombs unleashed ball bearings, nails and absolute terror in the final blocks of the Boston Marathon, the magnitude of what happened on Patriot’s Day is just beginning to reveal itself. 

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May 17, 2013 16:31

Malaria fight at a ‘tipping point,’ experts tell Congress

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are urged to sustain US funding for fighting malaria.
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Admiral Timothy Ziemer, US Global Malaria Coordinator, at a hearing held by the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations. (Screengrab)

Leading global health experts told Capitol Hill lawmakers today that the fight against malaria is at a turning point, during a hearing on the US’ role in combating malaria globally.

The hearing was held today by the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations. 

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May 17, 2013 12:08

India clears path for new, more affordable rotavirus vaccine

A new vaccine may help the 100,000 Indian children under 5 who die annually of diarrhea, but scientists say that health systems must also be improved.
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Indian patients suffering from diarrhoea rest in a ward at the Community Health Centre in Dehgam town on May 15, 2013. (Sam Panthaky/AFP/Getty Images)

Scientists in India made news around the world on Tuesday when they announced that they had developed a low-cost vaccine that could prevent a severe form of diarrhea caused by rotavirus. 

Indian company Bharat Biotech International manufactured the vaccine, in collaboration with the Indian government and nearly a dozen Indian and international partners.

At $1 per dose (for three doses), the oral vaccine Rotavac is a fraction of the cost of existing rotavirus vaccines and could go a long way to reducing childhood mortality. Globally, rotavirus leads to 435,000 deaths of children under the age of 5 each year – an estimated 100,000 of which are in India.

Diarrhea is India’s third leading cause of under-five death, according to the World Health Organization, and scientists say that around 30 percent of diarrhea is caused by rotavirus.

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May 15, 2013 17:49

Child health highlights from WHO’s health statistics report

The 2013 World Health Statistics Report focuses on progress to health-related Millenium Development Goals.
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An Indian medical volunteer administers a dose of oral vaccine to a child during a national immunisation programme in Hyderabad on February 19, 2012. (Noah Seelam/AFP/Getty Images)

Today the World Health Organization published its annual World Health Statistics report, which presents the most recent health data for WHO member states and reports on countries’ progress toward the health-related UN Millennium Development Goals.

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May 7, 2013 16:38

Health of newborn babies key to reducing child mortality, report finds

Save the Children calls attention to newborn health and the slow progress in reducing newborn mortality.
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An Indian mother cradles her newborn daughter in a maternity ward at a public hospital in Nawanshahr in July 2012. According to Save the Children's "State of the World's Mothers" 2013 report, India accounts for 30 percent of all newborn deaths. (Narinder Nanu/AFP/Getty Images)

Nearly three million babies die within the first month of life – more than one million on the same day they are born – largely from preventable causes, according to a new report published today. 

Newborn deaths today account for 43 percent of all child deaths, up from 36 percent in 1990, the report said. The highest newborn mortality rates were in sub-Saharan Africa, where the number of newborns who died each year slightly increased in that time period. 

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May 2, 2013 15:01

Panel discusses future of US global HIV/AIDS policy

HIV/AIDS experts address findings of 2013 IOM report, the latest evaluation of PEPFAR.
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(Screengrab)

Experts addressed the future of US efforts to tackle HIV/AIDS abroad at a panel discussion earlier this week in Washington, DC. 

Convened by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ (CSIS) Global Health Policy Center, the event focused on the policy implications of a recent Institute of Medicine (IOM) evaluation of the US’ largest global health program, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). 

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April 30, 2013 10:05

Panel discusses the fight against malaria

A panel at the Harvard School of Public Health looked at why malaria is so hard to fight and the latest tools available to do so.
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An Anopheles funestus mosquito. (James Gathany and Frank Collins, University of Notre Dame/ CDC/Courtesy)

The Forum at the Harvard School of Public Health hosted a panel discussion about the fight against malaria and other mosquito-borne illnesses on Wednesday. 

Titled “Thwarting killer mosquitoes: The state-of the-art fight against malaria and west Nile virus,” the panel focused on why malaria is so hard to fight, challenges posed by resistance to anti-malarial drugs, the latest tools in mosquito control, and why it is important to sustain efforts to fight the disease even after malaria cases decrease.

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April 29, 2013 16:08

Q&A: Haiti readies rotavirus vaccine rollout

GAVI Deputy CEO Helen Evans spoke with GlobalPost about the rotavirus vaccine in Haiti.
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Bill Gates gives a child a rotavirus vaccine against diarrhea at the Ahentia Health Centre, in Awutu Senya district, in the Central Region of Ghana, on March 26, 2013. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation supports the GAVI Alliance, which increases access to vaccines around the world. With GAVI support, Haiti anticipates that it will roll out the rotavirus vaccine this summer. AFP PHOTO/PUIS UTOMI EKPEI (Puis Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images)

On Saturday, Haiti raised awareness about its plan to roll out the rotavirus vaccine, which prevents the most severe form of diarrheal infection among children.

Diarrhea is a top cause of death for children under five, killing an estimated 700,000 children each year. The infectious disease is the second leading cause of death among children in Haiti, according to UNICEF.

The GAVI Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing vaccines to poor countries around the world, was instrumental in facilitating Haiti’s rotavirus campaign.

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April 26, 2013 16:02

New study finds anti-HIV treatment may protect children’s hearts

Due to the use of new combination anti-HIV treatment therapy, children living with HIV today face fewer heart problems than in the past, a new NIH study finds.
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Children who now receive antiretroviral therapy have been shown to have about 40 percent less heart damage than children who received single drug or no treatment in the 1990s. (Paula Bronstein/Staff/AFP/Getty Images)

The combination drug therapy now used to treat children born with HIV-1 appears to protect against previously common heart damage, according to a new study published earlier this week.

The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), found that fewer HIV-positive children on today’s combination drug treatment had heart damage than those who participated in a study in the 1990s. 

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April 24, 2013 20:18

USAID Administrator testifies on Capitol Hill

Rajiv Shah addresses the budget for 2014, including global health, before the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
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US Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Rajiv Shah. (Chris Kleponis/AFP/Getty Images)

Global health was one of the budget lines discussed on Capitol Hill today in a congressional testimony from Dr. Rajiv Shah, administrator for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Shah appeared before the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations to address the agency’s priorities in the 2014 fiscal year.

In his opening remarks, he emphasized the importance of child health.

“We believe we can end preventable child deaths within two decades and are committed to that model,” Shah said, after explaining that USAID has had to make some “tough decisions” to cut 22 country programs in global health in order to prioritize those countries where the burden of disease is greatest. Shah added that USAID’s efforts have contributed to a reduction of under-five child deaths around the world, from 7.6 million to 6.9 million today.

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