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Global Pulse

A diverse look at global health issues.

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Saving girls from senseless deaths

When Christy Turlington Burns learned about the global statistics on maternal deaths, she felt compelled to use her voice and resources to do all she could to prevent them.
Christy Turlington BurnsMay 21, 2012 13:37
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Model and maternal health advocate Christy Turlington Burns at the GBCHealth Conference in New York. (Whitney Kidder/Courtesy)

Christy Turlington Burns has established a diverse career as a model, writer, entrepreneur, spokesperson, advocate and filmmaker. In 2005, she became an advocate for maternal health for both CARE and RED. In 2010, she debuted her documentary film, "No Woman, No Cry," about the global state of maternal health, at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. Along with the film debut, she launched Every Mother Counts, a campaign designed to educate and support maternal, newborn and child health. 

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TB: A 'catastrophe' that needs a vaccine

There haven't been any new TB drugs for over 40 years. But an unlikely partnership between non-profits and a mining company may save thousands of lives in the search for a new vaccine.
May 16, 2012 17:05
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A medical worker is pictured at a mobile testing facility for tuberculosis (TB) at Driefontein Gold Mine in Carletonville, South Africa on March 24, 2012. (ALEXANDER JOE/AFP/Getty Images)

NEW YORK – In the gold mines of Southern Africa, the TB rates are among the highest in the world. Miners pass it with a simple cough. Or they harbor the TB bacterium and it becomes unleashed if they are infected with HIV; suddenly TB starts to destroy their lungs.

For every 100,000 workers in these mines, 3,000 have tuberculosis, and many have often-fatal, drug-resistant strains of TB.

The mines are breeding grounds for TB. But they also may become the ground on which to fight back.

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Talking about the end of AIDS

Business leaders join government and NGO representatives to discuss why it makes to much sense to invest in treatment.
May 15, 2012 10:42
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Young girls play cricket on November 25, 2011 in Laikipia, Kenya. Members of the Maasai Cricket Warriors team helped support the International Cricket Council's Think Wise awareness campaign, ahead of World Aids Day, by delivering HIV prevention messages to children. (Getty Images/AFP/Getty Images)

NEW YORK — Some 30 years after the discovery of the HIV virus, the talk around AIDS has changed dramatically in the last few months.

It’s all about the end game — even if major doubts exist in many corners about whether the talk is just that, and whether enough funds and political commitment can lead to a breakthrough.

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Delivering on delivery for Nepali mothers this Mother’s Day

The message of encouragement this Mother’s Day is that gains in dignity and the safety of delivery are possible in Nepal.
Mark ArnoldyMay 11, 2012 16:45
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Maternal mortality rates in Nepal are staggering, but with a little help from the government and NGOs, delivery doesn't have to be fatal for mothers. (Mark Arnoldy/GlobalPost)

Mark Arnoldy is the Executive Director of Nyaya Health, an organization committed to doing whatever it takes to build transparent, data-driven health systems for Nepal’s rural poor. Nyaya Health is hosting a Mother’s Day campaign to bring employment and safer delivery to mothers in Far-Western Nepal at mom.nyayahealth.org. 

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Guatemalan government attempts to curb malnutrition

Weekend activities can bring together activists with those in need to work together for a solution.
Tess TownsendMay 7, 2012 18:32
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Maria Lucas Lopez, 52, makes tamales over a fire in Huetancito, Guatemala. (Tess Townsend/GlobalPost)

QUETZELTENANGO, Guatemala — Ana Rosi Noviega Alanzo wanted to see how the other half lived.

Last weekend, the 21-year-old college student from Quetzeltenango, Guatemala's second largst city, was among 6,000 volunteers bussed out to Guatemala's most impoverished pueblos to spend the last weekend of April with families affected by malnutrition.

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Kenyans want AIDS windfall to stay in country

Activists point blame back at the US for unspent funding.
April 26, 2012 22:20
Kenya HIV AIDS demonstration
HIV/AIDS activists, some of them living with the virus, yell during a demonstration April 25, 2012 in Nairobi on the sidelines of a joint conference sponsored by the US Embassy here and Kenya's Vision 2030 program. The activists demanded that the US and the Kenyan government work together to utilize some 500 million of unspent PEPFAR funds to get desperately needed HIV treatment to more Kenyans. (Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images)
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Pulling out old photos, backpacks to save children

USAID yesterday launched a social media campaign called “Every Child Deserves a Fifth Birthday.”
April 24, 2012 12:37
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A photo of USAID Deputy Assistant Administrator for Global Health Amie Batson at age 5. (Amie Batson/Courtesy)

WASHINGTON – She’s missing two front bottom teeth and her red hair band matches her red-and-white flowered blouse. Amie Batson looks at the picture of herself at age five, the third of four children to Bob and Carol Batson in Newington, Conn., and feels so lucky.

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USAID: Every Child Deserves a 5th Birthday

The agency launches a campaign to highlight the reality of millions of children who die before reaching five years old.
Alex PalaciosApril 23, 2012 11:47
Playing globalpulse
A young Afghan girl plays on swings near the Kart-e-sakhi shrine in Kabul on April 10, 2012. (JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images)

Alex Palacios is the GAVI Special Representative in Washington. He is responsible for coordination between GAVI and the U. S. Government, non‐government organizations, foundations and other entities. Prior to his position at the GAVI Alliance, he was Chief of the International and Corporate Alliances Section at UNICEF and writes for GlobalPost as a Guest Blogger. 

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The global pressures of population and access to clean water

As the world climbs toward a population of 9 billion, a conversation about supporting all those people.
April 18, 2012 17:03
Aspen 7 Billion
Salva Dut, founder and president of Water for South Sudan, speaks to the audience at a discussion called “7 Billion: Conversations That Matter” hosted by the Aspen Institute’s Global Health and Development in Washington, DC on April 18, 2012. (John Donnelly/GlobalPost)
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WASHINGTON — The US Census Bureau’s World Clock says that the population of the world today is estimated at 7.008 billion people, while projections show that the world could reach the 9 billion marker by 2050.

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A Q&A with US global AIDS coordinator Eric Goosby

Goosby discusses the revelation that the US has accumulated nearly $1.5 billion in unspent funds intended to go to HIV/AIDS programs around the world.
April 18, 2012 10:30
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Eric Goosby, United States Global AIDS Coordinator, listens during a news conference for the launch of the Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus on Capitol Hill on September 15, 2011 in Washington, DC. (Brendan Hoffman/AFP/Getty Images)

Ambassador Eric Goosby, a medical doctor, took over as the US global AIDS coordinator in June 2009. He talked with GlobalPost’s John Donnelly about why the US global AIDS program accumulated more than $1.4 billion in a financial pipeline of money that hasn’t been spent by developing countries.

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