Archive for the ‘Global Health’ category

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“Houston, We Have a Solution.” Why The Texas City Could Be the Next Great Global Health Hub

August 4th, 2011

This week on UN Dispatch, DC-based journalist Jaclyn Schiff highlights Sabin Vaccine President Dr. Peter Hotez’ relocation to Houston, Texas to join the Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine.

Reposted from UN Dispatch, the United Nations’ News and Commentary Forum
By: Jaclyn Schiff

Where should editors station reporters that would best position them to uncover the next great global health story?

Should the focus be on Geneva, where the World Health Organization is headquartered? Or maybe Seattle, home of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — which seems to have something new related to international health going on almost every day?  Perhaps the next huge story is in Pakistan, where the CIA’s effort to hunt Osama Bin Laden might have significantly damaged global polio eradication efforts?

Nope. Those places are major global health hubs for sure. But the emerging story is further south. In Houston, Texas to be precise.

Houston is well-known for the Texas Medical Center (TMC), which is comprised of 49 institutions and describes itself as the largest medical center in the world. The Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative is highly regarded for its leading role in the global fight against HIV/AIDS. Beyond HIV/AIDS however, Houston hasn’t really featured prominently on the global health community’s radar.

That is about to change.

Click here to read the full story on UN Dispatch.

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Still barking

July 19th, 2011

By: Alanna Shaikh

Speaking of neglected tropical diseases that are better controlled in the wealthy world, let’s talk about rabies.

In the last 100 years, we’ve seen rabies deaths in the US go from about a hundred a year to 1-2 a year. This is especially impressive when you consider that the US has two lengthy land borders; it cannot physically isolate itself from foreign animals. Bats, in particular, carry rabies and cross borders at will by air.

It’s an interesting example because rabies control has been primarily a governance effort in the US, not a medical effort. Better rabies treatment is not the reason for the reduced number of rabies deaths. We know this because the number of cases of rabies has gone down, not just the number of deaths from rabies infection. This has happened even as rates of rabies in wild animals have gone up.

There are two components of the US rabies reduction effort: regulation of pets and control of stray animals. Firstly, every house pet in the US is required by law to be vaccinated for rabies. Laws vary state by state, but they all require rabies vaccination for household pets. Secondly, stray domestic animals are captured and either adopted out as pets or put to sleep. US municipal governments began to take these efforts seriously in the 1940s, after World War II, and you can see the rabies infection rates in humans in the US began to fall at that point. » Read more: Still barking

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Posted in Global Health, India, Public Health

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XIX Meeting of the Technical Advisory Group

July 13th, 2011

The XIX Meeting of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) was held from July 6-8, 2011 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Experts from the Pan American Health Organization / World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) gathered to acknowledge great strides made in vaccine development and distribution, along with discussing next steps for future success. Dr. Ciro de Quadros, Chair of the PAHO/WHO Technical Advisory Group of Vaccine-preventable diseases, and Executive Vice President of the Sabin Vaccine Institute was presented an award from the Argentina Ministry of Health. The award presented by Argentinean Minister of Health Juan Manzur was to recognize Dr. de Quadros’ long commitment to global health and his work in the field of vaccines.

Minister of Health of Argentina, Dr. Manzur delivers thanks to Dr. Ciro de Quadros

“[The Americas] is the first region in the world to eradicate smallpox and eliminate polio, rubella, congenital rubella, and measles,” states Dr. de Quadros, “ and it is also the leader in introducing the rotavirus, pneumonia, and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines.”

Click here to read the full press release in Spanish. Streaming video of the XIX TAG meeting can also be found here.

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Posted in Global Health, Public Health

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“Human Time Bomb for Mosquitoes”

July 12th, 2011

Echoing several articles published last week, Donald McNeil Jr. of the New York Times also shed light on the recent study conducted in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene by scientists from Senegal and Colorado State University.

As mentioned previously, the study demonstrated that ivermectin, a drug used to treat onchocerciasis, can also kill mosquitoes.

Scientists such as Dr. Peter Hotez, President of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, are enthusiastic about this study’s effects on combating malaria and other mosquito borne illnesses, however, the article also provided some cautious perspectives from others. For the drug to effectively kill mosquitoes, nearly everyone in an infested area would need to take the pill simultaneously. In addition, the mosquito killing effects fade after a month so ivermectin, which is typically only distributed once or twice a year to a community, would need to be distributed more frequently.

The article goes on to say, “Also, when people with lots of worms are treated, they suffer fever and intense itching as the worms die. Though that might be bearable once a year, it discourages people from seeking treatment more frequently. And ivermectin is dangerous for a few people — those infested with large numbers of a relatively rare West African worm, the loa loa. These worms circulate in the blood and lungs and may jam capillaries when they die, potentially causing coma or death. Detecting them means drawing blood and viewing it under a microscope.”

Read the full article here

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Posted in Africa, de-worming, Global Health, malaria, Tropical Medicine, Water and Sanitation

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