Posts Tagged ‘Global Health Council’

Looking for signs of global health in Deauville

May 27th, 2011

Today marks the last day of the 2011 G8 Summit in Deauville, France. Read what David Olson of the Global Health Council captured from Day 1:

“DEAUVILLE, France — The G8 Summit opened today with little sign of global health on the agenda, a huge and disappointing change from the G8 Muskoka in Canada where maternal, child and reproductive health was one of  the signature issues.

The heads of state are arriving as I write this — Russia and Canada arrived last night and the rest are on their way now — and global health is nowhere visible on the agenda, neither in the French presidency’s official agenda on the website, or in the more detailed agenda we are now seeing here in Deauville.

We have heard that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the champion of the 2010 Muskoka Initiative and the co-chair of the Commission on Information and Accountability for Women’s and Children’s Health, plans a presentation on the commission’s newly-released report “Keeping Promises, Measuring Results,” but we have no details yet on where and when this will be done.

Last week, the G8 itself released its much-anticipated Deauville Accountability Report on G8 commitments on health and food security but the NGO reaction to it was universally negative..”

Read the full blog post on the Global Health Council’s Blog 4 Global Health.

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12 health solutions we’d like to see more of in 2011

December 29th, 2010

Reposted with permission from Blog for Global Health.

This blog was written by Global Health Council Policy Communications Intern Allison Kline.

How do you get the most health for your dollar? As the world tightens its belt, people and global health organizations have been focusing on how they can maximize outcomes for the lowest possible cost.

Anastasia Moloney, the Bogotá correspondent for Reuters AlertNet was compiling a top 10 list of “big ideas that cost little” with the aim of producing a list of simple, low-cost innovations in the fields of technology, health, education, water and sanitation that can make a big difference in the developing world.

The question was: “If there was one low-cost solution to improve health and or water and sanitation in the developing world that we need to see more of in 2011, what would it be?

We polled the members of our Global Health Communicators Working Group and here are the 12 ideas they offered (with the nominating organization in parenthesis), in no particular order of priority. Do you agree with them? Do you know any others that should be listed here? If so, please post them below.

Water and sanitation can make a huge difference in improving health by preventing water-borne diseases:

1.  Increased hand washing with soap: According to the Global Handwashing Day website, handwashing with soap before eating and after using the toilet can cut deaths from diarrhea by half, and acute respiratory infections by a quarter — the same health benefits as thousands of dollars in immunization, for just US $3.35 (Global Health Council).

2.  Point-of-use water filters: Vestergaard-Frandsen’s lifestraw provides an effective, affordable way for populations in remote and rural parts of developing countries to obtain safe drinking water, such as areas affected by guinea worm, where treating water sources or eradicating the parasite itself would be a logistical and financial nightmare.

Vaccines are arguably one of the most effective and cost-effective initiatives in global health. Innovation in vaccine delivery and policy make it easier to vaccinate everyone for less:

3.  Increased childhood vaccination: Particularly for preventable diseases such as pneumonia (Hib and pneumococcal), typhoid, rotavirus and rubella (Sabin Vaccine Institute).

4.  Meningitis vaccine: The vaccine, developed through the Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP) in collaboration with the World Health Organization and PATH, will cost only 40 cents per dose, making it affordable for many African governments (Global Health Technologies Coalition).

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The Global Fund Paints A New Picture of Health

October 1st, 2010

By: Linda Diep

HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria kill millions every year leaving countless numbers of orphans, destroying families, and ravaging communities and even nations. Similarly to neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), combating these pandemics and epidemic leads to the strengthening of health systems, contributes to the development of maternal and child health, and fosters self-reliance within communities. Fortunately, growing support has been made available to populations infected by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and, malaria.

» Read more: The Global Fund Paints A New Picture of Health

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Posted in Global Development, Global Health, NTDs, policy, Public Health, Uncategorized

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A Sea of Numbers – Measuring Global Health

June 14th, 2010

Photo Courtesy of http://www.christianwolff.com/Evidence_Based_Treatment.html

By: Eteena Tadjiogueu

There’s a sea of numbers and figures to sift through when trying to measure impact and need in the global health arena. If you dare, you can try to figure out a nation’s disease burden for a specific infection, the rate of mortality and/or morbidity, population size, resources and infrastructure, etc. If you can find what you’re looking for, there still remains a need to connect the dots between the various data, and often times, various sources.

The theme of the 2010 Global Health Council conference—which begins today in Washington, DC—is “Global Health: Goals & Metrics.” The conference is calling attention to a great need and opportunity for global health practitioners to collect and distribute accurate and informative figures that will impact funding for NGOs, and research and development of medications and vaccines if the need exists (which, of course, it does).

So where should you look if you’re interested in learning more about a specific global health problem? For starters, all things NTDs are found on the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases’ site, in particular the interactive map holds a wealth of information on NTDs and stories from the field. If you don’t have access to an academic research system like LexisNexis, then you should check out the Public Library of Science which is an open-access (ie. free) scholarly journal that frequently features editorials from the Sabin Vaccine Institute’s President, Dr. Peter Hotez, as well as other notable scientists and researchers. Sabin.org has information on NTDs and diseases like rotavirus, HPV, and pneumococcal disease. When I’m looking for vaccine specific data I sift through the country data from the GAVI Alliance and the World Health Organization.

One of the Pneumococcal Awareness Council of Experts’ members, Hans Rosling, has created one of the most well known and visually appealing statistic aggregators. If you haven’t heard of Gapminder then I encourage you to take a look. Here you’ll find a list of indicators which come to life when you click play. Gapminder doesn’t currently have any information on NTDs, which is unfortunate, but their a step ahead of most in recognizing the great need for global health and development data and for making their “graphs” free and easy to understand.

What are some of your favorite sources for global health statistics and data?

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Posted in Global Health, NTDs, Public Health, Uncategorized

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