Monthly Archives: August 2011

Reading List 8/31/2011

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Be up to date on the latest happenings in the world of NTDs with our reading list! Today we’re reading about:

In Uganda, Elephantiasis Cases Are Up
“Cases of sleeping sickness, elephantiasis and hydrocele are increasing in Alebtong district. About 30 people have been diagnosed with the neglected tropical diseases and are receiving treatment from Alebtong Health Centre IV.”

Houston Medical Center rising as a global health hub: New star doc & programs gain UN notice
“Whether it’s a cancer breakthrough or the rehabilitation of a congresswoman shot on the job, the Texas Medical Center has a high national profile across nearly every advanced medical discipline. But with prestigious new programs and doctors setting up here, Houston is also making a name for itself in the world of global health initiatives, according to the United Nations Dispatch.”

Rural Areas at Higher Risk of Dengue Fever Than Cities
“In a study led by Wolf-Peter Schmidt from the Nagasaki Institute of Tropical Medicine, Japan, and recently published in PLoS Medicine, the authors analyzed a population in Kanh-Hoa Province in south-central Vietnam (~350,000 people) that was affected by two dengue epidemics between January 2005 and June 2008.”

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Kiss of Death: A Parasite Threatens Latin American Immigrants

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Helen Coster is a staff writer at Forbes; we’ve highlighted her work in the past. Helen recently reported from Bolivia on a fellowship with the International Reporting Project. Below is an excerpt of her report on Chagas disease in Latin America, and how it can spread to the States:

By: Helen Coster

Hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. could be infected with the deadly disease known as Chagas—and most of them don’t know

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The vinchuga bug, also known as “the kissing bug,” transmits Chagas disease. Image: Helen Coster.
If Maira Gutierrez hadn’t donated blood over a decade ago, she probably wouldn’t know that she has Chagas, a parasitic disease that may one day stop her heart. The Los Angeles resident felt fine. Only her blood sample, which contained the disease’s telltale antibodies, revealed that she was sick. Like many Chagas patients in the United States, Gutierrez probably contracted the disease as a child, when she was living in rural El Salvador. Today she suffers from heart palpitations and undergoes an annual echocardiogram and electrocardiogram to monitor the disease’s progress. “It’s a relief to know what I have, where it came from, and what it’s doing to me,” Gutierrez says. “I know that I’m not going to die tomorrow.”

Chagas is caused by a parasite called Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi) that remains dormant in peoples’ bodies for up to 30 years, until it kills them suddenly by stopping their hearts or rupturing their intestines. It’s a silent killer; patients rarely show symptoms or know that they’re infected. Worldwide, 18 million people have the disease. Chagas has been a scourge of the developing world for decades—particularly in poor Latin American countries, where a bug called the vinchuga, sometimes known as the kissing bug (because it bites people on their faces while they sleep), transmits the disease. But it’s increasingly becoming a U.S. health problem.

Click here to read the article in its entirety.

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Inside an emergency NTD treatment program in Niger, West Africa

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In ABC News’ series “World in 3″ where three-minute long health-related videos are showcased, interventions for neglected tropical diseases within one community in Niger, West Africa was highlighted. Through generous drug donations and the tireless work of community health workers, 5 NTDs within this area could be wiped out in the next 5 years . Take a look:

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Eliminating NTDs with Clean Water Initiatives

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On Wednesday, the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases co-hosted a seminar at World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden. We were joined by the Howard G. Buffet Foundation to discuss the current state of water and NTD programs within the Latin America and Caribbean region. In the blog post below, Ann Kelly, representative of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation’s Global Water Initiative and co-founder and Partner at Global Philanthropy Group provides an overview of the event, and her experience at Wednesday’s event at the 2011 World Water Week.

By Ann Kelly, representative of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation’s Global Water Initiative and co-founder of Partner at Global Philanthropy Group

As another World Water Week comes to an end here in Stockholm, we are reminded how central water is to so many of the world’s development issues. The other night I had the honor to sit on a panel entitled “Fighting Poverty in Latin America: Integrating Water and Health Initiatives” sponsored by FEMSA Foundation, the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases  (Global Network) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). My co-panelists Vidal Garza Cantú, Director of the FEMSA Foundation; Dr. Neeraj Mistry, Managing Director of the Global Network; and Carlos de Paco, Principal Partnerships Officer at the IDB are already collaborating with the Pan-American Health Organization, and the government of Chiapas to eliminate trachoma, the leading cause of preventable blindness in the world. This collaboration illustrates three things: (1) it is impossible to work on water without also working on health; (2) it takes creative partnerships to do things that are as transformational and sustainable like eliminating trachoma and other NTDs; (3) all of this is achievable relatively easily and inexpensively – it just requires focus and determination as illustrated by the efforts in Chiapas.

As a representative of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation’s Global Water Initiative (GWI), a 10-year, $150 million investment to create an enabling environment for clean water access and security in 13 countries in Africa and Central America, I can say the Foundation did not set out to fund a health intervention. GWI Central America’s mission was to empower communities to manage their own water resources. Our partners in GWI found that the only way to achieve that mission was by focusing on (1) protecting and restoring water sources; (2) promoting equitable and affordable access to water; and (3) reducing water-borne illnesses, especially in young children. In other words, we cannot empower communities burdened by preventable, treatable water-borne diseases. Continue reading →

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