Monthly Archives: May 2014

Abhishek Bachchan Visits with Patients Suffering from NTDs

Asia, END7, India, , Neeraj Mistry

 

Abhishek Bachchan

Bollywood celebrity Abhishek Bachchan visitis a community health center in Odisha, Bhubaneswar, India. (Photo by Vivek Singh)

Shortly after Bollywood star Abhishek Bachchan joined the END7 campaign, we travelled together to Odisha (formally known as Orissa), near India’s east coast, to visit the Banamalipur Community Center. Here, the Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA) is providing community-based care for patients suffering from, and the community at risk for, lymphatic filariasis (LF) and other neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Through the work of volunteers and community health workers, the program currently serves more than 20,000 patients with LF and works in partnership with the government to support the distribution of medicine to everyone in the region to protect them from NTDs.

Abhishek met with patients who were suffering from chronic LF, and listened to their stories and experiences. They spoke of the previous hardship caused by the disease and, through the staff and services, had experienced considerable improvement in their quality of life. Yet, among many of them, there was a tangible sadness, which resulted from the stigma and ostracization caused by the disease: in a community where marriage of children is seen as a fulfillment of parenting, many of their daughters remained unmarried because suitors feared that the diseases was genetic.

LF is just one of the NTDs that can be prevented with annual medication. Once the limbs have swollen, there is no cure for LF but further disability can be prevented with proper care. CASA health workers explained and demonstrated morbidity management and disability prevention for patients with LF, which included proper washing and drying techniques, exercise massage and elevation of limbs. Abhishek was moved to join in, helping the CASA staff to wash the limbs of LF patients. Later, he took albendazole pills, one of the two medicines taken to treat and prevent early LF infection.

This visit only confirmed that there is more work to be done. While we control and eliminate these debilitating diseases, we must also improve the mental and social well-being of those suffering from NTDs. This goes beyond medicine and requires engagement of families, local community organizations, and the media and entertainment industry. With the help of organizations like CASA, and champions like Abhishek, we can take a holistic approach to addressing NTDs.

Of the 1.4 billion people in the world affected by NTDs, more than a third live in India. Global progress on NTDs hinges on India’s efforts and successes.

India is a historic leader in ending some of the most devastating diseases of our time, including smallpox and guinea worm, and most recently, polio. Now, India has the opportunity to achieve another significant public health milestone: the control and elimination of five NTDs.

Why NTDs Matter to Maternal, Newborn and Child Health

Maternal Health

 

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By Dr. Mirta Roses Periago, NTD Special Envoy

Next week, from May 28th to 30th, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will host a summit on maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) in Toronto, Canada. Titled “Saving Every Woman, Every Child: Within Arm’s Reach,” the summit will bring global leaders and experts together to ensure that MNCH remains an international priority – not only for Canada, but for all countries.

This summit is extremely timely due to the close 2015 deadline of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and with the global community refining the priority themes to include into the post-2015 development agenda. As Canada prepares to launch its renewed MNCH strategy and as governments adopt greater collaboration through public-private partnerships, the Global Network is calling on the Canadian government, NGOs, research organizations and the private sector to include action against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) within their new MNCH framework and global health and development priorities.

NTDs are a group of 17 parasitic and bacterial infections with a larger extension since they affect more than 1 billion people worldwide. Soil-transmitted helminths (STH or parasitic infections) such as hookworm can cause severe anemia and contribute to pregnancy complications in women and severe malnutrition in children. Schistosomiasis infections keep young girls and women in a vulnerable situation for HIV/AIDS infections. And the impact of NTDs stretches far beyond the health sector – they also impact educational achievement, food security, economic growth and gender equality.

NTDs pose a threat to the development of endemic countries by trapping the most vulnerable populations in cycles of poverty and disease, and by undercutting ongoing efforts to achieve the MDGs. The control and elimination of NTDs will be critical to eradicating poverty and to attaining the Sustainable Development Goals set by the post-2015 development agenda process.

The Canadian government has been a strong leader in global MNCH efforts, as evidenced through the widely successful Muskoka Initiative. Announced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the G8 Summit in June 2010 in Toronto, the Muskoka Initiative has advanced the critical goals of improving the health of women and children in developing countries and reducing the number of preventable deaths. By 2015, Canada will have dedicated $2.85 billion to this initiative, focusing on three priorities: strengthening health systems, reducing the burden of disease and improving nutrition.

Programs that address NTDs are “best-buys” in global health. Providing deworming medication for parasitic infections, along with other MNCH interventions such as iron supplements and vitamin A, can help reduce anemia and malnutrition — improving the overall health of mothers and children. A golden opportunity exists for Canada to collaborate on NTDs with the private sector, which has stepped up to donate the drugs needed to prevent and treat worms and other NTDs.

NTDs inclusion into Canada’s MNCH and international development strategy can make a real difference in the results achieved in a short and mid-term period. This would lead the way for other countries, both donor and endemic, to make a political and financial commitment to end these diseases of poverty. Together, under this leadership, we will be able to reach the goals of the London Declaration on NTDs and the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Roadmap on Neglected Tropical Diseases, thus moving closer to eradicating poverty, and saving and improving the lives of mothers and children worldwide.

A Part of Something Bigger: Reflection from the Sabin Symposium

END7, Sabin Vaccine Institute, Student Advocacy, vaccines,

 

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Jessica Yoo*, an END7 Student Advisory Board Member from the University of Virginia, reflects on her experience attending the Sabin Vaccine Institute’s 20th Anniversary Scientific Symposium. 

Starstruck. As a 21-year old college student, I had never in my life been surrounded by so many inspiring visionaries and giants in public health. A few weekends ago, I traveled from the University of Virginia to Washington, DC to attend the Sabin Vaccine Institute’s 20th Anniversary Scientific Symposium.  There, in the oaken, soft-lit belly of the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), I got an insider’s peek at what some of the most brilliant minds of global health do on a regular basis.

Listening to speeches from a star-studded cast of representatives from the Sabin Vaccine Institute, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the GAVI Alliance, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Harvard School of Public Health, I received a crash course on the history of vaccinology, learned about the challenges of developing a broad-spectrum antibody for influenza A, and rediscovered the complexity of the factors underpinning a successful health initiative.

The broad palate of ideas presented— ranging from economic analyses to new advances in cutting-edge molecular biotechnology— reminded me that the public health challenges we face today require an interdisciplinary approach that integrates all fields of study. Observing doctors, writers, policymakers, MPH-holders, researchers, advocates, scientists, businessmen, photographers and professors interact during the coffee break only reinforced this impression.

A ringing noise announced the end of the coffee break and I followed the steady scuffle of heels and dress shoes back into the conference room, where a discussion panel comprised of representatives from PAHO, UNICEF, Merck Vaccines, Biofarma, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awaited. Dr. Ciro de Quadros, a legendary figure that later received the Public Health Heroes of the Americas award for his work with eradicating smallpox and polio in the Americas, led the panel discussion on ways to collaboratively advance the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP). It was clear that this type of cooperation and teamwork between participating nonprofits, governmental organizations and private sector companies is necessary for effective, holistic and sustainable changes to occur in the global health arena.

To signal the drawing end of the symposium, a message from Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), reiterated the potential of vaccines as a powerful tool against diseases and celebrated the great distances already traversed in immunization worldwide. Reflecting back upon Sabin’s 20-year journey, as well as the colorful history of vaccinology and public health overall, I was able to connect my efforts to bring the END7 to the University of Virginia’s campus to the larger effort to improve health worldwide.

In other words, one of the most valuable insights I gained from the symposium was the sense that I was part of something bigger— something noble and grand. Through my involvement with END7, I had also inadvertently joined humanity’s relentless race against the affliction and senseless suffering caused by diseases worldwide. Thus, we may not have the full answer to the question posed by Dr. Peter Hotez at the beginning of the symposium, when he asked what the next twenty years will look like for vaccine development and global health worldwide. But looking back on the significant milestones and lessons accumulated over the past two decades, I too am confident that “the future of immunization looks bright.”

*Jessica joined the END7 Student Advisory Board in January, and has been working with other passionate students this semester to found an END7 Coalition at the University of Virginia. 

You Signed – We Delivered

END7, NTDs, policy, U.S Government, , ,

 

Members of the END7 team with our petition defending the U.S. NTD budget. Do you see your name?

Members of the END7 team with our petition defending the U.S. NTD budget. Do you see your name?

The day after the United States government delivered its one billionth treatment for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), we headed up to Capitol Hill to deliver a special message to Congress.

In just eight years, the USAID NTD Program has helped deliver $6.7 billion in donated medicines around the world. But if the President’s $13.5 million budget cut is approved, the progress made against these diseases may falter.

Thousands of people asked Chairwoman Kay Granger and Ranking Member Nita Lowey, of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, to protect funding for NTD treatment.

When we printed all the names, the sheet was over twenty feet long! So long that we attracted curious stares from Congressional staff walking out of the Longworth House Office Building as we posed with the scroll on the steps outside.

We delivered a copy of the petition to Congresswoman Kay Granger’s office, and another went right to the House Appropriations Subcommittee, who is responsible for determining the budget.

Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) are the most common diseases of the world’s poor. NTDs disable and debilitate one in six people worldwide, perpetuating a cycle of poverty that continues from generation to generation.

Worldwide, the USAID NTD program has delivered donated drugs to more than 465 million people in 25 countries, supporting large-scale integrated treatment programs in which entire communities and regions are treated for the most common NTDs all at once. This is one of the most cost-effective and innovative partnerships in global health.

Thanks to you, we’re hopeful that funding for the USAID NTD Program will not be cut but rather expanded.

Watch our photo slideshow to view more pictures from the petition delivery.