All posts by Adebukola Oni

About Adebukola Oni

Adebukola is the Communications and Grassroots Intern at the Global Network.

Civilian Power and U.S NTD Diplomacy Abroad

brain food, NTDs

Yesterday June 28th, 2011,  Sabin Vaccine Institute President  Dr. Peter J. Hotez published an article in PLoS Journal titled “Unleashing “Civilian Power”: A New American Diplomacy through Neglected Tropical Disease Control, Elimination, Research, and Development.” Last year, U.S Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton expressed  a new outlook for American diplomacy and development through strengthening “civilian power”. Civilian Power is described as:

[T]he new doctrine calls for the creation of a new cadre of civilian experts who could jointly pursue diplomacy and international development for purposes of solving global challenges related to health, agriculture and food insecurity, environmental degradation, drugs and organized crime, energy, and climate change .

Secretary Clinton’s intends to exercise this new doctrine by leveraging the distinct strengths of the State Department and USAID in carrying out U.S Foreign Policy.  In “the coming years the State Department and USAID would now work more closely to enhance global development in the context of diplomacy”

In this paper, Dr. Hotez delineates the reasons why NTDs should be a major part of Secretary Clinton’s forthcoming campaign to strengthen our diplomacy efforts abroad.  He writes that “there are a number of reasons why taking on the NTDs would be a worthy early first test for civilian power. It is now possible to control or in some cases eliminate one or more of the seven most common NTDs.” Putting more energy into NTD control efforts resonates with Secretary Clinton’s empowering and strengthening  fragile states

Because the NTDs destabilize these communities and also represent important impediments to human rights , , NTD control should comprise an essential element of civilian power for the reinvention of American diplomacy and development.

25 Years with Elephantiasis.

brain food, lymphatic filariasis, NTDs, parasites

Picture taken by THEMBA MASEKO

42 year old Jimmy Mgqwashu from Bluegum View, South Africa has been living in agony for over 25 years after his left leg became infected with elephantiasis in 1985.  According to Mgqwashu, he was on a trip to fetch wood in nearby mountains when a small cut from loose barbed wire along the way began to swell a few days later.  At first, it just appeared to be a bad cut so he was prescribed an anodyne.   According to Mgqwashu, not long after he went to the clinic, his leg grew bigger.  Unfortunately, the clinic nearby was not prepared to treat his illness. He says:

[i]n 1987 I went to Paul Kruger Hospital in Rustenburg to get some help. The doctors told me that I had elephantiasis and they couldn’t treat this condition because it needed a specialist.

Mgqwashu’s experience is not singular. Sadly, millions of people around the world with,for example, poor access to healthcare, low-incomes, or who live in rural, hard to access settings have a difficult time acquiring live saving health services to prevent and treat ailments.

Mgqwashu explains that “[his] leg is really heavy and [that he] can barely walk. [Since the infection has grown, his] future has been bleak since then.”  These sentiments represent another issue many people like Jimmy face after falling ill; their work productivity drops significantly which has a devastating impact on their disposable income and social participation in the community. One topic that isn’t discussed enough is the impact of elephantiasis on the afflicted man or woman’s sexual health and wellness. Mgqwachu points out that “[he doesn’t] even have a wife and all the women run away because they think that [he] might leave them with this disease. [He is] a man and [he] needs to satisfy [his] libido.” Because acute elephatiasis, clincally referred to as lymphatic filariasis, is an inflammation of the skin, lymph nodes and lymphatic vessels. According to WHO

When lymphatic filariasis develops into chronic conditions, it leads to lymphoedema (tissue swelling) or elephantiasis (skin/tissue thickening) of limbs and hydrocele (fluid accumulation). Involvement of breasts and genital organs is common.  Such body deformities lead to social stigma, as well as financial hardship from loss of income and increased medical expenses. The socioeconomic burdens of isolation and poverty are immense.

Thankfully, the CEO of Pholosong Hospital, Sfiso Maseko, picked up Mgqwashu’s story and assures him that “there is a treatment for this condition.”  He encourages Mgqwashu to “bring the papers he was given including the file number so that [he] can provide treatment for his leg.”

Read the original story here.

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Deep Discounts for Vaccines in Low-Income Nations

brain food, Global Development, NTDs, pharmaceuticals, Public Health, U.S Government, Vaccine Diplomacy

Drug manufacturers are stepping up to the plate in the race to provide low-cost vaccines to low-income nations in a global effort to sustain supply and allow greater accessibility to life-saving drugs at low-threshold prices.  Diarrhoea, caused by rotavirus, is the second leading cause of high children under 5 mortality rates, killing more than half a million children each year.  Vaccines like Rotatrix that work to immunize children from rotavirus are now being offered to GAVI by GSK at up to 67% off the current market price, reducing the cost of an immunizing dose to 5 bucks per child. 

In 2009, the WHO recommended that all countries should include rotavirus vaccines in national vaccination programs, but many poorer countries struggle to afford them.

GAVI, which funds bulk-buy vaccination programs for nations that can’t afford shots at Western prices, has committed to help fund rotavirus vaccine introduction in at least 40 of the world’s poorest countries by 2015.

However, funding is tight and there is a $3.7 billion gap that impedes on the longevity of this project through 2015. Thankfully,

[t]he price cuts, offered by both generic and branded drugmakers including GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Johnson & Johnson’s Crucell and Sanofi-Aventis’ Sanofi Pasteur, should help the alliance narrow a $3.7 billion funding gap for its commitments up until 2015.

In addition to deep discounts on rotavirus vaccines, pentavalent vaccines which combine five different vaccines (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, and Haemophilus influenzae type b)  into one shot, are also on the list of drugs to be discounted in the near-term.

A great thing about this long term endeavor is that it encourages drug makers world wide to pump out vaccines, engendering integrated global pharmaceutical efforts to sustain supply to developing nations.  However, it is important that developing nations begin and continue to take the initiative in developing a stronger health system such that they can also develop life-saving vaccines and loosen their dependence on external resources.

Read the original article here.

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Free NTD Reads for Lunch!

brain food, NTDs

Greetings from End the Neglect!

Learn something new; Catch up with happenings around the world; Supplement your coffee with some of our reading suggestions below!

  1. Zambian Gov’t calls for donor support in fighting tropical diseases

HEALTH deputy minister Christopher Kalila has called for a strong partnership between government and the donor community in the eradication of tropical diseases.

  1. Deepest-dwelling land animal discovered in gold mine

Scientists have found complex, multicellular creatures – worms – living a mile or more below the planet’s surface, deep in the Earth where it was thought previously that animals could not survive, BBC News reported.

  1. Buttery perfume deters mosquitoes by overloading their sense of smell

Every time you exhale, you send out a beacon to hungry mosquitoes. These vampires follow their noses. They’re exquisitely sensitive to carbon dioxide in the air, and can follow faint traces over long distances. Constant streams of the gas won’t do – the mosquitoes are waiting for the rhythmic pulses of carbon dioxide, such as those given off by a breathing human. Once they find such a plume, they fly headlong into it, tracking it back to its blood-filled source.

ENJOY!

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