Tag Archives: GAVI Alliance

Sabin Celebrates 20 Years of Operations with a Star-Studded Event

Global Health, pharmaceuticals, , , ,

 

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This post originally appeared on the Sabin Vaccine Institute blog.

In celebration of twenty years since its founding, the Sabin Vaccine Institute (Sabin) will bring together top leaders in the global health community for its 20th Anniversary Scientific Symposium on Friday, April 25 in Washington, DC.

The program will include an impressive lineup of speakers including Dr. Seth Berkley (GAVI Alliance); Dr. Margaret Chan (WHO); Dr. Mickey Chopra (UNICEF); Dr. Carissa Etienne (PAHO); Dr. Julio Frenk (Harvard University); Dr. Julie Gerberding (Merck Vaccines and the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations); Dr. Lance Gordon (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation); and Dr. Mahendra Suhardono (Biofarma and the Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network).  On behalf of Sabin’s vaccine leadership, President Dr. Peter Hotez and Executive Vice President Dr. Ciro de Quadros will also make remarks at the event.

By bringing together a diverse group of scientists, advocates and global health experts, Sabin will foster a thought-provoking discussion about best practices, lessons learned and prospects for the future of global health.  With executive leadership from the NGO community, multilateral institutions, pharmaceutical industry, and academia, attendees will hear how stakeholders from various vantage points – from the NGO, private and public sectors – are uniquely positioned to address pressing global health challenges across the world.

This event is open to the public; to register, please visit the event registration page.

Reading List 9/21/2010

Global Development, Global Health, Public Health, reading list, , , , Rwanda,

World leaders are currently convening at the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Summit in New York City to end poverty and further global development! In recognition of the summit, every reading list this week will be MDG-themed. And of course we’ll include readings on the latest happenings in NTDs and global health. Today we’re reading about the UN announcing the summit’s start, how immunization and combating Pneumonia will help achieve the MDGs, and Rwanda’s progress in achieving the MDGs.

UN MDGs summit kicks off with events on education and child survival, UNICEF
Immunization is key to achieving child survival goals, GAVI Alliance
Rwanda makes progress on MDGs, News24
5 Ways to Combat Pneumonia Globally, Dr. Orin Levine, The Huffington Post

A Sea of Numbers – Measuring Global Health

Global Health, NTDs, Public Health, Uncategorized2010 Global Health Council Conference, , , Global Health Council, goals and metrics, , , plos medicine, Pneumococcal Awareness Council of Experts, , EteenaT

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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