On May 16, 2011, the Center for Global Development hosted an event for Michael Kremer and Sarah Baird to present data on their long-term follow-up research study called “Worms at Work: Long-run Impacts of Child Deworming in Kenya.” Other authors on the paper include Joan Hamory Hicks and Edward Miguel). This paper concludes that deworming in Kenyan schools can show significant, long-term gain in employment and earnings and among dewormed children. Continue reading
Came across this awesome infographic via GOOD. Click on the image to view it larger.
In addition to the well known social issues of illiteracy and innumeracy, there also should be such a concept as “immappacy,” meaning insufficient geographical knowledge.
A survey of random American schoolkids let them guess the population and land area of their country. Not entirely unexpected, but still rather unsettling, the majority chose “1-2 billion” and “largest in the world,” respectively.
Even with Asian and European college students, geographical estimates were often off by factors of 2-3. This is partly due to the highly distored nature of the predominantly used mapping projections (such as Mercator).
A particularly extreme example is the worldwide misjudgment of the true size of Africa. This single image tries to embody the massive scale, which is larger than the USA, China, India, Japan, and all of Europe … combined!
The Global Network to provide advocacy and resource mobilization support to complement Eisai Co., Ltd.’s historic DEC donation to the World Health Organization (WHO)
March 15, 2011- The Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases announced today that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Eisai Co., Ltd to provide advocacy support for Eisai’s diethylcarbamazine (generic name, “DEC”) donation to the World Health Organization (WHO). This donation is a significant contribution to the global neglected tropical disease (NTD) response and will expand the pharmaceutical industry’s role in global health initiatives to combat NTDs. Through collaboration around advocacy activities related to the DEC donation, the Global Network will assist Eisai in forging and maintaining strong ties with international agencies, foundations, corporate and government agencies working to combat NTDs. The Global Network will work with Eisai on its planning, reporting, and implementation activities around the DEC donation and will provide Eisai with technical advice for future decision-making on NTD initiatives. Eisai will work with the Global Network to deepen its engagement in NTD policy, advocacy, and resource mobilization efforts, particularly in Asia.
Sabin President Dr. Peter Hotez will be a featured guest on this Sunday’s episode of BioCentury This Week. The episode, which also features interviews with representatives of the World Bank and GAVI Alliance, will explore the funding gap for research and development of vaccines for diseases that afflict communities in the developing world.
In the segment, Dr. Hotez discusses achievements that have been made in the field of vaccinology despite limited funds citing, in particular, Sabin’s vaccine development initiatives in Brazil against human hookworm infection and schistosomiasis.
“Vaccines for the Poor: Making the Case When Money is Scarce” will air this Sunday, March 13 at 8:30 AM EST on WUSA channel 9 in Washington, DC and online at http://www.biocenturytv.com/.
