Category: World health

Precision Medicine: A global action plan for impact

Precision medicineSince the turn of the century, global achievements in scientific research have enabled us to realise a new era of healthcare delivery and treatment. Diseases are becoming better understood, even at their most detailed level, which has allowed scientists to develop new drugs, therapies and preventative techniques to combat problems in very specific ways. A new form of healthcare delivery, one that is determined by a patient’s genetic and personal characteristics, has become possible.

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Health professional education: Opportunities to accelerate progress towards universal health coverage

health_professional_education_report-1International efforts to achieve global development goals in health have raised concerns about the availability of a well-trained and effective health workforce. As a result, the health workforce has been the focus of many global initiatives in the last decade that have called for urgent action to overcome the so-called ‘health workforce crisis’. Despite some progress, the health workforce challenges remain a critical bottleneck in achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) goals in most countries.

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Autism: A global framework for action

autism_report-1Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) represents a group of lifelong neurodevelopmental disorders emerging during early childhood and interfering with a person’s ability to socially relate to and interact with others.

As of 2010, there were an estimated 52 million cases of ASD worldwide, representing a substantial increase over the past 40 years. Meanwhile, the economic impact of ASD in the United States (US) alone – based on direct medical, direct non-medical and productivity costs – reached an estimated $268 billion in 2015, a figure that is expected to rise to $461 billion by 2025.  ASD and other neurodevelopmental disorders also affect the quality of life of those with the conditions, as well as of their families and caregivers.

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The Importance of the International Day For the Elimination of Violence Against Women

By Nikita Rathod, Communications and Events Assistant, Institute of Global Health Innovation

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Today marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Historically, the date of the 25th of November was designated as an awareness day in December 1999 by the United Nations General Assembly through resolution 54/134. The aim of the day was to increase worldwide awareness and create opportunities for discussion about challenges and solutions.

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How can universal sanitation be achieved by 2030? A quick look at potential models to deliver

By Eve MacKinnon, PhD candidate at University College London

World Toilet Day

To mark World Toilet Day on Saturday 19 November, guest blogger Eve MacKinnon takes a look at the developing innovation in sanitation.

In 2015 Google held a technology festival in South Africa aiming to develop ways to digitify billions of people in the continent, who as yet unconnected are a significant potential new market for their products and therefore hugely valuable for future growth.

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THET Annual Conference – Rethinking International Health Partnerships

By Hamdi Issa, PhD Candidate, Institute of Global Health Innovation

Tropical Health and Education Trust (THET)On the 20th and 21st October 2016, the Tropical Health Education Trust (THET) hosted their annual conference: ‘Evidence, Effectiveness and Impact’. This two day conference brought together academics, health care professionals, policy makers, government officials and students from all over the world, to celebrate and perhaps more importantly, learn how different health partnerships are changing the face of development.

Day one of the conference explored various elements of health partnerships, notably: the UK’s contribution to health globally and how the UK can best respond to the challenges thrown down by the Sustainable Development Goals.  Day two captured the work of individuals/groups involved in different types of health partnerships and the benefits and challenges of the different health partnership models.

THET launched their new policy paper: In our mutual interest. This policy paper captures the learning acquired by THET over the years they have managed the DfID-funded Health Partnership Scheme. By examining the associated benefits and challenges to this approach, it encourages everyone involved in health partnerships to think about how they can do more – and explore how health partnerships can be ‘mutually beneficial’ with particular considerations on the value to the NHS and UK institutions.

Aside from THET enabled health partnerships, individuals representing other forms of partnerships were present. In particular, thought-provoking presentations were delivered by two very different partnership models: FK Norway and GSK-PULSE Volunteers.

FK Norway is a Norwegian governmental body that supports exchange of employees between companies and organisations in Norway and developing countries. Through a 1 to 1 exchange ratio of participants, FK Norway aims to facilitate mutual learning and development of institutions. This method of exchange was very different from the exchanges being discussed by other partnerships. This was the first presentation to display a South to North flow of knowledge transfer as opposed to the traditional flow of knowledge (North to South). The FK Norway representative used the example of ‘kangaroo care’ as a practice widely used in developing countries to care for premature babies and through the exchange partnership, saw developing country partners teach their Norwegian partners how to train mothers in ‘kangaroo care’, at time where this practice was not widely accepted in Norway. It seems like Norway has found a partnership model that is using reciprocity to have ‘institutional-level’ impacts.

In a room full of public sector professionals, representatives from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) brought a new perspective to the health partnership paradigm. GSK run a skills based volunteering partnership called PULSE. Through this partnership, GSK employees are matched to non-profit organisation, both at home and abroad, to tackle healthcare challenges. In light of the UKs push towards health partnerships that speak to the concept of ‘mutual benefit’ – GSK’s presentation captured a partnership model where volunteer experiences go beyond personal and professional development, to having business impact. One of the three aims of the PULSE programme is ‘change GSK’. GSK volunteers are encouraged to blog about their experiences and the learning they develop abroad, and upon return to the UK volunteers have the chance to share ideas with colleagues and senior staff to activate change within GSK.

Both GSK and FK Norway partnership models offer a learning opportunity for those involved within UK public sector health partnerships. An opportunity I hope many take advantage of if we are truly ready to move towards a new era of health partnerships, partnerships that welcome a global flow of learning and innovation to benefit health service delivery in the UK.

 

The impact of Neglected Tropical Diseases on Universal Eye Health

By Professor Alan Fenwick of Imperial’s Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI)

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‘Oncho blind’ – 60 years ago blind older people were led by children

There are five neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) which are the scourge of Africa, the Indian sub-continent, the Far East and South America.  Onchocerciasis is one of these 5 and until the late 20th century caused millions of people to gradually lose their sight and eventually go blind. The parasite is spread by infected Simulium blackflies which when they bite a human, transfer microscopic larvae to the human host, where they develop into adult worms and females produce millions of new larvae during their lifetime. It is these larvae that are the cause of irreversible blindness in as many as 25% of the adult population in several countries in Africa. Onchocerciases was also prevalent in some countries in South America.

Another cause of blindness in the poorest populations globally is the NTD trachoma. Caused by certain subtypes of the Chlamydia infection, it is spread through contact with discharge from the eyes or nose of an infected person. In developing countries, eye-seeking flies are a major cause of transmission, particularly in areas where water to wash is in short supply.

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‘Trachoma flies’ – After conjunctivitis eyelashes scratch the cornea causing blindness.

The remaining three major NTDs, schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis and soil-transmitted helminths do not directly affect eye health but overlap geographically with onchocerciasis and trachoma and debilitate in other harmful ways.

All 5 of these NTDs can be controlled by the annual administration of safe oral medications. Onchocerciasis, and the resulting blindness and itching caused by the larvae are controlled by an annual dose of Mectizan (Ivermectin). Trachoma is controlled by an annual does of Zithromax, and schistosomiasis is controlled by an annual dose of praziquantel. Albendazole treats both lymphatic filariasis and soil-transmitted helminths. All four medications are generously donated by the pharmaceutical companies which manufacture them (Merck Sharp Dom, Pfizer, E.Merck and GSK respectively). In 2015 almost 1 billion individuals globally have benefitted from treatment directly resulting from these donations. (more…)

World First: UN Decide to Fight Antimicrobial Resistance

By guest bloggers Sarah Greaves, Katherine MacInnes and Alex Stockham, IN-PART

For the first time in history, antimicrobial resistance was addressed recently by the United Nations (UN). In New York at the 71st General Assembly of the UN, all 193 member states signed up to combat this ever growing problem.

To fight what is said to be one of the biggest threats to 21st Century society, world leaders committed to a global, coordinated and multi-sector plan of action to not only increase the regulation of antimicrobial drug use but also to increase awareness of antimicrobial resistance and promote the development of alternative antimicrobial drugs.

This is only the fourth time in the history of the United Nations that a public health issue has been raised at a General Assembly. Previous meetings have covered HIV, non-communicable diseases (e.g. cardiovascular disease and cancer), and most recently Ebola.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – where bacteria, viruses and parasites have rapidly evolved to survive exposure to antimicrobial agents – each year claims 700,000 lives. If no action is taken, by 2050 it is estimated that this number will rise to 10 million each year.

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‘Fungi Island’: The ease at which fungi proliferate is astonishing (Source: University of Michigan SNRE – CCBY2.0)

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World Blood Donor Day 2016: Blood connects us all

By Professor Kathryn Maitland, Professor of Tropical Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Director of Centre of African Research and Engagement, Imperial College London. 

Each year, World Blood Donor Day highlights the importance of blood donations as the transfusion of blood is a life-saving intervention. In any health system, the provision of adequate supplies of safe blood for transfusion is an essential undertaking.

Slide1The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates the blood requirement for countries to be in the region of 10 – 20 units per 1000 population per year. Yet in many sub-Saharan African countries, donations are far lower, in some countries as low as 2 units/1000 population/year. The demand for blood transfusion is very high, especially in children (largely due to infection) where up to 15% of children admitted to hospitals are transfused, with most being given as emergency interventions.

Over the past decade, several countries in sub-Saharan Africa have made progress in achieving the goals defined by the WHO to improve both the supply and blood safety, which have been financed largely by international donors.  This has led to an increase in the number of total blood donations and the proportion from voluntary donors, and improved safety of blood; but this is expensive to maintain therefore concerns about the sustainability of systems requiring a high level of financial support in low-income countries when cost recovery is unlikely. (more…)

From women’s health to women empowerment

By Guest blogger Natasha Chainani 

With it being International Womens Day this week, I thought it would be apt to recognise breakthrough innovations in women’s hygiene that have been doing the rounds of social media lately. Even more so, it would be apt to recognise that women’s health need not be pioneered by women alone by highlighting the efforts of a common man turned social entrepreneur and frugal innovator in rural India taking the feminine hygiene industry by storm.

Photo courtesy of Asian Development Bank, Flickr

In a country where sanitary products remain a luxury and accessible to those who can afford to buy pricier, international brands, women still resort to traditional methods – often unhygienic and at risk of disease[1]. Although the momentum to spread awareness around menstruation and feminine hygiene is picking up, stigma to talk about it by households and the larger society largely remains. Rightly so, these barriers continue to impact improvement efforts around women’s health in developing countries.

Arunachalam Muruganantham (Photo courtesy TED@Bangalore)

Enter Arunachalam Muruganantham. Hailing from a simple family in Coimbatore, India and educated till school1, he was brought to realise the dire state of feminine hygiene in rural, low resource and poor communities when he noticed his wife having to choose between purchasing family meals and monthly sanitary supplies[2].  A market research study by AC Nielsen evaluated that 88% of women in India resort to using unhygienic practices such as ash, dried leaves and newspapers when faced with a lack of sanitary supplies, putting 70% of these women at risk of reproductive tract infections and associated cancers[3]. Driven by what he saw, Arunachalam Muruganantham set out on an uphill task to develop low-cost sanitary towels from available resources. After years of development and product-testing trials, he now holds the patent rights for a machine that not only manufactures low-cost, hygienic sanitary towels but its user-friendly technology has created jobs for women in an industry setting he built. The manual machine costs about £723, employs 10 women, produces 200-250 cotton pads and can supply 3000 women at a cost of £0.025 for each towel1. Small-scale businesses and not-for-profit organisations currently buy these machines to directly manufacture and sell these sanitary towels across 27 states in India3. (more…)