In this six-minute interview Joyce Banda, the current president of Malawi, talks about how her life and personal experiences have shaped her mission and policy priorities that she has carried throughout her career. She focuses on three main areas: educating girls, combating domestic abuse against women, and improving post-natal care to keep women alive.
Here is another short anti-tobacco video (PSA?) from the WHO marking World No Tobacco Day this year. Like last year’s video, it portrays Big Tobacco as the sinister bad guy who controls us all without us knowing it. I know these videos are meant to appeal to a wide audience, and send a strong and simple message, but I wish that the anti-tobacco videos would feature more actual information and statistics, rather than just showing us that Big Tobacco is some big, bad puppeteer.
Posted in Information and Social Media
Tagged Big Tobacco, smoking, Tobacco, WHO, World No Tobacco Day
As China is taking an increasingly active role on the world stage, its foreign assistance and development programs in other countries in increasing. However, unlike most Western nations, China does not publish this information. This report is particularly interesting because it tries to get an idea of China’s development financing over the last decade through media reports (press releases and newspaper articles).
Posted in Information and Social Media
The Office of Adolescent Health invites you to attend its free webcast - A Global Look at Teen Pregnancy Prevention: Strategies for Success - on Thursday, May 2nd from 2:00 – 3:00pm ET.
Hear from Robert W. Blum, MD, MPH, PhD, an expert in adolescent health and teen pregnancy, about how teen pregnancy outcomes in the United States compare globally, and what we can learn from teen pregnancy prevention efforts abroad. During it, Dr. Blum will address the following questions:
Dr. Blum will also answer some commonly asked questions concerning teen pregnancy prevention.
Register here, and please forward this message to others who care about teen pregnancy prevention and adolescent health. We also invite you to live tweet during the webcast using#TPPGlobal, and be sure to follow OAH on Twitter at @TeenHealthGov . This webcast will kick off a month of activities by OAH for its third annual recognition of National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month.
About Robert W. Blum, MD, MPH, PhD
Dr. Blum is the William H. Gates, Sr. Professor and Chair of the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He has edited two books, and has written nearly 250 journal articles, book chapters and special reports. In July 2007, Dr. Blum was named the Director of the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute. He is also a consultant to The World Bank, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), UNICEF, and the World Health Organization.
MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as Doctors Without Borders) recently posted a set of three animated videos about child vaccines as part of their latest advocacy campaign. The first one, titled “We Need Better Tools to Save Lives” is pretty straightforward – it’s a basic explanation of what is needed to vaccinate children, how MSF struggles to fill that need, and a quirky analogy about what it is like to not have that need filled. Simple enough.
The second video is a lot more direct. The show how the number of vaccines in the standard childhood vaccination battery, as well as the cost of those vaccines, have increased in the last decade. The video then takes a direct shot at pharmaceutical companies for keeping vaccine prices high in order to prioritize profits over saving lives. The debate on drug prices is a heated one, and everyone seems to have their own opinion on what “fair prices” for drugs are, but it is clear where MSF stands.
The last video was the one I personally found to be the most interesting. “Dear GAVI, Please Let Us Access Your Discounted Vaccine Prices” talks about how qualified governments are allowed to access GAVI’s low vaccine prices, but NGOs are not given access to them. MSF provides a more detailed description of their perspective on the issue in this press release:
MSF is also troubled by the fact that non-governmental organizations and humanitarian actors are excluded from accessing the GAVI-negotiated price discounts. MSF is often in a position to vaccinate vulnerable groups, such as refugee children, HIV-positive children, and older unvaccinated children who fall outside of the typical age range for standard vaccination programs. However, MSF has not been able to systematically access the lowest prices negotiated by GAVI, having to resort to lengthy negotiations with Pfizer and GSK over the last four years to access the pneumococcal vaccine. While the companies have offered MSF donations, this is not a sustainable, long-term solution for MSF as we work to respond quickly to needs in the field, and wish to expand vaccination of vulnerable groups in an increasing number of countries.
GAVI responded to the MSF campaign in this statement:
First, we agree with MSF – we do all want the same things. We want all children everywhere to be protected by immunisation. In fact, GAVI is proud to include MSF as a member of the GAVI Alliance. They are an active member of the steering committee of the GAVI Board’s Civil Society Organisation Constituency.
MSF first formally raised the issue of access to the same prices GAVI pays for vaccines at the GAVI Board meeting in December 2012. This issue is currently being discussed through the Alliance’s Governance channels. We find it disappointing that MSF, which knows and is engaged in the GAVI Governance process, has chosen to take on this issue as a public campaign.
MSF then offered this statement in response:
Thank you GAVI for publicly acknowledging our request for access to your vaccine prices. MSF has been frustrated by bilateral discussions, which have been ongoing for a few years now, with vaccine manufacturers and the GAVI Alliance on finding a solution for humanitarian actors to access pneumococcal conjugate vaccine at the GAVI price, and we anticipate that accessing GAVI prices for other new vaccines (for rotavirus, HPV) will also be a challenge. We ask GAVI to fast-track this process so that MSF can vaccinate more kids as soon as possible.
We often talk about issues of coordination (or lack thereof) and collaboration between different aid groups and funding organizations in the wake of natural disasters and humanitarian crises. It is interesting to see this kind of friction between different groups who are trying to do exactly that because of how complicated it can actually be.
The GAVI Alliance is an international public-private partnership whose stated mission is to increase access to immunization for children in poor countries. GAVI co-finances the cost of vaccines with qualifying countries. Participants include governments of developing and donor countries, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry, research and technical agencies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other philanthropic organizations.
Posted in Information and Social Media, Pharmaceuticals
Tagged advocacy, childhood vaccination, Doctors without Borders, GAVI, linkedin, MSF, Vaccines, video
This World Health Day, 7 April, WHO and partners focus on the global problem of high blood pressure. Many people do not know they have high blood pressure because it does not always cause symptoms. As a result, it contributes to more than nine million deaths every year, including about half of all deaths due to heart disease and stroke. Cut your risk of developing high blood pressure by: cutting down on salt; eating a balanced diet; avoiding harmful use of alcohol; doing regular physical activity; and avoiding tobacco use. Join the World Health Day conversation on Twitter @WHO – #CutRisks.
For more information: http://www.who.int/campaigns/world-health-day/2013/en/index.html
Posted in Information and Social Media
Tagged blood pressure, video, WHO, World Health Day
Around 3400 people lose their lives in road traffic crashes every day. For those who are left behind, road traffic crashes lead to a tremendous amount of pain and suffering and – in many settings around the world – to economic hardship. This video was produced to mark the launch of the Global status report on road safety 2013 on 14 March 2013 which presents information on road safety from 182 countries. The report highlights that worldwide the total number of road traffic deaths remains unacceptably high at 1.24 million per year, legislation and enforcement are still inadequate, and pedestrians and cyclists need to be better protected. Made possible through funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, this is the second in a series of Global status reports.
