Global Health Weekly News Round-up

Politics and Policies

• The US federal government has awarded Iowa $7 million to prepare a computerized system that will help the small businesses and individuals to find affordable coverage. (Source: http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2011/11/29/feds-give-state-7-million-for-insurance-exchange-planning/ )
• US federal agency has rejected Indiana’s bid for an exemption from federal health care. (Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505245_162-57332830/feds-reject-ind-request-for-health-care-exemption/ )
• The House of Delegates, at its interim meeting in November, directed the AMA to use screening tools from the National Institute of Drug Abuse and others to identify the patients likely to abuse prescription drugs.                                                                                                                  (Source: http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2011/11/28/prsd1128.htm )
• From December 7-9, 2011, Kenya will hold its first national human resources for health conference which will avail a platform for placing health as a priority in the health strategy and national development towards vision 2030. The theme of the conference will be “Renewing commitment to the health workforce towards achievement of MDGs and vision 2030”. (Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201111291193.html )
• AstraZeneca Canada Inc., in partnership with mindyourbody and Physical and Health Educators (PHE) of Canada, together with the active involvement of the youth, has organized a program in Ontario, Canada. It is focused on improving the mental health and emotional well-being of vulnerable adolescents. (Source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/505390 )
• The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority will be posting no smoke signs within 15 feet of bus stops in Austin, Texas, beginning from February 1^st 2012 to prevent the non-smokers from inhaling the secondhand smoke. (Source: http://www.dailytexanonline.com/opinion/2011/11/28/capmetros-policy-breath-fresh-air )
• A recent study done by Dr. Avi Dor, professor in the Department of Health Policy at the GW School of Public Health and Health Services indicates a need to develop policies to encourage medication compliance which will lead to cost savings through healthcare system in the long run. (Source: http://www.newswise.com/articles/higher-patient-adherence-to-disease-modifying-therapies-reduced-costs-for-ms-patients )
• An invitation for the bid for consultant on public health authorities’ activities with the aim to protect the environment has been issued by the Ministry of Health of Azerbaijan. (Source: http://abc.az/eng/news_29_11_2011_60039.html )

Programs

• The first WHO European Conference on the New European Policy for Health – Health 2020, held in Jerusalem, Israel has called for working together across sectors for health and well-being. (Source: http://www.epha.org/spip.php?article4859 )
• In the 44^th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Nephrology, it was said that Healthy People 2010 met the goal of lower CVD deaths in CKD patients. (Source: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/754362 )
• The Global Fund will not be able to fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria until the year 2014. (Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57331033/massive-global-health-fund-says-its-broke/ )

Research

• A study done by a team at Harvard University involving stem cell transplant in the brain circulatory of mice could pave a way for effective treatment of Parkinson’s disease and autism. (Source: http://www.thehindu.com/health/medicine-and-research/article2659553.ece )
• According to a study done by the scientists at Indiana School of Medicine in Indianapolis, playing video games can make you aggressive. The research showed that the areas of the brain most affected were the left inferior frontal lobe and the anterior cingulate cortex. Once the gamers stopped playing, these areas of brain came back to normal. (Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/Lifestyle/Wellness/Violent-video-games-make-you-aggressive/Article1-775010.aspx )
• In a recent study done by scientists at Harvard School of Public Health, a relationship was found between coffee consumption and rate of occurrence of endometrial cancer. They found an inverse relationship and found that the women who drank four or more cups of coffee had significant reduction (25%) in the risk of endometrial cancer than those who limit themselves to one cup of coffee per day. (Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/Lifestyle/Wellness/Four-cups-of-coffee-can-prevent-womb-cancer/Article1-773052.aspx )
• The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has developed a new wet AMD drug known as EYLEA. This drug, when injected into the eye, will prevent the growth of abnormal blood vessels in the eye under retina to prevent their bleeding and preventing an abnormal blood loss. (Source: http://www.ffb.ca/research/research_news/eyelea.html )
• A new treatment for severe emphysema has been brought to light by the team of doctors at Thoraxklinik in Heidelberg, Germany. They used first endoscopic lung volume reduction system known as InterVapor that does not leave any foreign materials in the lungs but utilizes the body’s self-healing process for the treatment of this problem. (Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/29/idUS125291+29-Nov-2011+PRN20111129 )

Diseases and Disasters

• According to a CDC report, of the 1.2 million Americans who have HIV, 20% are unaware of their status. (Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-57333212-10391704/cdc-240000-americans-have-hiv-and-dont-know-it/?tag=pop;stories )
• Egyptian scientists prepare an anti-diabetes drug from balsam pear. It has properties similar to bovine insulin and it will be taken orally, which will be a relief for the patients on insulin injections. (Source: http://www.dawn.com/2011/11/29/egyptian-scientists-to-make-diabetes-drug-from-bitter-fruit.html )
• The 2010 data indicates that in India, the state of Andhra Pradesh has the highest prevalence of HIV/ AIDS. (Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/article2663262.ece )
• Nearly 6% of the population of Pakistan (about 10 million people) are infected with hepatitis C (Source: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011%5C11%5C28%5Cstory_28-11-2011_pg7_4 )
• The children in South Sudan are dying of preventable diseases. According to the UN, malaria is a hyper-epidemic in this country. It is said to be one of the biggest causes of miscarriage in pregnancy. (Source: http://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/s-sudan-children-dying-of-preventable-diseases-1.1188555 )
• The countries in East Africa have been hit by the nanana wilt and the Cassava Brown Streak disease which has affected the household incomes and raised the famine threat. A warning has been issued by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). (Source: http://digitaljournal.com/article/315074 )

These headlines were compiled by Vani Nanda, MPH Candidate at West Chester University PA.

Global Health News, Week of September 26-30

SECTION NEWS
The Advocacy/Policy Committee would like to invite you to participate in our first Advocacy Day, led in partnership with the Global Health Council. The day, scheduled for Thursday, November 3rd, 2011, immediately following the annual meeting in Washington, D.C., will be an opportunity for us to voice support for a continued focus on international health to our elected officials. With the intense Congressional pressure to cut the budget, our voices can make a real difference. As a participant during this exciting day, you will be provided with training materials on effective advocacy techniques to ensure your message is clearly heard. Even if you do not have advocacy experience, you need not hesitate to sign up because you will be teamed with others. Please consider joining your fellow International Health Section members on Thursday, November 3rd, 2011 on Capitol Hill to advocate for a healthy globe. Interested parties should register here. Please note that registration will close on October 14th. Any questions should be directed to Peter Freeman, Advocacy/Policy Committee Chair, at pffreeman@gmail.com or 773.318.4842.

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The University of Washington has launched the first full year of its Global Health Minor program!

POLITICS AND POLICY

• Tobacco companies knew that cigarettes contained a radioactive substance called polonium-210, but hid that knowledge from the public for over four decades, a new study of historical documents revealed.
• Latin American leaders have agreed to accelerate their efforts to address maternal health at the 51st Directing Council of the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization.
• Journalist Georgianne Nienaber looks at the impact of PEPFAR and how it may be impacted by budget battles in Congress.
• Earlier this week, the World Health Organization released a report analyzing air pollution levels in nearly 1100 cities in 91 countries. The analysis was based on air particulate levels between 2003 and 2010.
• When it came out a while ago that the CIA had used a fake vaccination scheme to try to find out where Osama bin Laden might be in Pakistan, many said it would undermine real health and humanitarian efforts. Here’s one group’s story.
• Foreign aid has acquired a bad reputation in recent years, as something usually wasteful and useless. Yet all this sound and fury has overshadowed the evidence that aid often can work.
• A report by the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health finds that over 100 countries have increased financing for maternal and child health initiatives.
• The humanitarian impact of the world economic crisis became clearer this week, as the UN warned of huge job losses, a rise in the number of people afflicted by chronic undernourishment, and the “extraordinary price” being paid by children as “austerity programs” constrict the developing world.
• There is enough water in the world’s rivers to meet the demands of the expanding global population, but the rivers have to be better managed, according to a series of studies released today at the 14th World Water Congress in Porto de Galinhas, Brazil.
• UNICEF has called on the IMF and World Bank to ensure that children are not negatively impacted by austerity measures carried out by various countries.

PROGRAMS

• The New York Times shows how male circumcision is one of the most effective and simple solutions in HIV reduction, but has so far been hard to implement.  Meanwhile, a group of economists, including Bjorn Lomborg, are casting doubt on the cost-effectiveness of voluntary male circumcision campaigns as an HIV prevention measure.
• The New York Times features an article about the simple innovation of using vinegar to detect if a woman has cervical cancer by applying it with a brush to the cervix.
• The Global Fund, the world’s largest funder of global health, is set to radically shake up the way it disburses and manages donor money, in a move to boost efficiency that could reallocate a third of its financing in order to save more lives.
• On Tuesday, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization announced that it will be expanding its target vaccine areas to directly address diarrhea and pneumonia.
• UNFPA has announced that it is now collaborating with UNICEF to combat Female Genital Mutilation.

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

• Spanish researchers are pleased by the results from the MVA-B vaccine trials, but this ABC report warns that there is still work to be done until a complete vaccine can be discovered.
• A slew of mobile initiatives are revolutionizing the way that healthcare is delivered in Africa and other developing communities. Doctors and hospitals in remote areas are getting information and assistance to improve health services in poor communities across the continent.
• New research suggests that coffee may help ward off depression over the long term, especially for women.
• A way to protect newborns against the flu, say researchers, is for mothers to be vaccinated while pregnant.
• A vaccine that triggers the body to start fighting malaria earlier is being developed by a group of researchers and students at Michigan State University.
• The drug industry is increasingly running trials in the developing world because its cheaper, regulations aren’t as onerous, patient recruitment is easier and informed consent is less clearly defined.
• Unprotected sex is up and knowledge about contraceptives is down among global youth, says a recent survey.
• AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition Mitchell Warren says many folks ask whether an AIDS vaccine is still needed and if the search for an AIDS vaccine is affordable in today’s economic climate. The answer is yes, and Warren explains why.

DISEASES AND DISASTERS

• Roads may accelerate spread of antibiotic resistance: Samples from villages by major roads in Ecuador compared to more rural villages shows antibiotic resistant E. coli is spreading along roads.
• The recent heavy flooding caused by the monsoon in Pakistan, most devastating in Sindh, has affected the lives of over five million people. The Health and Nutrition Cluster is appealing for US$45.9 million. WHO requires US$14.8 for response for Health, Nutrition and Water and Sanitation intervention.
• New enterovirus causes respiratory disease: Promed reports on 6 clusters of respiratory illness associated with human enterovirus 68 in Asia, Europe, and the United States during 2008–2010.
• More than 20 percent of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean lacks basic sanitation and 15 percent has no access to drinking water because of poor management, said experts at a meeting that ended Thursday in Brazil.
• The likelihood of water-borne disease outbreaks is high in areas in Philippines recently devastated by Typhoon Nesat.
• Aid groups are criticizing the U.S.government delay on deciding whether to resume large-scale food donations to North Korea. The charities warn that many vulnerable people in the impoverished communist state could die from starvation.
• In a new report on rabies, the WHO finds that 45% of cases in the world take place in Southeast Asia.
• A decade-long study of 135,000 men found that those who did not have children had a higher risk of dying from heart disease than those who did, raising new questions over the links between fertility and overall health,U.S. researchers said on Monday.
• More money is needed to save lives in famine-ravaged East Africa, with the UN saying it’s something like $700 million through year’s end. The World Bank announced from Washington it would boost its aid to area countries to nearly $1.9 billion.  As if famine weren’t enough, Nick Kristoff tells us that as Somalis stream across the border into Kenya, at a rate of about 1,000 a day, they are frequently prey to armed bandits who rob men and rape women in the 50-mile stretch before they reach Dadaab, now the world’s largest refugee camp.
• An explosion of new technologies and treatments for cancer coupled with a rapid rise in cases of the disease worldwide mean cancer care is rapidly becoming unaffordable in many developed countries, oncology experts said on Monday.

TOTALLY UNRELATED TO ANYTHING – Twitter knows what you’re feeling!

All Kinds of Belated News (Week of September 18-24)

SECTION NEWS

The Fall 2011 Newsletter has been posted!  Be sure to check out recent announcements, section updates, links to recent blog entries, and lots of fellowship opportunities!

The Advocacy/Policy Committee would like to invite you to participate in our first Advocacy Day, led in partnership with the Global Health Council. The day, scheduled for Thursday, November 3rd, 2011, immediately following the annual meeting in Washington, D.C., will be an opportunity for us to voice support for a continued focus on international health to our elected officials. With the intense Congressional pressure to cut the budget, our voices can make a real difference. As a participant during this exciting day, you will be provided with training materials on effective advocacy techniques to ensure your message is clearly heard. Even if you do not have advocacy experience, you need not hesitate to sign up because you will be teamed with others. Please consider joining your fellow International Health Section members on Thursday, November 3rd, 2011 on Capitol Hill to advocate for a healthy globe. Interested parties should register here. Please note that registration will close on October 14th. Any questions should be directed to Peter Freeman, Advocacy/Policy Committee Chair, at pffreeman@gmail.com or 773.318.4842.

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The G+ Vaccines Challenge has been launched!  G+, a new online community launched by Gerson Lehrman Group, has partnered with IndieGoGo and StartUp Health to solicit early stage ideas for tackling problems and inefficiencies in vaccine delivery  in-the-field, distribution and development. Finalists will have the unique opportunity to present their ideas to a panel of investment, NGO and corporate and life sciences professionals with the influence to advance those ideas towards realization.  You can find more information about the challenge here.

APHA NEWS

Dr. Benjamin is currently on a teaching sabbatical at Hunter College in NYC. Alan Baker (former Chief of Staff at APHA) returned to serve as Acting Executive
Director in the interim.

UN HIGH-LEVEL MEETING ON NCDs

• The UN held its first-ever meeting on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases.  Global health journalist Tom Paulson provided some great coverage of the event on the Humanosphere blog.
• World leaders unanimously adopted the NCD Summit Outcome Document at the General Assembly in New York.
• On the sidelines of the General Assembly meeting in New York, the United States and WHO signed a memorandum of understanding to help developing countries boost capacity to meet the International Health Regulations.
• The cost for the developing world to address NCDs, based on the WHO’s recommendation to increase budgets by 4%, will be $11.4 billion.

POLITICS AND POLICY

Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates appears poised to endorse the adoption of a controversial financial transactions tax (FTT) to be used as a new source of development aid for poor countries.

PROGRAMS

• The multibillion dollar Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria must do a better job managing its grants to partner countries, according to an independent review panel.  A seven member panel investigating the Global Fund has recommended that it place greater emphasis on results and improve risk management.  In the Center for Global Development blog, William Savedoff is concerned that the new report suggesting changes for the Global Fund will move it away from innovating.
• USAID has announced that it will be giving a $200 million grant to the Public Health Institute to support its global health fellows program.
• Private and public actors have lined up to support Every Woman Every Child and its goal of preventing 33 million unwanted pregnancies.

RESEARCH

Researchers at the 51st Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in Chicago announced that they were able to reduce the level of HIV in infected people through cell-based therapy.

DISEASES AND DISASTERS

• The privacy curtains that separate care spaces in hospitals and clinics are frequently contaminated with potentially dangerous bacteria, according to a U.S. study.
• If today’s momentum and progress against malaria can be sustained, deaths from this infectious disease could be reduced to near-zero, and cases of infection cut by 75 per cent in the next decade, says a recent report by the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership.
• Depression may go hand in hand with a number of other physical health problems, including heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Now the latest evidence suggests that depression may also increase the risk of stroke.
• Polio has spread to China for the first time since 1999 after being imported from Pakistan, the World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed.

TOTALLY UNRELATED TO ANYTHING: Melinda Gates is now on Twitter!

Global Health News Last Week

September 5 was Labor Day.

POLITICS AND POLICY

• The State Department has announced the official US Delegation to the UN High Level Meeting on NCDs, which will take place September 19-20.
• Access to affordable lifesaving medicines will be threatened where they are needed most—in parts of the developing world—if the U.S.insists on implementing restrictive intellectual property policies in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, says Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders).
• Sarah Boseley shares the great news that Kenya has officially made female genital mutilation illegal.
• A federal appeals court in Virginia has dismissed two lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.
• United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon singled out sustainable development as the top issue facing the planet with the world’s seven billionth person expected to be born next month. Key to this was climate change, and he said time was running out with the population set to explode this century.
• Thousands of proposed cuts in the US Congress could lead to significant cuts to USAID.
• The Philippines reproductive health bill is still making its way through the senate.  Meanwhile, 7 villages in Bataan, the Philippines have banned “artificial contraception” amid national debate over the bill.
• A report co-authored by an Australian academic highlights the need for healthy ecosystems as the basis for sustainable water resources and stable food security for people around the world.

PROGRAMS

• Sometime this fall, the world’s population will reach 7 billion people. Experts now forecast that by 2050, the population could be 10 billion. Some say those numbers should force policy makers to focus more intently on making family planning much more widely available in the developing world.
• The Institution of Mechanical Engineers has put together a one day conference bringing together innovators and health workers to share ideas about ways to more easily deliver interventions.
• It has been commonly held that insecticide treated bed nets reduce the rate of malaria for people who use them. Now there is hard evidence to back up that assumption.

RESEARCH AND INNOVATIONS

• A new study shows that less than three doses of the vaccine against cervical cancer can effectively protect women in the developing world where 80% of global deaths due to cervical cancer take place.
• Only three African countries are on track to achieve MGD 5, according to an African Institute for Development Policy study.
• Most efforts in the Western world seeking to find solutions for developing world problems tend to think of inventing new technologies or, at least, using the tools we typically use to fix things — modern drugs for diseases, improved seeds for crops, a better mousetrap. Sometimes, all you need is a newly geared donkey. 
• Scientists may have developed a new TB vaccine after tests showed the elimination of TB from infected tissue in mice.
• A socially active lifestyle can dramatically speed up weight loss through the burning of fat in mice, a study shows. Researchers at Ohio State University in the US identified a link between the amount of social interaction in a mouse’s environment and its weight.
• An easy-to-use diagnostic chip for HIV could “give results in minutes” and be a game changer in the field of cheap diagnostics for remote regions, claim the researchers who developed it.

DISEASES AND DISASTERS

• Having to contend with U.S.army drones and the crossfire between the Taliban and the Pakistani army, the residents of Pakistan’s tribal areas find access to treatment for HIV/AIDS harder than in most other parts of the world.
• Three-quarters of a million people are facing death by starvation in Somalia according the United Nations, who declared Monday that famine had spread to a sixth southern region of the beleaguered Horn of Africa state.  Meanwhile, an investigation has revealed that masses of food meant for famine victims in Somalia are being stolen. There have also been reports of rioting and killings during food distribution at camps for famine victims.
• A magnitude 6.6 earthquake struck 100km southwest of the city of Medan, Sumatra and 110km beneath the earth’s crust.
• A New York Times editorial castigates the international community’s response to the cholera outbreak in Haiti.
• The CEO of insulin manufacturer Novo Nordisk says the WHO should buy low cost diabetes drugs in bulk for the developing world.
• Messages of good health and positive self-esteem for girls aren’t hard to come by in kid lit, so what’s the deal with all the attention for a not-yet-published rhyming picture book about an obese, unhappy 14-year-old named Maggie?

INFOGRAPHICS AND OTHER MEDIA

• Interaction has published an online “Horn of Africa Aid Map” showing 98 aid and development projects working on immediate famine relief as well as long-term development in East Africa.
• There may not be any zombies, vampires or mutant monsters wreaking bloody havoc on innocent people, but the fact that “Contagion” has a premise that experts say is all too plausible may make it the scariest movie of the season.
• A new index from Save the Children establishes the safest – and most dangerous – places in the world for a child to fall sick, which correlate closely with their chances of getting to see a health worker.

Global Health News, Week of August 28-September 3

Global Fund round 11 is now open for proposals.

GREAT LEARNING OPPORTUNITY

A seven-part webinar series, called the “Outstanding Presentations Workshop,” began this Wednesday and is available for free to all who register. Each one-hour seminar will be streamed live over the next few weeks on Wednesday and will be recorded for later viewing.  Take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to improve your presentations and spare your audiences death by PowerPoint. More information is available here, and the schedule can be accessed here.

POLITICS AND POLICY

• In Uganda, the landmark legal case of Jennifer Anguko, a mother who died while she was in labor for 12 hours in a government hospital, will begin in early September.
• Critics of the World Health Organization say it needs to redefine and reposition itself within the increasingly complex and convoluted field of global health. These experts suggest that the world will not suffer if the WHO cuts certain programs while narrowing its focus.
• In the United States, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists are promoting the use of IUDs as the “most effective form of reversible contraception available and safe for most women.”
• The Global Fund may cut its contributions to China by half.
• USAID Admin Dr. Raj Shah announced that $23 million in new aid will be directed towards the Horn of Africa crisis.
• Anonymity is no longer a right of people seeking HIV/AIDS tests in China, and the change has lead to a significant drop in the number of tests being performed.
• The Asian Development Bank has called for Asia-Pacific countries to collaborate on combating HIV/AIDS at the International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific.
• Tension between the United States and Pakistan will not prevent USAID from continuing to support health, energy and education systems says the USAID Pakistan Chief.
• The epidemics of diabetes, heart disease and cancers that have stricken the populaces of wealthy countries are spreading to the developing world, yet the United Nations lacks an agreement, let alone an overall goal, on how to limit the preventable illnesses and deaths arising from these so-called non-communicable diseases. The British Medical Journal reports many developed countries, including the U.S. and Canada, are resisting specific targets for reduction in fats, sugars and salt in processed foods.

PROGRAMS

• Overall, more newborn children are surviving, but slower progress in cutting death rates among babies in the first weeks of life is putting the global goal of reducing child deaths by two-thirds in jeopardy.
• One expert says as the question of aid effectiveness has moved to the centre of development debates. If donors want to make their aid more effective, then they need to engage strategically with the private sector.
• In the Washington Post, Michael Gerson makes the “pro-life” case for increased support for contraception and family planning worldwide.
• UNICEF and international NGOs are working to raise awareness and encourage West African communities to invest in the construction of more pit latrines. Pit latrines, say advocates, can drastically reduce the spread of diarrhea, cholera and worms.

RESEARCH

• A study published in Lancet finds that the workers who took part in the efforts to rescue people from the World Trade Center on 9/11 are at a high risk of suffering physical and mental illness.
• A study by the Elizabeth Glaser Paediatric AIDS Foundation in Uganda and Zambia found high rates of syphilis and HIV co-infection among pregnant women, but showed that “integrating rapid syphilis screening and HIV testing for pregnant women was feasible, cost-effective, and helped to prevent transmission of syphilis and HIV from mother-to-child.”
• A genetically engineered virus may be the key to combating cancer, says a group of scientists.
• Believed to only help children under four, researchers have determined that the rotavirus vaccine also reduces deaths in children between the age of five and fourteen.
• Researchers who have tracked Haitian cell phone SIM cards relative to the cholera outbreak are optimistic that their findings will lead to future use of the same technology for other outbreaks.
• Scientists may have found a critical weakness in Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria. Researchers say the discovery provides a promising target for new malaria therapies.
• Engineers at Michigan State University are developing a low-cost mobile phone application that can detect certain types of cancer.
• Danish scientists say mosquito populations are dropping in many parts of Africa, even in parts where there are no human efforts such as insecticide spraying or bed net distributions underway.
• A study published in the British Medical Journal reports a 24% reduction in deaths in children who received vitamin A.
• A new approach to malaria vaccines grows the parasite inside mosquitoes and extracts vaccine components from the salivary gland.

DISEASES AND DISASTERS

• A study published in Nature says that the last three waves of cholera can all be traced back to the Bay of Bengal.
• Despite a massive humanitarian effort after the 2010 earthquake, females in Haiti remain neglected, rights activists say, lacking access to care as they give birth to babies in squalid conditions, often as a result of sex in trade for food or other necessities.
• UN FAO warns that the bird flu is on the rise in Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia and Vietnam.
• Reports from the Libyan capital Tripoli say a humanitarian crisis appears to be emerging following the ouster of long-time ruler Muammar Qaddafi. There is a shortage of medicine, fuel, food, water, and power supplies, and growing piles of uncollected garbage.
• Polio has been reported in China and Kenya.

Thanks to Tom Murphy and Mark Leon Goldberg, Tom Paulson, Isobel Hoskins, and UN Wire.

Global Health News Last Week

SECTION NEWS

The following announcement, from Eric Williams, calls for any IH section members interested in assisting efforts to address federal global health and HIV/AIDS funding.  Please see the text of the announcement below.  Eric can be contacted by e-mail at ericwms@gmail.com.

Dear Colleagues,

I’m writing to request assistance in a “grasstops” effort to address federal global health and HIV/AIDS funding. As you are likely well aware, there have been serious threats and concerns regarding global health funding over the last several years. There is a real need to mobilize influential members of our community in an effort to ensure that Congress does not backtrack on our global health commitments.

I am doing some consulting work with amfar and they want to identify experts, donors, high-profile individuals and/or organizations in select states who can reach out to key Senate leadership. We need these individuals/organizations to show and voice their support for continued and sustained commitments for global health.

States of focus include Nevada (Sen. Harry Reid), Iowa (Sen. Tom Harkin), and Washington (Sen. Patty Murray). We believe these senators are in key positions to influence appropriations decisions and sure up support for global health.

The aim of this effort is to:

1. identify grasstop individuals/organizations and
2. plan, coordinate, and carry out outreach efforts to Senate leadership in a variety of ways, including state-level meetings, Hill visits, op-eds, sign-on letters, and so forth.

If you are interested or able to provide assistance in helping to identify and/or reach out to the above stakeholders, I would be very interested in speaking. If there is strong support for this I would be happy to facilitate a conference call to discuss in full.

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August 19 was World Humanitarian Day.

POLITICS AND POLICY

• The CDC has made updates to its flu vaccination recommendations aimed at children and people with egg allergies.
• The United Nations has released a list of 248 organizations from 48 nations that are accredited to attend the UN High Level Meeting (HLM) on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) during September 19-20, 2011.  Meanwhile, as has been widely reported (including here and here), negotiations have stalled over an “outcomes document” that is to be approved at the meeting.
• The World Health Organization is calling for a ban on a common blood test for TB, saying the test is unreliable.
• Twenty-two children in Kancheepuram, Indiawho were not allowed to go to school because they are HIV positive have been ordered to return to school after a court ruled in favor of the students.
• International funding for HIV fell by 10 percent in 2010 from the previous year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation and UNAIDS; activists worry that a continued reduction will undermine progress in global HIV prevention and treatment efforts.

PROGRAMS

• A study from Senegal published in the Lancet at the beginning of this month raises doubts over Gates’ plant to beat malaria, blaming mosquitoes’ growing resistance to insecticide and decreased immunity to malaria among the local population.
• The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Japan International Cooperation Agency have announced a strategic partnership to ensure continued progress in the fight against polio, including an innovative financing agreement to support polio-eradication efforts in Pakistan.
• USAID announced the expansion of its Indoor Residual Spraying program. The $189 million, there-year contract awarded by USAID to Abt. Associates will cover the implementation of IRS activities in Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
• WHO has released Psychological First Aid: Guide for Fieldworkers, a guide intended to provide field workers the tools to provide psycho-social support to themselves and those affected by a disaster or humanitarian crisis.
• The first comprehensive etiology study of childhood pneumonia in 3 decades has been launched. Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) will be a collaboration between sites in Africa, Asia and the International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

RESEARCH

• USAID has announced a partnership with the Infectious Disease Research Institute that will provide support for the research of a malaria vaccine at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
• UNDNJ researchers have discovered a link between TB and parasitic worms which act to thwart the body’s natural defenses against Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
• A Canadian study has found that a pregnant woman suffering from depression can lead to brain changes in their children.
• Researchers have identified 17 new antibodies with broad activity against HIV; some of which are 10 times more potent than previously discovered antibodies.
• The recent news about hiding vegetables by puréeing them and then adding them to recipes may make meals healthier, but if children don’t know they are eating vegetables, they won’t know to seek out those foods and eat them in future, says Isobel Hoskins on the CABI Global Health blog.
• Microcalorimeters may be the key to achieving TB diagnosis in a quicker and cheaper manner, say researchers in a recently published article in the Journal of Applied Microbiology.
• According to a recent UN study, 9 million lives can be saved over the next 10 years if average global salt consumption levels dropped by 15%.

DISEASES AND DISASTERS

• The WHO Says Libya is facing a medical supply crisis.
• The United Nations food agency called on Thursday for long-term aid for farmers in the Horn of Africa, saying constant crises in the region should shame the world.
• A report by the National Institute of Malaria research in Delhi has found that climate change will enable malaria to move to new areas.
• New research finds that radiation from the nuclear plant accident in Japanin March reached Californiawithin days, showing how quickly air pollution can travel, but scientists say the radiation will not hurt people.
• According to an article published in Science, 19 August, cases of Chagas disease are rising outside Latin America, because large numbers of people who are already infected are migrating fromLatin America.
• Len Rubenstein comments on the attacks on healthcare personnel inBahrain and the recent progress made to protect healthcare workers in conflict zones.

INFOGRAPHICS AND OTHER INTERESTING VISUALS

• Sarah Arnquist at the Global Health Hub has put together an open source timeline of global health milestones from the past century.
• The GAVI Alliance has released this infographic on the importance of childhood vaccines.
• This infographic on maternal mortality from Maternal Health Taskforce has caught the attention of Jen Quraishi at Mother Jones for the choice of data used to fill it out. She argues that comparing total maternal deaths rather than per capita rates makes it hard to assess nations side by side.

Thanks to Tom Murphy and Mark Leon Goldberg, Larry Johnson (filling in for Tom Paulson), Isobel Hoskins, and Jeff Meer.

Global Health News Last Week

The Supercourse team at the University of Pittsburgh has taken the initiative to spread the WHO’s definition of health, “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”  They have translated the definition into over 60 different languages using Google translate and have asked health professionals to review them to make sure they are correct.  This global health knowledge campaign is being developed by the Supercourse team, WHO Collaborating Centre, University of Pittsburgh.  Please contact Dr. Ronald LaPorte, Director, Professor of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh, for more information.

July 28 was the first-ever World Hepatitis Day.

POLITICS AND POLICY

• As the UN gears up for its Summit on Non-Communicable Diseases this September, blogger Michael Hodin argues that by focusing on this issue, the world body has a “new shot at relevance” in an era where its importance is decreasing (and countries contemplate cutting its funding).
• Former U.S. Ambassador on HIV/AIDS Jack Chow says the CIA’s fake vaccination scheme in Pakistan, aimed at locating Osama Bin Laden, threatens to undermine a broad set of American global health initiatives.
• The U.S. government and the Gates Foundation were responsible for 85% of the steep increase in malaria funding between 2007 and 2009. Richard Tren argues that we need to diversify funding sources and focus on control efforts.

PROGRAMS

• The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has teamed up with FC Barcelona to promote the polio eradication campaign.
• To raise awareness about violence against women in Europe, the UN has opened up a contest to design a newspaper advertisement in support of the UN Secretary-General’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign. View submissions and the winning entries here.
• Seattle-based development blogger Tom Paulson continues to raise some interesting issues regarding the Gates Foundation’s funding of media coverage for global health issues.  Their latest venture is a weekly program on the BBC.

RESEARCH

• Researchers have cracked the DNA code of the strain of E. coli that originated in German sprouts and killed over 50 people this summer.
• A cell phone that doubles as a blood-oxygen tester is one of the 77 mHealth innovation finalists for the Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development competition.
• A study conducted by the WHO found that France, the U.S., the Netherlands, and India have the highest rates of depression in the world, while China has the lowest.  Detailed interviews were conducted with over 89,000 individuals in 18 countries.
• It is becoming more apparent that one of the most effective ways to deal with HIV/AIDS is to address neglected tropical diseases, argues the Public Library of Science in Eureka Alert.
• A study of the lifespan of HIV patients receiving combination ARV therapy by researchers at University of Ottawa has found that patients can expect to live a near normal lifespan.
• Researchers at Oklahoma University believe that a protein-based vaccine could prevent many cases of childhood pneumonia.
• Dutch researchers have found that children who were not breastfed were more likely to develop respiratory problems such as asthma.
• The first stage of trials for a new malaria vaccine by Swiss researchers in Tanzania have shown promising results.
• Has announced in a study in Pediatrics that the varicella vaccine for chickenpox has reduced the annual death toll in the United States from 105 to 14. Tests are in progress that could lead to major family planning advances. The New York Times reports on some innovations in male contraceptives that could offer safe and effective contraception.

DISEASES AND DISASTERS

• The Agbogbloshie slum outside of Accra, Ghana, is a major electronics waste dump.  This site is an example of what happens to “donated” discarded electronics: residents burn them to extract precious metals and simultaneously exposed to a host of hazardous chemicals, as the goods release lead, mercury,
  thallium, hydrogen cyanide, and PVC.
• A recent article by a global panel uses startling images to call attention to the woeful state of neglect and inadequate treatment of mental illness in developing nations.

Global Health News Last Week

POLITICS AND POLICY

Human Rights Watch has urged the Bahraini authorities to halt what it said was a “systematic campaign” to intimidate doctors and other medical staff suspected of sympathising with recent anti-government protests.

PROGRAMS

• The GlobalPost has been doing an excellent series of stories examining President Barack Obama’s Global Health Initiative (GHI) is focusing on in Guatemala. Slow in its implementation and hampered by little new money, GHI was supposed to be an example of Obama’s new, innovative commitment to global health.
• The King of Swaziland has called for all of the men in the South African nation to get circumcised in order to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.
• Results from a pilot program in Philippines have shown that deaths from rabies can be dramatically reduced when taking a community driven bottom up approach.
• A child in Khartoum, Sudan is the first to receive a rotavirus vaccine, kicking off a campaign to vaccinate children in 40 low and middle-income countries.

RESEARCH

• A recent report from UNAIDS cites data from a recently released South African study that shows the effectiveness of male circumcision reducing HIV prevalence in men.
• A campaign to encourage African men to get circumcised to prevent infection by HIV gained a powerful boost on Wednesday by three new studies unveiled at an international AIDS forum in Rome.
• A new study has found that women in conflict areas want to utilize
  contraceptives, but only 4 to 16 percent are able to gain access.
• At the International AIDS Society, one of the big stories is a CDC study showing the drug Truvada prevented HIV transmissions in more than 60 percent of heterosexuals. The study’s author Dr. Michael Thigpen discusses how much Truvada costs, why HIV is so pervasive among women in Botswana, and how much people must take the drug for it to be effective.
• Researchers have discovered that chloroquine, often used to treat malaria, may be effective in treating other autoimmune diseases.
• An antiviral drug to combat HIV/AIDS synthesised by genetically modified plants is being tested on a small number of women in the UK to establish its safety, reports the Guardian.
• A recent study has shown that stress experienced by a pregnant mother can have a negative impact on the development of the child in the womb.
• Researchers presenting at the 6th International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogens, Treatment, and Prevention in Rome, say that they have inched closer to a vaccine by leveraging a genetically altered version of SIV.

DISEASES AND DISASTERS

• The World Health Organization is sounding the alarm on hospital safety and infections acquired while patients are in a health care facility, saying that a hospital  stay is riskier than air travel.
• Researchers have determined that Hepatitis C can be transmitted sexually, after performing a 5 year study on HIV positive MSM.
• Famine in parts of southern Somalia has killed tens of thousands of people, mostly children, the UN said Wednesday in an official declaration of what aid officials describe as the worst humanitarian crisis in the troubled country in two decades.
• A new study warns that Pakistan “risks becoming the last global outpost of [polio], this vicious disease.” The disease has also resurfaced in four other countries.
• Even in developing countries where child mortality is falling, the poorest under-fives are at high risk of dying from entirely preventable diseases because they do not receive basic immunization and have no treatment for diarrhea.
• Peter Hotez, president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, says new studies indicate a parasitic infection, schistosomiasis, may be one of the most important — and least recognized — co-infections increasing the risk of HIV transmission.
• An All Africa editorial examines how the price of drugs leads to deaths that could be otherwise averted.

CGDev Videos: Beyond Bullets and Bombs – Fixing the U.S. Approach to Development in Pakistan (panel)

First Panel:

Second Panel:

Husain Haqqani, Pakistani Ambassador to the White House:

Global Health News Last Week

May 12 was International Nurses Day.
USAID’s Frontlines magazine is running an exclusive interview with Dr.

Margaret Chan, the WHO Director-General, in which she discusses current global health priorities and systems strengthening.

Peoples-uni, an open-access education initiative, offers open-access resource and online learning materials for capacity-building in low- and middle-income countries.

POLICY

• Excessive bleeding following childbirth is the leading cause of maternal deaths in the developing world, but the World Health Organization (WHO) has now approved the use of misoprostol, a drug that considerably reduces this risk.
• Shanghai’s health authority and local hospitals are seeking to reduce the rate of births by cesarean section this year after a recent report showed that far more Shanghai women are undergoing the procedure than is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
• For the fifth time, at next week’s WHO General Assembly, countries will debate whether or not to destroy the last two known stockpiles of smallpox.
• The Director General of Nigeria’s drug and food regulator, Dr. Paul Orhii, was in London last week where he lodged a strong case before members states of the World Health Assembly to institute a legal platform to combat the spread of counterfeit drugs.

PROGRAMS

• Humanosphere’s Tom Paulson writes that funding for childhood vaccinations is not keeping up with the need and is struggling to compete with more high-profile priorities.
• The phenomenon of “poverty tourism” – in which charities and aid organizations take donors on trips to “experience poverty” and meet their beneficiary – is coming under increased scrutiny and generating controversy.
• John Donnelly, writing in GlobalPost, characterizes the Obama Administration’s Global Health Initiative as off to “a slow, stumbling start” in a short series called “Healing the World.”
• Last Wednesday, the WHO launched a campaign to reduce the huge but largely unrecognized burden of traffic deaths and injuries over the next decade.

RESEARCH

• An HIV-positive person who takes anti-retroviral drugs after diagnosis, rather than when their health declines, can cut the risk of spreading the virus to uninfected partners by 96%, according to a study.
• New research has revealed that a bacteria present in the gut of mosquitos may be another tool to fight the spread of malaria.
• An experimental drug helped monkeys with a form of the Aids virus control the infection for more than a year, suggesting it may lead to a vaccine for people, or even a cure.
• A study by US scientists, published in the American Journal of Public Health, found that 400,000 females aged 15-49 were raped over a 12-month period in the DRC 2006 and 2007. That comes out to an average of 48 women and girls being raped every hour.
• A new report by MSF argues that switching from using quinine to artesunate to treat malaria could save up to 200,000 lives a year.
• A US study has suggested that homosexual men are more likely to have had cancer than heterosexual men.
• According to the findings of the last Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey, getting pregnant soon after childbearing, miscarriage or abortion places mothers and newborns at a higher risk of health complications or even death.
• Results announced today by the United States National Institutes of Health show that if an HIV-positive person adheres to an effective antiretroviral therapy regimen, the risk of transmitting the virus to their uninfected sexual partner can be reduced by 96%.

DISEASES AND DISASTERS

• According to statistics released by the National Coordinator of the Nigeria’s National Malaria Control Program (NMCP), Dr. Babajide Coker, Nigeria contributes a quarter of the malaria burden in Africa, and a staggering 90 per cent of its citizens are at risk for contracting the disease.
• Johnson & Johnson’s recalled at least 11,700 bottles of HIV/AIDS drug Prezista in several countries, after discovering trace amounts of a chemical emitting offensive odors in five batches of products sold in the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Austria and Canada.
• In China, around 1.5 million people require organ transplants, but just 10,000 receive them each year, as few Chinese agree to donate their organs upon death. Illegal organ traffickers have stepped in to fill that gap.

TOTALLY UNRELATED TO ANYTHING ELSE: Princess Beatrice’s atrocious weird attention-grabbing hat, worn to the royal wedding, is now being auctioned on eBay for UNICEF and Children in Crisis. Um, yay?

Cholera Lifts the Painted Veil over Haiti (and elsewhere)

Imagine yourself in the day-to-day in a crowded, dirty tent camp as a refugee somewhere. You have to stand in line for bottles of clean water, your health care comes from a medical charity with a trailer, and you never know whether your next meal will come from UN trucks or your own resourcefulness to scrounge something that your neighbors have not already found. You do the best you can, though, and you look forward to the good days when you can turn a nice big bag of beans or something into a meal to divide with your family in a tent that is inevitably too small for you. On bad days, though, your water might be tainted with Vibrio cholerae, a nasty little bug with a very short incubation time. You might not feel so good a few hours after that meal – and by the same time the next day, you could be dead.

Cholera is an aggressive water-borne disease that is currently running rampant through the world, the news, and the global health blogosphere. An outbreak reared its ugly head in Haiti last week when five cases were detected in Port-au-Prince. The disease has since spread through the population: 284 people have died so far, and over 3,600 people have been infected. Despite so many people living in high-density refugee camps with little to no sanitation, many are still surprised: it is the first time the island has seen cholera in 100 years, and after nine months I guess people were beginning to entertain the optimistic notion that the earthquake-ravaged nation might be able to avoid it. The debate over whether or not the outbreak (which some are already calling an epidemic) is contained rages on. Meanwhile, a much larger epidemic is running rampant through Nigeria  (though I suppose having eleven times as many cases and five times as many deaths will still not make you more noteworthy than Haiti – after all, Nigeria sees cholera every year). It has already appeared in flood-affected areas of Pakistan and in the aftermath of the mostly-ignored floods in West Africa. Basically, where there are floods, natural disasters, and/or refugee camps, there is cholera.

This year’s floods are the worst Benin has seen since 1964. Photo taken by Salako Valentin/AP.

The extremely rapid spread of the disease through disaster areas underscores the extreme importance of prevention planning and education. In Haiti, for example, you would think that a nine-month lag would have allowed for ample time to have systems in place to deal with this kind of outbreak, but that unfortunately does not appear to be the case: Melinda Miles, director of Let Haiti Live, told UN Dispatch last week that “it is absolutely stunning that so little was in place to prepare for [the outbreak]…It is certain that many unnecessary deaths will be the result of poor planning and slow response.” On the other hand, Care has held hygiene awareness sessions for more than 10,000 people affected by the flooding in Benin. Even if cholera never appears, preparations for it are never in vain: having clean water, proper sanitation, and stocks of oral rehydration salts are always a good idea.

Pushing for Polio Eradication: Does a Vertical Approach Make Sense in a Horizontal World?

The global polio eradication effort suffered an unexpected setback this year.  An outbreak began in February in Tajikistan, which had not seen a case of polio in 19 years, and 452 cases have been confirmed as of August 5.¹  From there, it has migrated to Russia, where it has infected seven individuals.^1,2  Russia’s last confirmed case of polio was in 1996.  This outbreak is a discouraging reality check for a two-decade eradication effort that hovers on the edge of success but cannot quite seem to reach it.

Image taken from the 2009 Annual Letter from Bill Gates. Available at: http://www.gatesfoundation.org/annual-letter/Pages/2009-polio-eradication.aspx

After the successful eradication of smallpox in 1979, global health organizations have pushed a similar “vertical” approach to eradicate other disease.³  The polio eradication campaign, which began in 1988, has been aggressively carried out with a similar mindset and has been largely successful.  Incidence has been reduced by over 99%, with less than 1,000 cases reported in the year 2000 compared to 350,000 in 1988.  In Africa, ten of the 15 previously polio countries re-infected in 2009 successfully halted their outbreaks.⁴  It is currently only endemic in Nigeria, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.^2,4  For the last ten years, however, the initiative has “hovered on the verge of victory” without being able to reach it.⁵  There were 1,604 cases in 2009, and 576 cases have been confirmed globally so far this year.²  The effort has cost approximated $8.2 to date.³ 

The long-standing fight against polio has raised an interesting discussion about this and similar approaches to public health: are singularly-focused health efforts such as disease eradication the best way to work toward health improvement?  Large scale donors, such as the Gates Foundation and Rotary, typically prefer these “vertical” strategies because the benefits seem clearer and more immediate; “horizontal” strategies, on the other hand, such as strengthening health systems, training workers, and increasing supplies, have less well-defined goals, and long-term change is much more difficult to measure.³  The ongoing struggle for polio eradication has re-energized this debate.  Global health stakeholders responded in June with a new Strategic Plan, which builds on findings from a recent independent evaluation of the eradication effort and proposes a combined approach of  area-specific strategies to target remaining reservoirs of polio and targeting health system weaknesses.⁴  This plan will hopefully inspire organizations working in the effort to make the final push toward wiping out polio for good.  When the plan was unveiled in Geneva, however, Dr. Margaret Chan of WHO called on the international funding community “stand tall for polio eradication,” reminding us that the effort can still falter in the face of economic crisis if funding lapses.  It will be interesting to see how much longer smallpox will stand alone on the list of eradicated diseases.

Spotlight on Maryam Bibi, an extraordinary woman, on International Women’s Day

The twittersphere is abuzz today with tweets from people, government agencies, and NGOs celebrating International Women’s Day.  The call to continue working to improve health and human rights for women across the globe is loud, clear, and multi-voiced.  And although much still remains to be done for women in developed and developing countries alike, the voices of high-profile women and the tireless work of individuals and organizations committed to bettering the lives of women are making great strides.

But while governments and large aid machines attract most of the attention given to work in women’s health, it is often the work of individuals that is the most moving.  Amid all of the “#internationalwomensday” tweets over the course of the day, the one that caught my eye was the Acumen Fund calling attention to Maryam Bibi, an extraordinary woman who has worked for women’s health and education in Waziristan since 1993.

Image courtesy of the Times Online.

Ms. Bibi set up Khwendo Kor (a phrase in Pashto meanings “Sisters’ Home”), an agency in Peshawar that works with women in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province to improve their education, health, and economic well-being.  The organization began in one village with four staff members; now it works in more than 300 cities and has over 340 staffers.^1,2,3  Khwendo Kor focuses primarily on social organization, community-based education for women, microcredit, primary health care, and advocacy, and it collaborates with men and local leaders to accomplish its goals.¹  It has trained 180 young women as village-based teachers and established 170 community schools, and over 200 women have been given opportunities to begin small businesses through microcredit.^2,3  Through her schools, approximately 6,500 girls have been educated, and 3,500 are currently enrolled.³  She has received multiple awards for her work, including the Fatima Jinah Medal (2003) for outstanding women in the social sector and the Star of Excellence National Civil Award (2001) in Pakistan, the UN’s Recognition of Services award (2000), and the ILO’s Human Rights Award (2001).^1,2,3

Despite international honor and recognition for her work, Ms. Bibi still faces considerable opposition and danger close to home.  While she enjoys walking to work, she says that “the office vehicle often collects me.”⁴  Radical religious organizations slander Khwendo Kor through mosques and local media.  Children’s learning centers established by the organization have been blown up.  Their vehicles have been stolen, staffers have been shot at, and fatwas have been issued against them.  Ms. Bibi can no longer stay late in her office because of death threats.  Still, she is not deterred.  “Some people say that I am an elderly lady and that I should be ashamed of myself doing this work: that I should be sat at home and saying my prayers. But as an elderly woman I would like other elderly women to join me because this work is a matter of our children and our future generations and we have to do something to bring about change.” ²