A healthy start for babies in India

Posted on April 17, 2012 by John Ballenot

This week, more than 200 people, including representatives of the Indian government, nongovernmental organizations, and community health workers, met in New Delhi to celebrate the results of PATH’s Sure Start project, a seven-year effort funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to improve the health of families. Since its start in 2005, the unprecedented, community-based project has reached nearly 25 million people—about 2 percent of India’s billion-plus population—with services aimed at making childbirth safer and babies healthier.

Woman in orange and white head scarf holds book featuring illustration of mother and child.

A health worker talks to women at a Sure Start mothers’ group meeting. Photo: PATH/Gabe Bienczycki.

Sure Start’s results showed improvements in health behaviors and increases in the use of health services. Communities that hosted Sure Start projects, for example, saw large increases in the percentage of women receiving prenatal care, the number giving birth in hospitals, and the number adopting recommended breastfeeding practices. Continue reading »

Posted in Maternal and child health, Reproductive health | Leave a comment

The lure of a malaria vaccine

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Kathleen Donnelly

When Dr. David Kaslow joined the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) as director recently, he continued a professional career notable for his commitment to understanding the malaria parasite and developing a human vaccine against it. In advance of World Malaria Day on April 25, Dr. Kaslow answered a few questions about malaria, vaccine, and his work.

Q. You have a long history of working to develop an effective vaccine against malaria. How did you get started in the field, and what keeps you at it?

Mother and toddler sit in front of blister pack of medication.

Testing for malaria in Zambia. Photo: PATH/Gena Morgan.

A. Although I’m a physician trained in human genetics, my scientific career has focused on infectious diseases, starting at NIH (National Institutes of Health) in basic research studying the biology of the malaria parasite, in particular the stages that transmit the parasite from humans to mosquitoes.

After 13 years at NIH, I decided to learn industrial-strength vaccine development, both in big pharma and biotech. When the exciting opportunity arose to join the MVI team, I couldn’t resist picking up where I left off 13 years ago with malaria vaccine research and development. I’m very excited about MVI’s role in producing what could be the world’s first human vaccine against a parasite, a malaria vaccine candidate called RTS,S. I’m also excited about the prospects of next-generation malaria vaccines that either build off of RTS,S or use such innovative approaches as blocking the transmission of malaria between mosquitoes and people, thus breaking the disease cycle altogether. Continue reading »

Posted in Featured posts, Malaria, Vaccines and immunization | Leave a comment

Developing a stable malaria drug supply

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Kathleen Donnelly

World Malaria Day, set for April 25, comes during a time of great hope this year. Death rates worldwide—while still at more than 650,000 a year—are down significantly due to advances in prevention and control, and we’re closer than ever to a vaccine. This month, we’re taking a look at PATH’s work in malaria, starting with our new affiliate OneWorld Health, a nonprofit drug development program.

A woman in Zambia is tested for malaria. Photo: PATH/Gena Morgan.

In 2004, when OneWorld Health formed a partnership to develop an alternative source of the malaria drug artemisinin, supplies of the plant used to make the drug were distressingly low. Shortages were forecast, and global health advocates worried that the drug at the heart of the best available treatment for malaria wouldn’t make it to those whose lives it stood a good chance of saving. Continue reading »

Posted in Featured posts, Malaria | Leave a comment

Reason to love (a small portion of) your taxes

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Kathleen Donnelly

It’s almost time for the weekend, which, since it’s early April, means drudgery. If you live in the United States, it’s tax time.

Obviously, you will need diversion as you sweep together the diffuse bits of your financial life and ready it for federal inspection. The best we’ve seen so far comes from our friends at the ONE Campaign. ONE’s interactive tax tool lets you enter your annual income to find out how much you paid in federal taxes and how many of your tax dollars went to fund programs such as national defense, Social Security, and foreign assistance.

Interactive graphic image with circle chart.

Click on the image to go to the ONE Campaign's website and try the Tax Tool.

Continue reading »

Posted in Featured posts, HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Maternal and child health | Leave a comment

Disease under surveillance

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Kathleen Donnelly

In 2009, the government of The Gambia introduced a vaccine against pneumococcal disease, the most common cause of pneumonia. Since pneumonia is the leading killer of young children, the wisdom of immunizing them against its causes would seem to be a foregone conclusion. But science—and children—require proof.

Dr. Effua Usuf. Photo: PATH/Patrick McKern.

That’s where Dr. Effua Usuf and disease surveillance come in. Dr. Usuf, a native of The Gambia, is a research partner in a special study sponsored by the GAVI Alliance’s Accelerated Vaccine Introduction initiative, of which PATH is a partner. Dr. Usuf and her colleagues are using disease surveillance to help determine the effect of introducing the vaccine in The Gambia. Dr. Usuf visited our Seattle headquarters recently and explained the importance of disease surveillance.

Q: What is disease surveillance?

A: When we talk about disease surveillance, we’re talking about keeping watch. We’re looking out for disease in the community. It helps you to understand who gets the disease, and if you know who gets the disease, then you know how to help them better. Continue reading »

Posted in Pneumonia, Vaccines and immunization | Leave a comment

Phase change for the better

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Kathleen Donnelly

In Tuesday’s global health quiz, we asked what a phase-change material is and what it’s got to do with vaccines.

Blue plastic box and lid with vaccine vials inside.

The inner liner of this small vaccine carrier is made of a phase-change material that can keep vaccines chilled for up to 40 hours yet protects them from freezing. Photo: PATH/Patrick McKern.

A phase change takes place when a solid, liquid, or gas changes from one state to another without a change in its chemical composition. Think water freezing to ice, then melting to liquid again. Phase-change materials, or PCMs, either absorb or give off heat as they move between solid and liquid states. As temperatures cool, for example, a PCM in its liquid state becomes solid and releases stored heat. When temperatures go up, a PCM in its solid state becomes liquid, absorbing heat and cooling whatever’s nearby.

What gives PCMs even more potential is that the temperature at which they change phases can be higher than 32° F (0° C). This is helpful if your goal is to keep items within a certain temperature range—say between 32° F and 46° F (0° C to 8° C), the temperature range at which many vaccines must be stored to prevent spoiling.

PATH is working on including phase-change materials in a plastic liner that could be used as a protective barrier in vaccine carriers to keep vaccines from freezing. The carriers could work with traditional ice packs to help protect vaccines from heat when the temperature goes up and—just as importantly—they could help protect vaccines from freezing that can occur when frozen ice packs make the container too cold.

We’re now expecting to begin testing PCMs in vaccine carriers in Vietnam. We’ll keep you posted as results become available. In the meantime, for a look at more of our work in tools for vaccines, see our technologies for vaccines slideshow.

Posted in Featured posts, Health technologies, Vaccines and immunization | Leave a comment

An innovative alliance grows up

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Kathleen Donnelly

Lisa Cohen is founding director of the Washington Global Health Alliance (WGHA), whose members are dedicated to collaboration that creates activities and partnerships in global health that wouldn’t otherwise exist. Since its inception, WGHA has been housed at PATH. As the group approaches its fifth birthday, WGHA is pursuing nonprofit status and moving to new digs in the offices of Seattle Children’s Research Institute, an Alliance member. We caught up with Lisa long enough to ask a few questions.

Q: What’s going on with WGHA? Are you leaving PATH?

Lisa Cohen, founding director of the Washington Global Health Alliance. Photo: PATH/Mike Wang.

A: It’s not about leaving PATH or going somewhere else. It’s more about becoming a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. When the Alliance was formed five years ago, we didn’t know if this was going to take. We all agreed that we would be hosted by an organization to serve as the secretariat. PATH offered to host us, and we ended up staying for the life of our grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Now it’s become clear that the Alliance is adding value for our members. For example, we’ve increased the profile of the global health sector at the city, state, and national levels. So the time is right to move. But I cannot emphasize enough how great a partner PATH has been. The Alliance wouldn’t exist without PATH’s support. Continue reading »

Posted in Featured posts, General | Leave a comment

Presenting PATH’s new leader

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Emeline Cokelet Meneken

Steve Davis will join PATH as president and CEO June 11. Photo: Auston James.

We announced some exciting news today: PATH has a new president and CEO! Steve Davis, a proven innovator and versatile leader with a longstanding commitment to global health, will join us in June. Steve will build on PATH’s longstanding work of developing innovative health solutions for some of the world’s poorest communities. Read more in our press release.

Posted in About PATH, Featured posts | Leave a comment

Sputum fixers fight TB

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Kathleen Donnelly

It’s among the most intriguing job titles at PATH: sputum fixer.

Sputum fixers canvas their communities in rural Tanzania, asking people who suffer from a cough to deliver up a sample of mucus—called sputum—which they “fix” on a slide and deliver by bicycle to distant laboratories for analysis. Their objective: identify community members with active cases of tuberculosis (TB).

Sputum fixers like this young woman use bicycles to reach people who may have tuberculosis. Photo: PATH.

It’s a very personal process—one that points out the tricky nature of TB and the crucial importance of rapid diagnosis and effective treatment.

Find and treat

With World TB Day arriving on Saturday, the spotlight is on how dangerous TB can be if left undiagnosed and untreated. The World Health Organization estimates that, left untreated, each person with an active case of TB infects 10 to 15 other people every year. TB can be cured using medicines, but that requires swift diagnosis and treatment that takes about six months. That’s much longer than treatment for other diseases caused by bacteria.

Posted in Featured posts, Tuberculosis | Leave a comment

A reason to celebrate safe water

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Lesley Reed

In the village of Vavilala in Andhra Pradesh, India, one little girl embodies why we’re celebrating World Water Day on March 22. PATH’s Lesley Reed met her last fall.

Mani holds the stainless steel cup firmly in two hands, gives us a big grin, and downs the clean water, every gulp loud enough to make us laugh. Then the four-year-old runs to the sari that is tied to the rafter of her new house, sits inside, and swings.

Click the photo above to view our slideshow about a microfinance program that helped villagers like Madhavi and her daughters Mani and Anjana purchase home water filters. Photo: PATH/Gabe Bienczycki.

Mani was not in such impish form when she was two. “She was so sick, I was scared,” her mother, Madhavi, tells us. The toddler was struck with diarrhea, vomiting, and a high fever, a combination that can kill small children. The likely cause: the family’s drinking water, which comes from a shallow well and contains bacteria, viruses, and fecal matter. Continue reading »

Posted in Diarrheal disease, Featured posts, Water | Leave a comment