When your child has malaria

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Guest Contributor

To commemorate World Malaria Day and World Immunization Week, our partners in African research centers who are working on a malaria vaccine have been writing about their personal experiences with malaria. Today, Winston Mbanda, communications officer at the Kenya Medical Research Institute/Centers for Disease Control in Kisumu, Kenya, tells of the time his own daughter, Joy, fell ill.

On December 1, 2010, my wife Isabel, a high school teacher in Bungoma District, western Kenya, and our two daughters, Hope and Joy, were traveling to join me in Nairobi for December holidays. It had been a while since we had met as a family and we greatly anticipated the exciting moment of reunion.

When they arrived, Isabel informed me that Joy, then three and a half years old, was complaining of headaches. Initially, we thought the headache could have been caused by the six hours of traveling from Bungoma to Nairobi. That evening we gave her some painkillers, but the following day she still complained about having a headache.

Could it be malaria?

Since my family had come from western Kenya, where malaria is common, we suspected Joy could be suffering from malaria and took her to a private clinic for treatment. Three days after the malaria treatment, she started complaining of headaches again. She also ran a high temperature and lost her appetite.

Two young girls with their arms around each other smile for the camera

Winston Mbanda’s daughters Hope, left, and Joy, who recovered from malaria. Photo: Courtesy of Winston Mbanda.

We decided to take her to Nairobi Outpatient Hospital for further checkup. At the hospital, a number of tests were done and she was found again to be suffering from malaria. She was treated and seemed to improve, although she still had a high temperature and her appetite didn’t improve.

On the fifth day after treatment at Nairobi Outpatient Hospital, she started vomiting and her temperature rose as high as 39 degrees Celsius (102.2 Fahrenheit). We took her back to the hospital, but we were referred to the Kenyatta National Hospital, the biggest public referral hospital in Kenya. Continue reading »

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

Without US support, a lag in research?

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Guest Contributor

Guest contributor Claire Wingfield is a product development policy officer with PATH’s Advocacy and Public Policy team.

The US government is a major driver of groundbreaking global health research and development, providing 70 cents of every public-sector dollar that supports the development of products to improve health worldwide. Without that funding, research into a vaccine to prevent malaria, treatments for drug-resistant tuberculosis, and tests to quickly diagnose disease at the farthest reaches of the health system—to name just a few current projects—could stall or stop. And we could lose the opportunity to save or improve millions of lives, including our own.

Young boy standng with left hand to mouth.

Support for global health from the US government helps all of us. Photo: Path/Gabe Beinczyci.

This budget year, progress in global health research and development is threatened by severe cuts in funding. For the sake of continued progress in global health and development—as well as global security and economic prosperity at home—we must not scale back now. Continue reading »

Posted in About PATH, Featured posts, Health technologies | Leave a comment

The truth about diarrhea

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Jolayne Houtz

Today is World Water Day, a time to recognize that an estimated 780 million people lack access to safe water, and to acknowledge just what that means in human terms. If everyone had access to safe water, for example, almost 90 percent of deaths from diarrheal disease could be prevented. To commemorate the day, we bring you the story of Jane Wamalwa, who knows just how devastating diarrheal disease can be to a family, and how best to avoid diarrhea’s sad consequences.

Jane Wamalwa lost three children to diarrhea. Photo: PATH/Gabe Bienczycki.

The first to die was her little boy, just five years old when he got sick. The following year, Jane Wamalwa lost a second child, this time her 18-month-old son. When her baby daughter fell ill two years later, Jane knew what was going to happen next and felt powerless to stop it.

She watched in despair as her third child succumbed to an illness that is both deadly and easily preventable: diarrheal disease.

Strategies that beat diarrhea

In western Kenya, where Jane lives, diarrhea is one of the top causes of death for children under five years old. The tools to prevent these deaths are surprisingly simple, affordable, and effective. But how do you reach parents with information and strategies to avert such tragic and needless losses?

That’s where Jane comes in. Selected by village leaders and trained by PATH, Jane is now a community health worker taking the fight against diarrhea door to door in her community. Her deeply personal understanding of the disease’s consequences makes her a powerful ambassador for the tools and techniques that can save children’s lives. Continue reading »

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

Help us protect funding for global health

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Rachel Wilson

It’s budget season in Washington, DC, and this week, a resolution will likely be introduced in the US Senate that’s sure to be the target of damaging amendments proposing deep cuts to international assistance programs.

Two smiling women, one holding an infant, clasp hands in greeting.

In Kenya, US support funded a PATH-led project that helped mothers learn about better nutrition for their babies. PATH Photo: PATH/Evelyn Hockstein.

In the past few months, we’ve been telling you just how important funding from the US government is, not only for the work we do at PATH, but also for the health of people worldwide. Today, we’re going to do something unusual for PATH. We’re going to ask you to help us preserve that funding.

Crucial source of support

Of course, we have a very personal interest in the US budget, which funds a significant part of our work. Investment from the American people is helping to support the development of a new malaria vaccine, strengthen health services for people living with HIV/AIDS in Kenya, and improve diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis in countries across the globe, to name just a few of the projects that result from our partnership with the US Agency for International Development. All of these interventions have the potential to save or improve the lives of millions of the world’s most vulnerable people.

These projects, and most global health programs, are funded by the International Affairs budget, which makes up just 1 percent of the overall US budget. Nevertheless, this portion of the budget has weathered deep cuts recently, decreasing by nearly 20 percent over the last three years.

Improving life for others, and ourselves

It’s clear that every federal department and agency must contribute to tackle our nation’s debt. But severe cuts to the International Affairs budget could devastate cost-effective programs that save lives, respond to humanitarian crises, tackle the root causes of conflict and extremism, and build new markets for US goods and services.

As people who believe in improving life for others as well as ourselves, it’s vitally important to let our representatives know this week that we oppose amendments that include harmful cuts to international programs. We encourage you to contact your representatives and let your voice be heard.

To amplify our voices—and give you a simple way to contact your representatives—we’re partnering with the US Global Leadership Coalition, a bipartisan group of businesses, nonprofit organizations, former legislators and policymakers, and retired military leaders. At the coalition’s website, you’ll find a sample message for your legislators that you can send with just a click of your mouse. We urge you to find the time to take action this week, and help ensure that vital investments in global health are preserved.

Posted in About PATH, Featured posts, HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis | Leave a comment

Good question: can we stop TB?

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Kathleen Donnelly

Tuberculosis (TB) has been with us for thousands of years—an airborne respiratory illness that by 1882 was the cause of an astounding one of every seven deaths. In spring of that year—March 24, to be exact—Dr. Robert Koch announced he had isolated the bacteria that cause TB. His discovery led to a test to detect the disease, a vaccine to prevent it, and, eventually, antibiotics to treat it. But TB is a complex disease, and despite advances, it continues to kill nearly a million and a half people each year.

Dr. Lal. Photo: PATH.

Every March 24th, those who are working to stop TB—including our team at PATH—take the opportunity to commemorate Dr. Koch’s work and bring attention to tuberculosis. This year, the theme of World TB Day is “stop TB in my lifetime.” Considering the disease’s long history, is that possible? We asked Dr. S.S. Lal, who recently joined PATH as TB technical director for our HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis Global Program.

Dr. Lal: The question is simple, the answer is not. Yes, theoretically it is possible to stop TB. The TB community has set a target to eliminate TB by 2050. Elimination means there will be less than one new TB case per million people per year. Right now, there are more than a thousand cases per million people per year, so you can see elimination is a very ambitious target.

We have to diagnose TB, treat it, and cure it. We also have to prevent it. And there are challenges in each of these. Continue reading »

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

In the news: buzz cut for vaccine research?

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Claire Hudson

This week, journalists took us to the insectary at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research to find out what sequestration will do to the search for malaria vaccine there. We also learned about a place that gets 12 times as much rain as our headquarters’ hometown, Seattle, and yet doesn’t have enough clean water, and saw our own CEO widely quoted on the “iPods” of poverty alleviation.

Sequestration puts malaria vaccine trial in jeopardy

Voice of America, March 12, 2013

Poster reading "Protect your child from malaria."

A poster warning against malaria in Kenya. Photo: PATH/Eric Becker.

No buzz is heard. But you can almost feel the vibration of 10,000 mosquitoes … Welcome to the mosquito insectary at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. It’s where insects are grown and vaccines are developed. Scientists here want to create the first malaria vaccine the world has known—to protect U.S. soldiers in malaria-prone countries. Drug companies would produce the vaccine and extend its protection to half the world’s population that lives in countries where malaria is present. But, officials say the mandatory budget cuts, called sequestration, will affect further testing of a potentially cutting-edge malaria vaccine, soon to be published.

Read the article.

Rain or not, India is falling short on drinkable water

The New York Times, March 12, 2013

Almost no place on Earth gets more rain than this small hill town. Nearly 40 feet falls every year—more than 12 times what Seattle gets. Storms often drop more than a foot a day. The monsoon is epic. But during the dry season from November through March, many in this corner of India struggle to find water. Some are forced to walk long distances to fill jugs in springs or streams. Taps in Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya State, spout water for just a few hours a day. And when it arrives, the water is often not drinkable.

Read the article.

More than 200 million women will need contraception by 2015

Huffington Post, March 11, 2013

The percentage of married women or women in couples who use at least one contraceptive method has grown over the past two decades, from 55 percent in 1990 to 63 percent in 2010. But new projections suggest that the demand for modern contraception remains high: By 2015, 233 million women worldwide will have an unmet need for contraception, according to a United Nations study published Monday.

Read the article.

To reduce global poverty, we need to tackle noncommunicable diseases

Forbes, March 11, 2013

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs)—including cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease, and diabetes—are the leading causes of death in the world, by far. In its most recent report, the World Health Organization estimates that of the 57 million deaths in 2008, 36 million, or 63 percent, were due to noncommunicable disease. A quarter of those were people younger than 60; millions more live with the debilitating effects of these diseases for years.

Read the article.

Meet your new R&D team: social entrepreneurs

Bloomberg, March 8, 2013

The smartest minds in social innovation are increasingly committed to engaging with the private sector to make significant changes in areas like health, education, and poverty. As Steve Davis, former lead in McKinsey’s Social Innovation practice and president of the global health NGO, PATH, has said: “The best social innovations are not necessarily widely adopted. The ‘iPods’ of poverty alleviation and literacy have likely been invented and put to use by small organizations in some corner of the globe, but there is no market for identifying these breakthrough ideas and ensuring widespread adoption.”

Read the article.

Posted in Family planning, Featured posts, Malaria, Noncommunicable disease, Reproductive health, Vaccines and immunization, Water | Leave a comment

Picture the world without tuberculosis

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Kathleen Donnelly

Tuberculosis—an airborne disease that kills 4,000 people a day worldwide—continues to be a public health crisis in many developing counties, including Vietnam. In 2011, nearly 100,000 people in Vietnam were diagnosed with TB. Thousands died from the disease.

World TB Day—March 24—focuses attention on a disease that worldwide kills a million and a half people every year, even though we know how to cure it, often at low cost. Since the day’s theme this year is “Stop TB in my lifetime,” it seems fitting to invite you to view some colorful educational paintings and posters from two contests organized by PATH and the Vietnam National TB Program. Many of the artists are school-age children and fine-art students. Ending TB within their lifetimes seems an entirely realistic goal.

Click on images to enlarge.

Ways to end tuberculosis

The contests are meant to educate people about TB and encourage them to support the National TB Program’s goal of eliminating the disease. They also help reduce stigma about TB and those who contract it, and generate interest in prevention, treatment, and control of the disease. And they give participants and their families a reason to learn about the TB epidemic—often through the packet of informative materials each participant receives as a spur to their creativity.

The contests are just one way PATH works with national and international partners to stop TB—in Vietnam and elsewhere. You can read about how PATH training helped one Vietnamese pharmacy owner help her clients and learn more about our work to stop TB in Vietnam and across the world by visiting the pages listed below.

More information

Posted in Featured posts, Tuberculosis | 1 comment

Solving the mystery of missing vaccines

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Steve Davis

It’s a sobering fact: as much as 50 percent of vaccines purchased go missing between manufacture and delivery, which translates to millions of lost doses for children whose lives depend on effective vaccination. In the immunization world, it’s a problem called “wastage.” And we all stand in line at grocery stores every day casually using the very technology that could be a big part of the solution.

Steve Davis. Photo: Auston James.

It’s a bar code. If every vaccine vial carried one, we could conceivably track it all the way from a supplier in Belgium or India to a child’s arm in Africa or Asia. Bar code technology and web-based repositories of data could allow us not only to see where vaccines are going, but also to manage inventory, prevent shortages, and ensure that vaccines are sent where they’re most needed. And don’t forget what it could mean for reducing costs.

It’s a little overwhelming to think about while waiting in the checkout line. So I recently cohosted with Seth Berkley of the GAVI Alliance a TED Challenge to help solve how we develop next-generation data and delivery models to reduce vaccine waste.

One day, one vaccine solution

TED, the well-known convener of people with interesting ideas, brought together leaders in the immunization field for a special day-long session as part of its conference in Long Beach, California. Our mandate was to tackle a problem that stands in the way of millions of children receiving all vaccines recommended by the World Health Organization. We set ourselves an ambitious goal: to reduce vaccine wastage by 10 billion doses by TED’s fortieth birthday in 2024.

The reasons vaccines don’t make it to children are varied—from the challenges inherent in pen-and-paper recordkeeping to the difficulties encountered in bringing innovations in vaccine delivery to scale in the world’s toughest environments. For a great summary of how vaccine delivery does (or sometimes doesn’t) work, watch this video from Project Optimize, a collaboration between PATH and the World Health Organization.

Continue reading »

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

In the news: cancer in developing regions

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Claire Hudson

More than half of new cancer cases diagnosed each year are found in less developed regions of the world. Treatment and prevention in these countries, as Sarah Boseley reports in her global health blog, are often scarce. This week, cancer experts in two wealthy countries—the US and UK—issued a joint statement commenting on the problem. It’s just one of the stories we found interesting.

Leading scientists sign up to global cancer manifesto

The Guardian, March 6, 2013

A male health worker in a white coat sitting across a desk from a woman in a sari makes notes on a piece of paper.

A woman and health worker discuss the results of a test to detect signs of cervical cancer. Photo: PATH/John Sellors.

First we had European cancer experts deliberating on the shores of a Swiss lake in Lugano. Now today the premier cancer research organizations in the world, led by the National Cancer Institute in the US and Cancer Research UK, are speaking out. They are saying much the same things: it is time to take what we know about basic cancer prevention and care into the poorest countries of the world. It is also time to rethink the way ahead for cancer research, so that everybody benefits and money is not wasted on hugely expensive but ineffective treatments.

Read the article.

Cooler South Atlantic causes malaria rise in India

The Times of India, March 5, 2013

Everybody knows that the world is interconnected, but this takes the cake: colder than normal sea temperature in the tropical South Atlantic appears to cause malaria epidemics thousands of kilometers away, in northwestern India.

Read the article.

Gates, UW teaming up on massive health study

The Seattle Times, March 4, 2013

When Bill Gates laid out his foundation’s priorities for the coming year, better measurement of health trends around the world was at the top of the list. On Tuesday, Gates and researchers at the University of Washington will announce ambitious plans to help achieve that goal with more-frequent updates to global death and disease statistics that used to take a decade or more to compile and analyze.

Read the article.

AIDS researchers and global health community ponder a reported cure

The Washington Post, March 4, 2013

AIDS researchers, advocacy organizations, and global health officials spent Monday trying to determine whether the report that a baby girl born in Mississippi was cured of the infection is a therapeutic breakthrough or a scientific curiosity.

Read the article.

Posted in HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Noncommunicable disease | Leave a comment

Malaria’s deadly mythology

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Guest Contributor

The PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative and GlaxoSmithKline are working with African research centers on clinical trials of the most clinically advanced malaria vaccine candidate. For our partners at the research centers, malaria is a daily concern not only in their work lives, but also in their personal lives. In advance of World Malaria Day, several of them wrote about their personal experiences with malaria. We’ll be sharing their stories on our blog, starting today with guest contributor John Tanko Bawa, a project manager and communications officer for our partners in Kumasi and Agogo, Ghana.

I grew up in an environment where mishaps, including illnesses, were attributed to mysterious forces, supernatural beings, and local myths. The causes of the maladies would range from punishment by the gods or deities to it being one’s predetermined destiny.

Man in stripped shirts speaks with two middle-aged men.

John Tanko Bawa, at right, meets with village chiefs in Agogo, Ghana. Courtesy of John Tanko Bawa.

Whenever someone had malaria in my community, people said he’d eaten too much red oil, as in my community, malaria was “caused” by red oil and sun. “Staying out under the sun causes malaria,” they’d say, or “the consumption of too much red oil causes malaria.” Pito, a locally brewed gin from millet, was a “malaria therapy,” and so on.

A “destiny” of malaria

When children started showing signs of fever, they would be covered with layers of heavy cloth and placed near a bucket of hot water mixed with various herbal concoctions for 30 to 60 minutes as a therapy. This unfortunately aggravates the rise in a child’s temperature, and often leads to convulsions. On such occasions, women would be barred from touching the child, and in the absence of a male family member, a mother would have to run around the community looking for a male to assist her. If a man was found, he would pick up the child and rush him or her to the nearest traditional healer to administer herbal preparations and invoke the powers of the ancestors to intercede. Continue reading »

Posted in Featured posts, Malaria | Leave a comment