Resources

In the past decade, global investments have led to great progress toward improving the health of children in developing countries. Yet pneumonia and diarrhea still cause 25 percent of all child deaths. This infographic makes the case for controlling pneumonia and diarrhea simultaneously to achieve the greatest impact.

PATH and the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) work together to protect and improve health in developing countries. This fact sheet provides examples of successes that PATH, HHS, and our partners have had in developing and deploying new global health technologies to prevent, detect, and control epidemic and neglected diseases, advance health research, and save lives around the world.

People with deficiencies in the metabolic enzyme glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) are at high risk for severe anemia and its consequences if treated with certain anti-malaria drugs, the 8- aminoquinolines. These medications are used to kill the Plasmodium vivax (P. vivax) parasite, which causes about half of malaria cases outside sub-Saharan Africa. More than 400 million people worldwide have G6PD deficiencies, which are especially common in malaria-endemic regions. Best clinical practice requires testing for G6PD deficiency before administering the drugs, but tests that meet technical requirements and are appropriate for use in low-resource settings are not currently available. PATH aims to accelerate the development and introduction of a point-of-care (POC) G6PD diagnostic test to support the safe use of 8-aminoquinoline-based drugs in areas with P. vivax malaria.Test developers will need to evaluate their technologies throughout the product development process with blood samples expressing different G6PD levels that have been characterized by gold standard G6PD assays. However, collecting, processing, and maintaining a supply of samples would be costly and timeconsuming for individual companies. Obtaining specimens with a range of G6PD activities, from severely deficient to normal, is challenging because of the low prevalence of mutations in non-malaria-endemic regions, where most test development occurs.To address this need, PATH has established a repository of cryopreserved blood samples highly characterized for G6PD activity. The cryopreservation technique keeps red blood cells from rupturing and prevents loss of enzyme activity, so that cells can be analyzed weeks to months after blood collection. The specimens, recruited on a continuous basis, will be used at PATH to evaluate performance of the technologies as they progress through product development stages. Panels of specimens also are available to all product developers, ensuring global access to the resource and facilitating an accelerated G6PD diagnostic product pipeline.

To improve understanding of current uses of vaccine carriers and the needs of users, PATH conducted a literature review and an electronic survey to collect input from global and national stakeholders who have expertise with passive vaccine carriers or cold chain logistics. This report highlights the findings of our research.

This fact sheet provides an overview of rotavirus disease and vaccines in Mauritania. It includes information about the tremendous burden of rotavirus diarrhea in Mauritanian children, rotavirus diarrhea treatment and prevention strategies, and the effectiveness of rotavirus vaccines.