April 25, 2013

As the world celebrates World Malaria Day, Peace Corps members are out in full force in 23 countries across Africa. From the Huffington Post:

The Peace Corps Stomping Out Malaria in Africa initiative was launched in partnership with the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), a multi-agency program led by the U.S. Agency for International Development and implemented together with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The effort combines the grassroots focus of Peace Corps volunteers in villages and towns in 23 African nations, with promotion of the inexpensive, but effective, tools of malaria control: insecticide-treated bed nets, rapid diagnostic tests, and malaria medicines made with artemisinin, a plant extract long used in Chinese herbal medicine to cure children or adults with the disease.

The global malaria fight is succeeding. Deaths have decreased by a third, from a million per year, over the past decade. Across Africa, Peace Corps volunteers, in alliance with PMI advisors and in-country USAID health teams, national malaria control programs, and nonprofit partners, are working to defeat the illness that experts say has killed more people than any other in human history.

In rural Burkina Faso, Peace Corps volunteer Bridget Roby noticed that though members of her community had life-saving mosquito nets, not everyone was using them. The Global Fund and PMI deliver millions of nets every year, and the vast majority of those are used and cherished. But every net that goes unused is a child unprotected, a chance to do better.

When Bridget looked at her community and thought, “We can do better,” the solution that jumped out at her was… to take pictures. She asked every mother who was already using her net to pose next to it for a picture, then she posted those on the wall of the health clinic as a public honor and reminder. Soon those who had not been using their nets were approaching Bridget to ask, “Can I have my picture taken? I use my net now.” Bridget had helped change the social norm.

In Ben Gascoigne’s village in Senegal, people had nets and were using them, but many were full of holes. A needle and thread costs a few pennies, a small knot over a hole is free. Ben wondered how to underscore the importance of repairing the nets?

Ben wanted to show villagers how much money was being spent to treat malaria. So he gathered as many empty rice sacks as the villagers could have bought with the money they were spending on malaria medications in a year. It was 196 sacks — over $6,000 worth of rice. He filled the sacks with straw and lined the road leading to the health clinic. When his neighbors asked, he said: “This is how much more rice the village would have if you prevented malaria instead of treating it. Would you like to learn how to repair your net?”

Peace Corps volunteers, in villages and towns across Africa, are complementing the work of global partners. Getting mosquito nets and malaria diagnostics and medicines to those in need is a core focus of PMI. But the last steps in those communities, such as making sure nets are used and repaired and medicines are taken, is the type of grassroots work where Peace Corps volunteers excel.

For more than 50 years, volunteers have been finding elegant solutions to these last mile problems. But too often those solutions lived proudly in one village alone.

The Internet can change that, giving innovative solutions virtual visas to travel across the globe. Over the past two years, volunteers in the Stomping Out Malaria in Africa initiative have leveraged free online tools and cloud computing — Skype, Google Drive, Facebook and Wordpress — to collaborate across a connected Africa. Bridget’s wall of photos is now being replicated in Mozambique and Ghana and Ben’s rice sack illustration could help convey the cost of malaria in other villages around the continent.

April 24, 2013

The Gates Foundation is hosting the first Global Vaccine Summit in Abu Dhabi that will bring together the world’s leaders and propel progress towards vaccine coverage.

The Summit, focused on the power of vaccines, is being held during World Immunization Week (April 24-30) to continue the momentum of the Decade of Vaccines – a vision and commitment to reach all people with the vaccines they need. Ending polio is a critical milestone in this vision.

Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will deliver a keynote to celebrate progress and honor the individuals, communities, partners and nations that have made success possible. The speech will be webcast live at www.globalvaccinesummit.org.

“Vaccines work to save lives and protect children for a lifetime,” said Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “By investing in stronger immunization systems, we can protect our gains against polio and reach mothers and children with other health services.”

The world is coming together around the Global Vaccine Action Plan, endorsed by nearly 200 countries last May, to develop better and more affordable vaccines and deliver them through stronger routine immunization systems. If we succeed, we can save more than 20 million lives and prevent nearly one billion illnesses by 2020. This will save nearly $12 billion in treatment costs and achieve more than $800 billion in economic gains as vaccinated children live longer, healthier, more productive lives.

“The Global Vaccine Summit is an historic gathering of global leaders and innovators whose collaboration can have a significant and positive impact on ensuring a healthy global society. Under the guidance of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Abu Dhabi, we remain committed to supporting the delivery of lifesaving vaccines to children around the world,” said His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

“Immunization is one of the most cost-effective ways to prevent disease and safeguard young lives,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “The global success so far in fighting polio shows how far we can advance. Our great progress came thanks to an international alliance of partners. Today, we have a window of opportunity to end polio forever.”

The Global Vaccine Summit is being held in partnership with His Highness General Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

April 23, 2013

Oral arguments began on Monday for the case AOSI v USAID over the inclusion of the anti-prostitution pledge in PEPFAR. From Humanosphere:

The anti-prostitution pledge is part of the Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which was launched in 2003 by President George W. Bush. It stipulates that not only are international organizations that receive PEPFAR funds prohibited from supporting prostitutes, they must also pledge their opposition to prostitution and sex trafficking.

Opponents say the rule violates first amendment rights and undermines efforts aimed at improving safety within the sex industry. Proponents say it’s needed if we are to make progress against human trafficking and exploitation of women.

“The split is about whether you support the sex industry,” said Norma Ramos, executive director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, to Reuters.

Mie Lewis argued in the ACLU blog, “[T]he Constitution forbids the government from engaging in such moral compulsion. The First Amendment is, at its core, a shield against government intrusions into belief.”

Opponents of the rule argue that it is not a matter of explicit support for the sex industry and trafficking. They point to the unintended consequences that is now backed up by recent research. A research article in the Journal of the International AIDS Society took a look at how organizations reacted.

It found that organizations changed or retreated on HIV programs that targeted sex workers. Given that combating stigma is one of the most effective ways to reduce the spread of HIV, the change in policy by organizations contributes to continued stigmatization against certain groups.

PEPFAR’s anti-prostitution pledge has had unintended consequences on NGOs, local organizations and primarily, the provision of services to sex workers and clients. Outreach staff indicate that HIV prevention has been less successful since the inclusion of the pledge, and local HIV Incidence rates reflect this, particularly among sex workers and people presumed to be sex workers, including some gay men and transgender people.

The Alliance for Open Society International and the Watertown, MA based reproductive health NGO Pathfinder International filed a case against the rule in 2005. A US District Court ruled in June 2006 that the rule likely violated first amendment rights and issued a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of the pledge requirement against AOSI and Pathfinder International.

“We took on this case because we believe it is critical to preserve the ability for all organizations to provide a range of life-saving health services without sacrificing the right to free speech. This policy limits our ability to engage with key affected populations in the fight against HIV and AIDS and has broader implications for other health delivery in the future,” said Purnima Mane, President and CEO, Pathfinder International.

When the Global Health Council and InterAction (memberships that account for a large portion of US-based international NGOs) joined 2008 the organizations and their members also benefited from the injunction. The US government revoked its appeal to rework its guidelines for the rule before refiling the appeal in January 2010 to the Second Circuit court. Again, it ruled in favor of the first court and continued its injunction against the rule.

April 22, 2013

An earthquake struck China’s Sichuan province over the weekend. Relief efforts are under way as reports show 182 people died and over 8,000 were injured. From CNN:

The Sichuan Red Cross estimated that drinking water in Ya’an City will run out within three days despite rescue workers’ efforts to deliver supplies to quake-hit area. In more remote areas, where the shifting earth muddied river waters, people anxiously awaited evacuation, Xinhua said.

Thousands of emergency workers, including soldiers, rushed to reach the affected zones in the hilly region, but their progress was impeded.

Huge mountain chunks near the quake’s epicenter in Lushan County have sheared off and fallen into valleys. Boulders have landed on roads, making emergency work difficult. Buildings were flattened in the county, and others had severe structural damage.

Xu Mengjia, the Communist Party chief of Ya’an, the city that administers the area where the quake struck, told state broadcaster CCTV that because of landslides and disruption to communications, determining the total number of casualties will take some time.

The Chinese government allocated 3 million yuan (about $480,400) to rescue and relief efforts Sunday, a day after Chinese Premier Li Keqiang traveled to the area from Beijing, state media reported.

Li spent Saturday in Lushan County, leading the response near the quake’s epicenter, then visited hospital patients Sunday, Xinhua reported.

The quake struck just after 8 a.m. local time Saturday, about 115 kilometers (71 miles) from the provincial capital, Chengdu, at a depth of around 12 kilometers, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. There was conflicting information about the earthquake’s strength, with the USGS putting the magnitude at 6.6 and the China Earthquake Networks Center gauging it at 7.0.

It was followed by a series of aftershocks, some of them as strong as magnitude 5.1, the USGS said.

Authorities have sent rescue workers to the area around the epicenter, briefly halting flights at the airport in Chengdu and suspending high-speed rail operations, state media reported.