India's Greatest Public Health Achievement

"It gives me great pleasure to announce that the World Health Organization has taken India's name off the list of polio-endemic countries,"said Ghulam Nabi Azad, India's Minister of Health and Family Welfare, at the Polio Summit. The World Health Organization took India's name off of the list of polio-endemic countries on Saturday, 25 February.

Only recently, in 2009, India had nearly half of the world's polio cases. Considering this, the announcement is India's biggest public health achievement. It is due to a collaborative effort between the Union, State governments, UNICEF, WHO, Rotary International, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, that this achievement was possible. Within recent years, polio immunization rounds in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the most effected by polio, reached up to 99 per cent.

Even after this major public health win, the Indian government is aware that they must stay vigilant. "We are highly mindful of the risks that persist, not only on account of residual indigenous transmission but also from other countries," stated Mr.Azad. Polio summit attendees discussed how to finally eradicate polio in India.

-Akshika Patel


SOURCE: UNICEF

Gates and the UN Support the Small Farmer

As stated by the UN International Fund, in order to survive the following four decades, small farmers have to grow 60 per cent more food. Even in the face of increased environmental degradation, resource scarcity, and climate change, it is critical that this goal is met. With the growing urbanized population, our reliance on small farmers is greater than ever before.

Today, President of IFAD Kanayo F. Nwanze and Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation signed an agreement at IFAD headquarters to strengthen support for small farmers in developing countries. This collaborative effort will focus on increasing funding to agricultural research and development.

Following the signing of this agreement, Bill Gates spoke on the importance of agriculture and its sustainable productivity. In his speech, Gates challenged nations and other national entities to also support small farmers.

-Akshika Patel


SOURCE:UN News Centre

AIDS Prevention Program Spares 100,000 in India

There was some potentially exciting news which came out of the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation last week. A released program assessment in “The Lancet” medical journal showed that an estimated 100,000 people in India may have escaped HIV infection over a five year span.

The Gates Foundation has spent $258 million on it’s Avahan AIDS prevention project in India, a country in which 2.4 million people are infected with the immune deficiency. The Avahan project has become one of the largest programs which attempts to curb expansion of this fast growing world epidemic.

Looking at Avahan from 2003 to 2008 the assessment saw a drop in each of the observed six Indian States, ranging from 2% up to 13%. The broad program focuses on a handful of effective ways to reach vulnerable groups, including needle exchanges, safe-sex counseling, and condom distribution. The program aimed to reduce the number of infections within the general population by targeting groups, which are at a higher risk of spreading the disease.

The greatest success was seen in three of India’s populous southern states, where the epidemic is largely spread through sexual transmission. In the northern states of Manipur and Nagaland, where drug injections are more responsible for HIV progress was much less dramatic.

As with many studies, the Gates Foundation mentions in the Avahan report that the conclusions presented do come with a certain degree of uncertainty, and the co-authors also note the presence of other HIV prevention programs running in the area.

Experts from the World Health Organization commented on the report saying that despite many remaining questions about the project's overall success, the findings are an encouraging first step.

The Gates foundation has spent another $80 million on Avahan since 2008, and is currently shifting responsibility over the Indian government.

-Joshua Rogers

SOURCE: CBS News | Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Gates Foundation's New Sanitation Program Focus: The Toliet

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced recently that it will invest more money into improving sanitation services in poor countries around the world.

$42 million dollars will be added to an ever increasing budget that aims to encourage innovation and focus on a basic human need that is oftentimes overlooked. Even the original eight Millennium Goals drawn up by the UN back in 2000 did not include improvement of sanitation.

However, sanitation is a big problem. An estimated 2.6 billion people lack access to safe sanitation. One billion people defecate openly. Diarrhea is the number one killer of children in Africa, which can easily change if sanitary practices are improved. If we keep going at our current rate, by 2049 only 77 percent of the world population will have flushable toilets.

"No innovation in the past 200 years has done more to save lives and improve health than the sanitation revolution triggered by the invention of the toilet. But it did not go far enough. It only reached one-third of the world. What we need are new approaches, new ideas. In short, we need to reinvent the toilet," said Sylvia Matthews Burwell recently at a conference in Rwanda.

Already progress has been made on innovating the toilet along with other new sanitation technologies. Designs are in progress to develop waterless toilets that don't rely on sewer connections. Companies are coming up with hygienic ways to empty pits and process waste.

To make sanitation practices worthwhile, new technology has to be both relevant to the community and implementable in a cheap fashion. Ultimately, improving conditions at the very basic level of community life, such as sanitation, will impact other needs that operate at a higher level such as education, health, and economic standing.

-Chelsey Dambro

Source: Guardian.co.uk

Obama Meets With Buffett and Gates to Discuss The Giving Pledge

The two wealthiest Americans met with Obama recently, at the White House, to update the President on the Giving Pledge, which is a pact to encourage the nation's wealthiest people to donate a portion of their money to philanthropy.

Both Gates and Buffet are part of the Giving Pledge.

The main focus of their conversation was how private philanthropy can help address the countries challenges.

Jay Carney, the President's Press Secretary stated that the "president things that what they are doing is extraordinary, noble and good."

Buffet and Obama also discussed the ongoing deficit-reduction negotiations. Philanthropy is one way to address the issue of poverty, but as stated by much of Obama's press at the USGLC Conference, investing in developing markets and opening trade may be a more beneficial route.

-Gabrielle Gurian

SOURCE: ABC NEWS

TEDxChange Videos

TEDxChange is a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and TED sponsored initiative aiming to organize TED Talks-like events locally, so they can reach deeper into their communities. As other TED Talks, TEDxChange is recorded and shared with the world community, following their motto: "ideas worth spreading."

"In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x=independently organized TED event."

Check out their video gallery in search of ideas worth spreading to fight global poverty!

- David Nebreda

SOURCE: Bill&Melinda Gates Foundation

Saving Lives At Birth

During the critical 48 hours after the childbirth, 150,000 women and 1.6 million newborns die. This means that every 2 minutes, a woman dies in childbirth. Infection, hemorrhage, hypertension disorders, obstructed labor or child asphyxia are some of the multiple complications faced during birth. This problem is much more severe in poor countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. In fact, a Sub-Saharan woman is 136 times more likely to die during childbirth than those living in developed countries. This is so important that not only one but two of the Millennium Development Goals (4 and 5) are actually involved in its solution.

To face this terrible issue, a new initiative has born. A partnership between the World Bank, USAID, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada and the Government of Norway called "Saving Lives at Birth" will fight maternal and birth complications from a new perspective. To do so, they will rely on modern technologies, science and innovative approaches to prevention and treatment. The project will focus on three working areas: technologies to detect, prevent and treat maternal and newborn problems; service delivery of high quality care, including transportation of sick newborns or mothers, training, recruiting and retaining skilled or alternative personnel; and empowering and engaging pregnant women and families in prevention or health habits, including the search for care during childbirth.

If successful, this project will save thousands of lives by providing cheap and effective healthcare material for mothers and newborns, and also a better informed and engaged population. Media and information technologies have a core role in this program, since the role of individuals and societies is considered the base of the changes wanted.

- David Nebreda

SOURCE: Saving Lives at Birth official website

Donation By Bill Gates And Abu Dhabi Prince To Vaccinate Children

Borgen Project: In order to vaccinate children in Afghanistan and Pakistan against Polio and other diseases, Bill Gates from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Abu Dhabi's crown prince, Sheik Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan will each donate $50 million. Both the donors said that two-thirds of their donations will fund a pair of vaccines against Pneumonia, Diphtheria, Whooping Cough and other ailments afflicting young children in Afghanistan. The rest of the fund will be given to World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF to provide Polio vaccines among Afghan and Pakistani children.

Gates recently told the Associated Press that eradicating Polio is his top priority, and that he is planning to announce a major donation to the effort in Davos, Switzerland on Friday.

-Nisha Noor

SOURCE: YAHOO NEWS

Groundbreaking Study Introduces A New Sustainable Way To Reduce Infant Mortality

A Pakistan-based study published recently in the Lancet shows that instead of relying on technological measure, simple counseling on maternal and infant care can largely reduce the infant mortality problem. Funded by the World Health Organization and Save the Children's Saving Newborn Lives Program, and supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the study integrated counseling on newborn health practices into Pakistan's public health system in the rural district of Hala. More than 3 million infants die annually which is 40% of 8.1 million annual child deaths. But it has been estimated that, only in Pakistan, this simple measure could save 100,000 lives per year.

The research trial trained Pakistan's "lady health workers" in Hala to provide counseling on maternal and newborn health care, partnered with local birth attendants, and make home visits to teach simple newborn care methods. These include, early and exclusive breastfeeding, delayed bathing, and recognizing early signs of serious infant illness. Due to this trial, infant mortality and stillbirth dropped there by 15-20% in only 2 years. According to the scholars and trainers, this low-cost low-tech groundbreaking study can have a huge impact in other developing countries where people cannot afford expensive treatment. The study also shows that reducing infant mortality in this way is not only achievable but also sustainable.

-Nisha Noor

SOURCE: SAVE THE CHILDREN

One Disease Down In Africa, A Lot More To Go

One of the most exciting health-related achievements in Africa in recent times has been the development of new Meningitis vaccine that has the potential to eradicate devastating epidemics in Africa's Meningitis belt. At the opening of the annual WHO Executive Board Meeting, Margaret Chan, the Director General of WHO represented this fact. She mentioned the contribution of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in funding the research and praised the African scientists and scholars who helped develop this life-saving vaccine when large pharmaceutical companies backed off because the project would not result in big profits. This low cost vaccine was produced in less than a decade which is a rare incident in the African region. Some of the countries including, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger already started using the vaccine but many of them will not be able to use it due to lack of funds, said Chan.

The lack of funds is also delaying the progress of other vaccines including, AIDS, Diarrhoea, Pneumonia and Tuberculosis which have the ability to claim thousands of lives in Africa each year. Chan calls for serious attention toward this issue and comments that governments and large corporations need to invest more in the development of life-saving vaccines in order to change the health scenario of the African continent.

-Nisha Noor

SOURCE: VOICE OF AMERICA

New Meningitis Vaccine

A new, affordable meningitis vaccine is reaching millions of people in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger starting this week. PATH and the World Health Organization, (with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), developed MenAfriVac, the first vaccine to provide sustained protection against the meningitis strain that causes most outbreaks of bacterial meningitis in Africa. More than 450 million people are at risk of contracting this particular strain and it can also explode in large epidemics. The disease kills one in ten people who get sick, and leaves a quarter of survivors deaf or with other severe disabilities. But now millions of people have a better chance at a healthier and brighter future by getting this lifesaving vaccine, which comes at an affordable cost – just less than US $0.50 per dose.

-Clare Ortblad

SOURCE: Gates Foundation Blog

Melinda Gates on Saving for the Poor

In a recent Gates Foundation Blog, Melinda Gates discussed the importance of saving for poor people. With the recent surge in the distribution of microloans to people in developing countries, more people in the development field are realizing that saving mechanisms are just as important. Poor people have been saving for a while, (it’s hardly a new concept to them), but it has been hard for them to put their savings in banks as they are geared towards wealthier customers, and are often hours away in a city. As a result, poor people’s options for saving are limited to hiding cash in their homes, and buying jewelry or livestock. These people need reliable, safe ways to save their money so that they can invest in their futures and their children’s futures. Just like any person in the U.S. would want.

The Global Savings Forum was held on November 16^th in order to find solutions that provide impoverished communities with money-saving mechanisms. Key players from banks, microfinance institutions and more, gathered to brainstorm about what innovations could make “financial inclusion a reality for poor people.” Melinda Gates, a participant at this Forum, pledged $40 million from the Gates Foundation to help these partners collaborate. She remarks that her inspiration to get involved in this project was drawn from a trip to Mexico, during which she witnessed a system involving women receiving welfare payments at rural retail stores. It’s a system that works because the women trust the system and they have better access to their savings accounts. Additionally, the women are given a smart card that is linked to their finger print in order to access their accounts.

-Clare Ortblad

SOURCE: Gates Foundation

The Future We'll Make: TEDxChange Photo Campaign

The Gates Foundation and TED recently collaborated to create "The Future We'll Make: Flickr Photo Campaign." This photo campaign marks the 10th anniversary of the UN's Millennium Development Goals and is also an exciting way for people from all around the world to contribute their visions for a better future. The Borgen Project staff, such as our intern Corey Cox in the above picture, are getting involved - and so should you! Just click on this link and follow the few simple steps to get started.

-Clare Ortblad

IMAGE SOURCE: Flickr

What If Malaria Struck Your Hometown?

Imagine a sudden outbreak of malaria in your hometown and hundreds of people fall ill. People rush to the nearest hospital to get treated, but then doctors discover that malaria parasites have developed resistance to multiple malaria medicines. Scenes of this outbreak are depicted in this video clip from GOOD Magazine’s Channel. This may seem unlikely for U.S. residents but this happens in many parts of the world, especially in Africa.

According to a 2009 World Health Organization study, roughly 3.3 billion people - half of the world's population - are at risk of malaria. People living in the poorest countries are the most vulnerable. Malaria is a serious concern in Africa, where an African child has on average between 1.6 and 5.4 episodes of malaria fever each year.

There is hope for people vulnerable to the disease. Organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are making progress in their fight against malaria. Between 2000 and 2006, several countries in Africa saw a 50 percent decrease in malaria thanks to a combined set of effective interventions, including insecticide-treated bed nets and indoor spraying of homes with insecticides to control mosquitoes, and drug treatments to prevent and cure malaria.

- Clare O.

SOURCE: World Health Organization