Malaria: The beginning of the end?
Global eradication of malaria is a step closer after the announcement last week of the discovery by scientists of the disease’s apparent vulnerability, a critical component of human red blood cells that can be targeted to stop the malaria parasite from completing its life cycle within the body. Trials of a vaccine that could wipe out the disease, and save millions of lives, are anticipated within the next two to three years, said Gavin Wright, lead researcher at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, England.
Pakistani school is tailored to help girls
The Business and Life Skills School, or BLISS, aims to help Pakistani girls get an education and contribute financially to their families by providing income-earning opportunities in addition to traditional education subjects. Young Pakistani females face many challenges to attending educational institutions stemming from poverty, infrastructure gaps and social pressures.
Haitian program to combat cholera spurs debate
An $870,000 pilot project to inoculate Haitians against cholera is being both praised and criticized by public health advocates. Dr. Paul Farmer, a Harvard professor and special UN envoy, says the vaccinations are an appropriate response to the world’s worst cholera epidemic, whereas Dr. David Olson, a medical adviser for Doctors Without Borders, says the vaccinations should not be funded at the expense of permanent water and sanitation measures.
World’s poor should get aid directly
Initiating mechanisms to transfer international aid to the world’s poor can help streamline development efforts, according to a report from Britain’s National Audit Office. Providing food, cash and other assets removes the need for individuals to await government progress on infrastructure and systems development for services.
Aid groups are working to save starving Somali children
The International Rescue Committee and other aid groups have been able to bring some Somali children back from the brink of starvation with intensive treatment despite serious infrastructure and security concerns. Tens of thousands of Somali children have died during the current famine, but aid agencies have managed to expand their reach to 2.2 million people in need.
Global Fund backs bed nets in Cambodia
Nearly 3 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets were distributed Monday in Cambodia in the first stage of a three-pronged effort by the country’s government to eliminate malaria by 2025. The nets — two more mass distributions of which are scheduled by the beginning of next year — were paid for, in part, by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Mobile breath test to detect TB gains traction in India
A $950,000 grant was awarded Monday to a team of researchers in India who expect by 2013 to outfit the country’s hospitals with hand-held, battery-powered devices — characterized as electronic noses — that can detect tuberculosis from a person’s breath. “What we’re preparing can go to the countryside in any temperature, any humidity, so a person doesn’t have to travel and infect others on the way,” said Ranjan Nanda, a lead researcher and recipient of the grant from Grand Challenges Canada and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Lighting the way in Liberia
An American doctor is looking to help Liberia rebuild from years of war by installing solar-powered lights in clinics to improve maternal-mortality rates. More than half of Liberia is without access to electricity limiting the services that health care providers can perform.
Zimbabwean girls struggle to access education
One-third of primary-school-aged girls and 67% of those at the secondary school level are unable to access education in Zimbabwe, according to a study from Plan International. Poverty, sexual abuse and child marriage are among the major factors adversely affecting school attendance for girls.
11,000 girls are recruited to promote India gender equality
Red Cross societies across the Indian state of Haryana are gearing up to train more than 11,000 predominately female college students to persuade parents not to abort fetuses shown to be girls. “These students will turn into parents in coming years, and we hope that they won’t forget the importance of girls. As parents, they will be in a position to make a change by deciding against gender bias,” said Syham Sunder, secretary of the Red Cross Society in the district of Yamunanagar.
Tackling global illiteracy through single-room libraries
American philanthropist John Wood recently handed out the 10 millionth book donated by his charity, Room to Read, at a library in a Vietnamese village, one of 12,000 such libraries he has opened throughout the world. The former Microsoft marketing executive, who sees the libraries as a potential solution to helping the world’s 793 million illiterate people learn to read, asks, “Where can you get more bang for the buck than starting a library for $5,000?”
