UN protects millions of children in DR Congo with anti-measles vaccination

Some 3.1 million children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have been vaccinated against measles in a United Nations-coordinated campaign to combat the disease outbreak which has claimed the lives of 1,145 children since the start of this year.

The measles epidemic affected a total of 115,600 children between January and June, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a press release issued yesterday, adding that the vaccination campaign was funded with $1.9 million.

The campaign, which kicked off on 10 May, was coordinated by the UN World Health Organization (WHO) in the provinces of Katanga, Kasai Occidental, Bas-Congo, Equateur and Orientale.  “The funding – equivalent to 61 cents per child – helped protect the health of millions of children,” said Fidèle Sarassoro, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for DRC.

Measles is a highly contagious viral disease, which mostly affects children. It is transmitted through droplets from the nose, mouth or throat of infected persons. Initial symptoms, which usually appear between eight to 12 days after infection, include high fever, a running nose, bloodshot eyes, and tiny white spots on the inside of the mouth. A rash then develops, starting on the face and upper neck and gradually spreading to the rest of the body.

In malnourished children and people with reduced immunity, the disease can cause serious complications, including blindness, encephalitis, severe diarrhoea, ear infection, pneumonia and even death.

Source – UN Daily News

WIPO to support innovation in Nigeria

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has announced plans to strengthen Nigeria’s technology innovation centres with particular reference to the Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Offices (IPTTOs) established by the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) in tertiary institutions and research centres across the country.

WIPO will help strengthen existing national capacities through the creation of Technology Innovation Support Centres (TISC) – digital libraries comprising 70,000 specialized patents on-line.

These centres will be established in the universities not only to promote innovations but also to ensure that learning was linked to practical life.

According to Dr. Ituku Elangi Botoy, Project coordinator of the Innovation and Technology Support Section of WIPO, no country has developed without prioritizing science and technology and that Nigeria would not be an exception.

 

Polio vaccination campaign aims to reach 14m children

With a polio outbreak spreading rapidly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), UN Daily News reports that the Executive Director of UNICEF will visit the country to help support a mass campaign to vaccinate over 14 million children.

The DRC has witnessed a sharp resurgence of polio as conditions in the country continue to complicate vaccination efforts, potentially undermining global eradication of the crippling disease. From January 2010 to February 2011, there were 112 new cases. In 2009, only three cases were detected.

“UNICEF will do everything we can to support the DRC’s collective effort to defeat this evil virus once and for all,” said UNICEF’s Executive Director, Anthony Lake. “Eradicating polio in DRC and everywhere requires an absolute commitment by government and its partners to vaccinate every child.”

In response to the outbreak, preparations are underway to go door to door to vaccinate more than 14 million children by the end of May. The aim is to make sure that no child is left unprotected.

 

mPedigree awarded $200,000 in Global Security Challenge

mPedigree was recently announced as the Best Security Start-up in 2010 by the Global Security Challenge.  mPedigree from Ghana is the first system in the world which enables consumers and patients to verify the authenticity of their medicines by sending a free text message of the unique, product-embossed codes.

Across the developing world, especially in West Africa, the issue of fake and counterfeit medication has become a huge problem – the WHO estimates that in many emerging markets, up to 30% of drugs are compromised. The growing sophistication of cheap graphic software and hardware kit means that packaging, including traditional security features such as holograms, can be perfectly replicated by even smalltime counterfeit operators making the need for a highly robust but economically feasible system urgent.

While being just as robust as emerging methods such as EMID and RFID, and far more secure than holograms, the mPedigree approach is widely accessible through basic text messaging, requires no specialist equipment or training, is free to access for consumers, and a fraction of the price of holograms, and RFID and EMID techniques.

mPedigree has been awarded $200,000 sponsored by the Technical Support Working Group of the US Department of Defense and mentorship from Advent Venture Partners.

Polio outbreak in Congo kills nearly 100

Polio has killed nearly 100 people, mainly young adults, in the Republic of Congo and paralyzed more than twice as many in the past six weeks, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and a report from Reuters.

The crippling viral disease normally strikes children under five years of age, making the acute, fast-spreading outbreak unusual, the U.N. agency said.

“Most of the cases have involved young adults aged between 15 and 29. This illustrates that populations are at risk because they have not been exposed to a full immunization,” it said.

184 cases of acute flaccid paralysis and 85 deaths have been reported from the site of the acute poliomyelitis outbreak centred in Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo.  The mortality rate is higher than normal for the disease, which attacks the nervous system.

The virus comes from a strain from India, one of four remaining endemic countries — where the virus survives and its spread has never been interrupted — along with Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.

A first wave of mass polio vaccination campaigns, targeting 3 million people of all ages, is set to begin on Friday in Congo and parts of Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The WHO, UNICEF, Rotary International and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been working together since 1988 to eradicate polio, which infected at least 350,000 people in 125 endemic countries each year at the time.

Polio outbreak in Angola – UN launches mass immunization campaign

A polio immunization campaign targeting 5.6 million children was launched in Angola yesterday as the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the southern African country was quickly becoming the greatest threat to continent-wide eradication efforts. (UN News)

Only three African countries have recorded cases of the highly infectious and potentially lethal disease in the past four months – Nigeria, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with the latter infected from across the Angolan boarder, WHO spokesman Rod Curtis told reporters in Geneva.  Areas in Angola that have previously been polio-free have been re-infected this year from an expanding outbreak, he said.

Over the next three days and again at the end of the month, WHO, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Rotary International will be supporting tens of thousands of volunteers, health workers, parents, communities and traditional leaders as they go from house to house and village to village to ensure that every child under the age of 5 is reached with an oral polio vaccine.

WHO believes the outbreak can be rapidly stopped, even by the end of the year, if these gaps are closed.

Outside Africa, polio has been eradicated in most parts of the world, but remains endemic in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Last month WHO said great strides had been made towards eliminating polio in Nigeria, which has seen a 99 per cent drop in cases this year compared to 2009.

New study highlights the importance of partnerships in improving public health.

The Cameron Institute – a Canadian not-for-profit public policy think-tank – released a report highlighting the importance of public-private partnerships and of intellectual property protections to improving global health.  The evidence in this report (Pharmaceutical Access in Least Developed Countries: on-the-ground barriers and industry successes) strongly supports North-South, public-private partnerships as the preferred means by which to improve access to care and public health outcomes in least-developed countries.

Sustainable development is the way of the future for both North and South.  In order for there to be sustainable healthcare enterprise and optimal health outcomes in the least-developed countries, there must also be the necessary infrastructure, health human resources, political stability, and professional administrative legal structures.

– Dr. D. Wayne Taylor Ph.D., F.CIM, Executive Director of The Cameron Institute

The 200-page report shows that the research-based pharmaceutical industry has sponsored or participated in over 150 public-private partnerships that have successfully improved access to drugs – as well as health outcomes – for the 50 least developed countries.

Click here to download the full report.

WSJ opinion – Africa’s Health Crisis

An interesting opinion from the Wall Street Journal about challenges and barriers to improving public health in Africa.

How to Worsen Africa’s Health Crisis: Killing off drug patents will kill off innovation and patients.

By ALEC VAN GELDER

Faced with Africa’s devastation by HIV/AIDS, people are looking for scapegoats. Global pressure groups and now the World Health Organization are targeting “Big Pharma.” The drug companies do make easy targets but that doesn’t make them villains. The life-saving treatments they create remain Africa’s best hope. The misguided battle against pharmaceutical companies’ patent rights will only make Africa’s health crisis worse.

Intellectual property rights for AIDS drugs are “the biggest public health challenge” as they make them too costly for most Africans, Hans Hogerzeil, head of the WHO’s Essential Medicines program, recently said. They are “a barrier to access,” he previously claimed, but the real barriers are the lack of infrastructure and the diversion of aid money. Fewer than 5% of WHO’s 423 Essential Medicines are currently protected by patents; mostly advanced “second-line” anti-AIDS medicines.

Circumcision could prevent 4 million new HIV cases in Africa

More than 4 million new HIV infections could be prevented in eastern and southern Africa by 2025 if male circumcision rates were increased to 80 percent, researchers said on Tuesday.  Expanding circumcision services to 80 percent of adult and newborn males in the region would also save $20.2 billion in HIV-related health costs between 2009 and 2025.  (Reuters)

Research cited by the World Health Organization has shown that male circumcision can reduce a man’s risk of getting HIV by up to 60 percent.

In March 2007, the WHO and United Nations UNAIDS group recommended male circumcision as an effective HIV prevention.

30 million mosquito nets for Nigeria

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, in its largest-ever malaria initiative, will provide 30 million long-lasting treated mosquito nets to Nigeria.  This initiative will provide the African nation with half the nets needed to cover its entire population.

The Global Fund’s “unprecedented commitment to Nigeria, which bears one quarter of the global malaria burden, will protect millions of people from malaria and save over 100,000 lives,” said Ray Chambers, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Malaria.

Halting the incidence of malaria is one of the many health-related targets that make up the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the pledges world leaders made to try to slash poverty, hunger, preventable illness and a host of other socio-economic ills by 2015.