Thursday, August 30, 2012

A problem of millions and a creative solution

María Inés Guaia, Argentina

 The problem: Chagas disease, the most important parasitic disease in Latin America, spread by the blood-sucking insect ‘vinchuca’ (Refer to her previous article on the same subject)

The solution: insecticide-laced wall paint.

Dr. Pilar Mateo, a Spanish chemist, invented and pattented a tecnique of microencapsulation based on a polymeric mould.  After reading about the issue of bugs infestating hospital walls, she came up with the idea of introducing biocides in polymeric microcapsules using paint as a casing. The insecticides are released from the paint slowly, remaining effective for two to four years.

In 1997, a Bolivian doctor came to her seeking for help. He told her about the Chagas disease situation in his homecountry. Dr. Mateo was touched, and traveled to Bolivia in 1998 to test her technology. She has been working in developing products for vector control of insect-borne diseases ever since.

She has not only made an impact on the Chagas endemic in Bolivia. Other international initiatives include projects thoughout Latin America (Mexico, Costa Rica, Brasil, Argentina, Cuba) and Africa (Ecuatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Benin) to combat malaria and dengue-spreading mosquitoes, the Tse-Tse fly and arachnid vectors, among other insects.

Her work includes scientific research as well as measures of social promotion and some political negotiation. Last November, the Bolivian president Evo Morales invited Mateo to his office, and expressed his support. She is determined to overcome the various obstacles, such as insect resistance, political resistance, lack of interest from biocides companies, regulations, etc. to paint the world with health.

For more information about INESFLY and related projects visit www.pilarmateo.com
 

Friday, August 24, 2012

34 Million Friends

Jane Roberts, cofounder 34 Million Friends of the United Nations Population  Fund www.34millionfriends.org Redlands, CA USA
 
On July 22, 2002, ten years ago, the George W. Bush administration  refused to release $34 million to the United Nations Population Fund. As an American citizen I was angry. I started asking 34 million Americans and others to contribute one dollar. This became known as 34 Million Friends, www.34millionfriends.org, and is still going ten years later.
 
In 2003, as a guest of UNFPA, I visited Senegal and Mali. (As a former teacher of French I speak the language quite well.)  I saw babies being born safely, I saw the closets and drawers filled with family planning supplies, I visited with women whose fistulas were being repaired, I visited schools where gender equality was taught. 
 
All countries, and maybe perhaps African countries in particular, should prioritize women's health, reproductive health and family planning in particular. As I understand it, infant mortality (the first month of life), has as its basic cause the ill health of the mother when giving birth. The baby is born prematurely and is anemic. The mother isn't healthy enough to nourish the baby through breast feeding. In my view, when the world takes care of women, women take care of the world. I have written two papers which you might enjoy. Women's Health Equals Global Health http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/reader-diaries/2009/11/07/womens-health-equals-global-health-a-radical-proposal and What? You've Run out of the Pill http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/reader-diaries/2010/12/07/what-youve-pill-iuds-either
 
And at the 34 Million Friends site there is a plea for more family planning from UNFPA's executive director Dr. Babtunde Osotimehin and a very recent radio  interview I did with National Public Radio in Chicago concerning 34 Million Friends, the Family Planning Summit in London in July sponsored by the British Department for International Development and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and about population in general. http://www.wbez.org/globalactivism/fighting-contraceptive-rights-abroad-and-home-101414
 
The world is in big trouble. Hillary Clinton has said: "Of particular concern to me is the plight of women and girls who comprise the majority of the world's unhealthy, unschooled, unfed, and unpaid." And Secretary General of the U.N. Ban Ki-moon has stated: "In women the world has the most significant but untapped potential for development and peace." 
 
Please join 34 Million Friends.  
 

Thursday, August 23, 2012

AFRICA-HEALTH- RESOURCES

Commit more Resource   to Health,a report  of  Ugandan newspaper  the NewVISION  and available  among 2012  International  AIDS Economics  Network (IAEN) pre-conference materials.

The  US Government  has  promised to Commit more  resource to health  for Africa , and  Ugandan   newspaper  the  NewVISION   explains us in this report US government commitment
.

The  US Government has told Uganda and other African countries to put more money in their health sectors in order to save mothers and arrest the HIV/AIDS scourge.
It said that the donors cannot fully take on all the challenges of partner countries. It called for country ownership of the health programmes with the nation's efforts led, implemented and paid for by its government, communities, civil society and the private sector.
In a teleconference with journalists from several African countries, on Monday, US officials quoted the US Secretary of State , Hillary Rodham Clinton as emphasising the global public private partnership to strengthen health systems and save mothers as well as deal with HIV/AIDS. She said there is serious need for country ownership of interventions for health.
The journalists' teleconference was addressed by Lois Quam, the Executive Director, Global Health Initiative (GHI) and Ambassador Eric Goosby, US Global AIDS Coordinator. They provided the journalists with the presentation made by Clinton earlier in the day at the Global Health Conference in Oslo, Norway. The conference was themed: A world in Transition- Charting a New Path in Global Health.
According to Clinton, the development partners will offer help but that the countries political leaders "should set priorities and develop national plans to accomplish health goals in concert with its citizens." "These plans must be effectively carried out by the country's own institutions which should be held accountable," she said.
Currently in Uganda one out of every 35 mothers die due to child related complications. The maternal mortality rate stands at 430 per 100,000 mothers. Infant mortality stands at 130 out of 1,000 live births and the chances of children dying at infancy are high when their mothers are dead, according to medics.
As far as HIV, AIDS is concerned, there are 750,000 who need ARVs but only about half of them are of them are on the life saving drugs.
According to Clinton, economic growth is making it possible for many developing countries to meet more of their people's needs. She said that countries have discovered resources including oil, gas and other extractive industries.
These and other resources of these countries, she said, should be captured for the wellbeing of its people and should be channeled into health.  And that in case of its supplementary funding to the partner countries, the US will not tolerate the use of health money it provides, for other purposes.
She said that partner countries should also bring down political barriers to improving health. "That means making regulatory changes that allow faster approval of new drugs, procurement reforms to ensure drugs get to clinics on time as well as setting and delivering a living wage for health workers.
Clinton also asked the donors to do a more effective job of coordinating their resources they give to partner countries.
"All countries should do more in investing in global health and all countries should do more to ensure and put more resources into health systems to save mothers…," she said.
On the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR 2) which is ending next year, the US officials said that his government's intervention will not end, but that they are "in the process of looking at what that re-authorisation will look like".
The five-year PEPFAR 2 was designed for capacity which includes governance, health information systems, financing service delivery, medicines and technology and human resources development though it does not include additional recruitments.
However, the US said that partner countries should also tackle the issue of corruption. She said that in some countries leaderships there want to get the money meant for HIV/AIDS even before the targeted beneficiaries can get it. Other issues to tackles she said are gender violence and mistreatment of women.” 
 (NewVISION/IAEN)
New from  Foussénou   Sissoko
Health   Communication  Expert.
foussenou@ymail.com/sissokofouss@yahoo.fr

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Insect-Borne Infections in South America: Chagas Disease

María Inés Guaia, Argentina


Chagas disease is the most important parasitic disease in Latin America, and the third most important infectious disease in the region, only after AIDS and tubeculosis. According to WHO figures, an estimated 10 million people are infected worldwide, and more than 25 million are at risk, most of them in Latin America.

This disease is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, a flagellate protozoan, which is most often transmitted to men and other animals by an insect vector commonly named ‘vinchuca’. Vinchuchas are blood-sucking insects of the family Reduviidae, subfamily Triatominae.

                                                       (Vinchuca)


The transmission generally happens at night, when the bugs emerge to feed.  Unfortunately, vinchucha often take to dining on human blood.  They bite humans, ingest their blood and immediately defecate liquid feces on the wound. The infection occurs if the Tripanosoma cruzi parasites in the insect feces enter the organism through mucous membranes or breaks in the skin.  This is more likely to happen if the bitten person, likely asleep and unaware, scratches or rubs the feces into the bite wound.

Blood transfussions, infected organ transplants and mother-to-child exchanges during pregnancy are other, less common, avenues for transmission.  In rare cases, Chagas has been transmitted through consumption of uncooked food contaminated with feces from infected bugs, or even accidental laboratory exposure.

The incubation phase of the disease lasts about a week. Following it, the disease evolves in three stages:

Acute phase: During the first 20 to 30 days, there may be inflammation in the place of bite, with local redness and temperature. Trypanosomas can be seen moving just by examining a drop of infected blood with the microscope.

Intermediate or latent phase: This is a variable period during which symptoms are absent. It can last for many years; generally, for the rest of an infected person’s life. The existence of parasites can be confrimed by observing antibodies in a blood test.

Cronic phase: The last phase depends on the severity of the case. This phase ussually starts 10 to 20 years after the infection. In many cases, patients realise they have the disease in this stage. Symptomes related to the affected organ/s (most commonly heart, colon or esophagus) arise. The most common alteration is the dilation of the organ/s involved. Chagasig cardiopathy is the most common cause of cardiac impairment and sudden death in the endemic zones of South America. It develops as right cardiac impairment and conduction dysfunctions.

Chagas is mainly a disease of the poor. The substandard housing conditions in which millions of people in LatinAmerica live provide plenty of cracks and holes in which the vinchuca can nest and develop confortably. Crowding and poor hygienic conditions also facilitate the proliferation of the bug.

The Chagas disease problem should not only be addressed from a medical and sanitary point of view, but also as a socioeconomic and infrastructural issue.