News Flash Links, as part of the research project PEAH (Policies for Equitable Access to Health), aim to focus on the latest challenges by trade and governments rules to equitable access to health in resource-limited settings

News Flash 472

Weekly Snapshot of Public Health Challenges

 

Nine trends shaping the year 2022

WHO: Public health round-up

Falsified and substandard medicines trafficking: A wakeup call for the African continent

Addressing Drug Patent Abuse: Restoring The Role Of Inter Partes Review

March 2022 TDR Newsletter

Addressing Vaccine Inequity — Covid-19 Vaccines as a Global Public Good

MSF responds to Medicines Patent Pool deal with 35 manufacturers to produce COVID-19 treatment nirmatrelvir/ritonavir

South Africa urged to reject EU offer on COVID waiver

How COVID-19 laid bare Africa’s medical oxygen crisis

Covid trapped me at home for more than seven months

Here We Go Again: The BA.2 Version of Omicron

Study Finds That Children’s Antibody Responses to COVID-19 Are Stronger Than Adults’

Policy brief: A new Treaty on Pandemics – Key to (re)build trust in international cooperation?

Anaemia in women of reproductive age in low- and middle-income countries: progress towards the 2025 global nutrition target

On World TB day WHO calls for increased investments into TB services and research

New Children’s TB Guidelines a ‘Game-Changer’ With Non-Invasive Tests, Shortened Treatments

MSF responds to updated WHO guidelines for tuberculosis in children

Ukraine’s ‘Model’ TB Programme Destroyed by War, as Global TB Response Faces ‘Disastrous’ Funds Shortfall

Eradicating Polio Would Eradicate So Much Tragedy

Smart bra aims to quicken breast cancer diagnosis

Meeting people where they are at? Sure, just don’t leave them there

Social Innovation in Healthcare by Kirubel Workiye Gebretsadik

Opinion: Rethinking Africa’s pharma sector can unlock economic growth

Human Rights Reader 621: ONLY BY EXPLICITLY CALLING EXISTING INEQUALITIES IS IT POSSIBLE TO START THE PROCESS OF REVERTING THEM

‘A heck of a problem’: WFP chief warns of aid crisis amid Ukraine war

Price Spike Caused by Ukraine War Will Push Over 40 Million into Poverty: How Should We Respond?

Ukraine: EU support to help Member States meet the needs of refugees

The World Without Down Syndrome Would Be A Sad Place

UN Environment Programme Joins WHO Alliance to Advance One Health Approach

Meeting registration: Healthy Climate Prescription: What next? Apr 12, 2022 03:00 PM in Zurich

Clima e salute materno-infantile

Livestock dies in droves in Somalia — and without rains ‘humans are next’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite the lofty Goal 3 of the SDGs, people in low-income countries have yet to benefit from universal health coverage. The fragile health systems have faced tremendous additional demand to deliver care in the last two years. Faced with a pandemic of COVID-19, climate-related changes, and civil unrest. These circumstances urge for social innovation in healthcare. In this connection, the short reflection here maintains that the process of recognizing social innovation in health should be integrated into and institutionalized as part of the national health plans

By Kirubel Workiye Gebretsadik

Medical Doctor and Master of Public Health student 

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Social Innovation in Healthcare

 

Access to health services is a challenge for millions of people across Africa. Over 80% of people in Sub-Saharan Africa live in rural areas with inadequate infrastructure. That creates considerable obstacles for both patients and health professionals who work in rural locations. Low-income countries are plagued by deadly diseases, as well as health disparities and poverty.

Societal innovation is increasingly being used to achieve social goals, such as better healthcare delivery. The international community has made substantial investments in achieving universal health. Despite the lofty Goal 3 of the SDGs, people in low-income countries have yet to benefit from universal health coverage. The fragile health systems have faced tremendous additional demand to deliver care in the last two years. Faced with a pandemic of COVID-19, climate-related changes, and civil unrest.

Social innovations are novel techniques to addressing a health issue that is more effective than previous approaches. They will increase people’s ability to act and take charge of their health. They will result in more efficient use of available resources, and they have the potential to revolutionize health systems as people’s connections evolve and strengthen. Research, capacity building, and advocacy are all necessary components of social innovation.

The health systems of low-income nations are heavily reliant on money from rich countries. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) invest a significant amount of money. However, the healthcare system remains devastated. Many changes will be witnessed in the fight against infectious diseases and neglected tropical diseases if health care policy emphasizes social innovations through community participation.

The process of recognizing social innovation in health should be integrated into and institutionalized as part of the national health plan.

 

News Flash Links, as part of the research project PEAH (Policies for Equitable Access to Health), aim to focus on the latest challenges by trade and governments rules to equitable access to health in resource-limited settings

News Flash 471

Weekly Snapshot of Public Health Challenges

 

WTO Head Welcomes Compromise on IP Waiver for COVID Vaccines – But Activists and Pharma Express Dismay

MSF responds to potential compromise on the ‘TRIPS Waiver’

COVID-19 and social inequalities: a complex and dynamic interaction

COVID-19 and resilience of healthcare systems in ten countries

Why Responding to COVID-19 Requires Justice, Not Charity

The COVID-19 pandemic response: A microcosm of neocolonialism that hurts us all

China’s soaring COVID case load raises concerns about costs of containment

Meeting highlights from the Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) 7-10 March 2022

Fourth COVID Vaccine Jab Provides Little Extra Protection to Healthy Individuals – NEJM

COVID mRNA Vaccines Do Not Harm Fertility – But The Virus Does

COVID and the Heart: It Spares No One

With Less Than 1% Vaccinated, DRC Trains ‘Rumour-Busters’ to Tackle COVID Misinformation

EU member states agree to extend COVID certificate by one year

New WHO Negotiating Body on ‘Pandemic Instrument’ Meets Amid Civil Society Appeal

How COVID Has Affected the Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases

Measles Outbreak Kills 142 Children in Afghanistan

Stop attacks on health care in Ukraine: Joint statement from UNICEF, UNFPA, and WHO

Community participation in health strengthening policies: when the devil is in the “details” – The Case of Nyangezi health district, DRC

Why the European Union Needs Anticorruption Sanctions

Saudi aid agency, UNICEF sign $5bn deal for safe water supplies in Yemen

Millions face severe hunger as situation ‘deteriorating rapidly’ in Somalia, UN warns

Ukraine war poses growing threat to global food security

The Strategy of Hope by Sharman Apt Russell

CSOs Participation in Food Security and Other Issues at FAO by Claudio Schuftan

South Africa most unequal country in the world: Report

Human Rights Reader 620

Why we need an international body to rein in hate speech during conflict

‘Invisible’ soy linked to deforestation hides in animal products, report shows

Drought and deforestation: How Madagascar’s children are paying the price

Australia climate change: Court overturns teenagers’ case against minister

Public health institutes and the fight against climate change

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

… As a writer, I am drawn to childhood malnutrition — a subject so inherently sad and painful — because I believe there is hope. This hope is a result of progress made specifically in the 21rst century. With a new understanding of vitamins and minerals in the human body, we have seen a revolution in how we treat and prevent severe childhood malnutrition. Importantly, we now understand that ending childhood malnutrition will require a holistic approach that includes empowering women, good sanitation, and managing diseases like malaria. We also have proven strategies—cash transfers to the poor, school lunch programs, support for smallholder farmers—that have dramatically reduced childhood malnutrition in countries and states as diverse as Malawi, Vietnam, Brazil, and Maharashtra, India …

By Sharman Apt Russell

Sharman Apt Russell is the author of 'Within Our Grasp: Childhood Malnutrition Worldwide and the Revolution Taking Place to End It' (Pantheon Books, 2021) and 'Hunger: An Unnatural History' (Basic Books, 2005). She teaches at Antioch University in Los Angeles and lives in the magical realism of the American Southwest.

www.sharmanaptrussell.com

The Strategy of Hope

 

It’s a truism that hope generates action. Without hope, we can reasonably say, “Why bother?” With hope, we can reasonably say, “Let’s try.”

A quarter of the world’s children are stunted physically and mentally because of a lack of food or nutrients in their first years of life. Most of these children do not die but suffer from a lifetime of diminished potential. Most live in peaceful countries: they are not the suffering images we see in war and conflict. Many, but not all, live in extreme poverty.

As a writer, I am drawn to childhood malnutrition—a subject so inherently sad and painful—because I believe there is hope. This hope is a result of progress made specifically in the 21rst century. With a new understanding of vitamins and minerals in the human body, we have seen a revolution in how we treat and prevent severe childhood malnutrition. Importantly, we now understand that ending childhood malnutrition will require a holistic approach that includes empowering women, good sanitation, and managing diseases like malaria. We also have proven strategies—cash transfers to the poor, school lunch programs, support for smallholder farmers—that have dramatically reduced childhood malnutrition in countries and states as diverse as Malawi, Vietnam, Brazil, and Maharashtra, India.

We have exhaustively analyzed the costs and benefits. We know how much reducing anemia in women of reproductive age will increase productivity. We know that undernourished children cost some countries as much as 16 percent of their GDP. Over and over, economists tell us that spending money on good nutrition is one of society’s best investments.

Most recently, at the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit, researchers estimated that an additional $33 billion a year spent on improving food systems for the next ten years could eradicate almost all hunger that is not caused by civil violence and war. Lawrence Haddad, executive director of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, posted the extraordinary statement. “For the first time, ending hunger is within the world’s grasp.”

Yes, the pandemic, as well as climate change, has increased world hunger. But the pandemic has also taught us the relative ease and importance of spending money on public health.

Moreover, $33 billion a year looks relatively small against the healthy profits made by some corporations in the last few years. Corporations who contribute to ending childhood hunger would immediately benefit by attracting investors interested in social responsibility. Those companies would also attract new and ambitious employees with the same interest.

If all this seems like self-interest, good. The idea that self-interest is aligned with ending childhood malnutrition makes me even more hopeful.

The very act of hope is in our self-interest. Because “Why bother?” is such a joyless response. If hope produces action, action produces its own satisfying energy. Psychologically, we are drawn to the energy of “Let’s try.”

The recent invasion of the Ukraine by Russia is a terrible reminder of how vulnerable we are to the worst of human impulses and behavior. But even as we struggle collectively through this new crisis, even as we work to mitigate climate change, we can simultaneously achieve the goal of ending the majority of child hunger in the world.

A quarter of the world’s next generation could then learn better in school, be more productive at work, engage more actively in solving our many social problems, and live and love more fully.

That hopefulness is not naïve. It’s strategic.

 

 

 

 

 

A trustworthy field testimony here how corporate interests still undermine efforts to make equitable access to food finally happen as a fundamental human right. These interests run contrary to a shareable vision up to transforming industrial food systems around key pillars, namely: Food is a fundamental right rather than a commodity; Food Sovereignty (this asserts the rights of peoples, nations and states to define their own food, agriculture, livestock and fisheries systems, and to develop policies on how food is produced, distributed and consumed); Agroecology (agroecology is a way of producing food, a way of life, a science, and a movement for change encompassing socio-economic, socio-political, and biological/ecological and cultural dimensions); Holistic Food Systems (systems that move beyond agricultural productivism and reclaim food systems as public goods that cannot be left to market-based solutions only); Governance of Food Systems (The transformation of food systems is not possible without transforming the global and local governance of food systems)

By Claudio Schuftan

Freelance Public Health Consultant and Human Rights Activist  

Co-founding member of the People’s Health Movement

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

schuftan@gmail.com

CSOs Participation in Food Security and Other Issues at FAO

 

For the last couple of years, I have been participating in activities of the Civil Society Mechanism (CSM) of the Committee of Food Security (CSF) of FAO. This has included frequent zoom meetings and preparation of quite a few position papers and declarations highlighting the position of participating public interest civil society organizations (PICSOs), social and indigenous movements and networks.

This PICSOs active participation in a UN agency is quite unique, since we do have voice and some influence there. (Earlier, but no longer, this used to be only the case in the UN System Standing Committee on Nutrition, the UNSCN.) I say ‘some’, because member states are the ultimate decision-makers and our criticisms and positions are often not taken into account in final decisions, official documents and resolutions. As has been said, “the technical is, more and more, excluding the political.” It also has to be said that the price for creating the CSM was the creation of a Private Sector Mechanism (PSM) with equal participation prerogatives in the debates. I do not have to tell you how this is a clear example of corporate meddling.

Chronologically, for three years, the CSM was involved in the negotiations of Voluntary Guidelines of Food Systems (http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/cfs/Docs2021/Documents/CFS_VGs_Food_Systems_and_Nutrition_Strategy_EN.pdf ). These negotiations were so disappointing that, towards the end, CSM set some red lines it would not negotiate-on. The latter were ignored, so about a month before the Guidelines were finally approved by the member states –in a ‘steamroller’ fashion– CSM publicly withdrew from the process. Therefore, the Guidelines now launched do not have the backing of the many groups representing hundreds of thousands of claim holders whose right to nutrition is being violated the world over.

Towards the end of the above negotiations, the Secretary General of the UN, following a suggestion of the World Economic Forum (Davos), called for the infamous Food Systems Summit (FSS) finally held in October, 2021. Of course, CSM members got actively involved in this debate. If we thought that the Guidelines were the result of a flawed process, discussions about the Summit were even worse. The mechanisms and processes set up in preparing for it were flagrantly captured by corporations. In this case, CSM did not even enter the negotiations; it abstained upfront, not only providing heavy-weight objections, but also, in October 2020, sending out a call to the entire civil sector not to participate, as summarized here:

This is an open invitation to join a process of building joint strategies to counter the FSS. It is launched by organizations of those most affected by hunger, malnutrition and ecological destruction. They all participate in the Civil Society Mechanism (CSM) of the CFS of FAO. What unites them is their vision of the need to democratize food policy making and to strengthen food sovereignty as a central element of their vision. For it, they have been fighting for decades to defend food as a fundamental human right. The organizers of this call object to the FSS from its very genesis, the way it was politically framed and the governance it has given itself since all these do not correspond to the rights-based, legitimate and inclusive multilateral policy processes required to justify the name of a ’summit’. So, the call is to join forces into a collective process to challenge the FSS. We believe it is important to organize ourselves on our own, independently from the Summit, and to create our autonomous space to deepen our analyses, articulate our proposals and mobilize for our solutions. We, therefore share the overall vision to transform industrial food systems around key pillars, namely: Food is a fundamental right rather than a commodity; Food Sovereignty (this asserts the rights of peoples, nations and states to define their own food, agriculture, livestock and fisheries systems, and to develop policies on how food is produced, distributed and consumed); Agroecology (agroecology is a way of producing food, a way of life, a science, and a movement for change encompassing socio-economic, socio-political, and biological/ecological and cultural dimensions); Holistic Food Systems (systems that move beyond agricultural productivism and reclaim food systems as public goods that cannot be left to market-based solutions only); Governance of Food Systems (The transformation of food systems is not possible without transforming the global and local governance of food systems).

To challenge the FSS, we invited other movements, networks and organizations denouncing corporations’ efforts to undermine human rights, disrupt territories and communities, and to capture legitimate democratic spaces for private interests. We called for a range of potential actions together with old and new forms of mobilization, campaigning and advocacy. This call remained open throughout the pre-summit period.

Members of the CSM had earlier, in March, 2020, written a letter to the Secretary General (SG) signed by over 500 organizations. The letter protested the appointment of the president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) as the summit’s Special Envoy. This contradicted the innovative spirit of the summit, since AGRA is an alliance that promotes the interests of transnational corporations involved in industrial agriculture. They are responsible for destroying ecosystems; grabbing land, water and natural resources; in other words, undermining the livelihoods of indigenous peoples and rural communities by perpetuating exploitative working conditions, creating health problems, and generating significant additional quantities of greenhouse gas emissions. The SG was reminded that family farmers produce more than 80% of the world’s food in value terms so that they should be at the center of the UN Food Systems Summit as had originally been the call of the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) and of FAO –both mandated to end hunger and malnutrition and doing so with clear policies for engagement with public interest civil society. The letter ended with a call to the SG to revoke the UN-World Economic Forum (WEF) partnership agreement and to rethink the organization of the Food System Summit to give it a truly democratic, transparent and transformative format. The letter went unanswered. 

All efforts by the FSS secretariat to ‘accommodate’ PICSOs were deemed totally insufficient. FSS called for a ‘pre-summit’ in mid-July 2021 to fine-tune the positions it was putting forward –the vast majority of which had serious conflicts of interest and painted a future with a greater role for agribusiness. (This applies to all sub-committees set up). Given this fait-accompli, CSM decided to call a parallel pre-summit for the same date. Regional committees were successfully set up in all geographical regions and a very successful communications campaign was been set up reaching over one thousand individuals and organizations. Each region agitated to denounce the real intentions of the FSS that, as said, fostered corporate interests. In short, no CSM members participated in FSS and disseminated our own vision on food systems. (https://www.csm4cfs.org/policy-processes/challenging-the-food-systems-summit/ )

The Summit has come and gone. Its outcome was predictable. Several strands were set up to follow up on its agribusiness-centered activities in which corporations take an important role; conflicts of interest are ignored. The CSM is organized to follow up on all these strands and is alerting its members in the many different countries to be vigilant.

About at the same time, UN Nutrition (which consists of the UNSCN combined with the industry-compromised SUN Initiative) called for critiques on the first five years of the Decade on Nutrition and comments on where the focus ought to be for the next five years. CSM, of course, collectively participated. A series of zoom meetings came up with a joint response–not precluding that each member organization submitted its own comments!*

*: I note that the World Public Health Nutrition Association (WPHNA) of which I am a member, has a position paper exactly on this topic. (www.wphna.org)

News Flash Links, as part of the research project PEAH (Policies for Equitable Access to Health), aim to focus on the latest challenges by trade and governments rules to equitable access to health in resource-limited settings

News Flash 470

Weekly Snapshot of Public Health Challenges

 

Joint statement on the prioritization of monitoring SARS-CoV-2 infection in wildlife and preventing the formation of animal reservoirs: By Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and World Health Organization (WHO)

Mind the Animals: Call for Regulation of Wildlife to Prevent COVID ‘Reservoirs’

Interim Statement on COVID-19 vaccines in the context of the circulation of the Omicron SARS-CoV-2 Variant from the WHO Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19 Vaccine Composition (TAG-CO-VAC), 08 March 2022

Eighth Meeting of the Multilateral Leaders Task Force on COVID-19, 1 March 2022: “Third Consultation with the CEOs of leading vaccine manufacturers”: Joint statement

WHO: Weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 – 8 March 2022

Over 11.2 Million Confirmed Cases of Covid-19 Across Africa

Latin America: How patents and licensing hinder access to COVID-19 treatments

ViiV will not license new game-changing long-acting HIV prevention drug to generic manufacturers

Moderna’s first African mRNA vaccine facility will be in Kenya

WHO and MPP welcome NIH’s offer of COVID-19 health technologies to C-TAP

Audio Interview: Making Covid-19 Vaccines Available around the World

Epidemic Coalition Raises $1.5-billion at Summit to Prepare for ‘Disease X’

Shorter Treatment for Nonsevere Tuberculosis in African and Indian Children

Revision of orphan and paediatric drug framework needed, say reports

International Women’s Day: 7 Things We’ve Learned About the Status of Women and Girls this Year

Biden to ask Congress for $2.6B to promote gender equity

Q&A: ‘So many things’ encumber women

Helen Clark on why the world needs more women to tackle global crisis

Changing a System that Exploits Nature and Women, for a Sustainable Future

Reliable internet unavailable for 90 pct of poorest

Ukraine aid appeal tops £100m in UK

Ukrainian Refugees and Their Hosting Communities Are in Desperate Need of Funding

WHO Medical Supplies Reach Lviv in Western Ukraine, as UN Agencies Appeal for Protection for Unaccompanied Child Refugees

As Medical Supplies Reach Kyiv, WHO Vows to Keep ‘Health Diplomacy’ Alive

Beyond Ukraine: Eight more humanitarian disasters that demand your attention

World Obesity Day 2022 – Accelerating action to stop obesity

Over 1 Billion People Projected to Live with Obesity by 2030, Warns New World Obesity Atlas

Obesity, overweight rising in Africa: WHO

175 Nations Agree to Negotiate New International Treaty to Curb Plastics Pollution

Berlin to unleash €200 billion for climate protection until 2026

US says $100 billion soon to help poor nations with climate

Study: Cities Not Fully Engaging Public Health Agencies in Climate Change Planning

 

 

 

News Flash Links, as part of the research project PEAH (Policies for Equitable Access to Health), aim to focus on the latest challenges by trade and governments rules to equitable access to health in resource-limited settings

News Flash 469

Weekly Snapshot of Public Health Challenges

 

New Studies Contend: Wuhan Market Animals, Not Laboratory, First Infected Humans with SARS-COV2

Global Public Investment for Pandemic Preparedness and Response January 2022

Expanding Global Research Capabilities to Prepare for Future Pandemics

Can Negotiations at the World Health Organization Lead to a Just Framework for the Prevention, Preparedness and Response to Pandemics as Global Public Goods?

The next pandemic – when could it be?

In a Pandemic, Put the Last Mile First

How should the post-pandemic world look like? How to ensure everyone’s right to a healthier life? PHM, with support from @PMACONFERENCE , tries to find answers in this short-film trilogy

Work and worker health in the post-pandemic world: a public health perspective

HOW IS COVID-19 AFFECTING AFRICA?

WHO updates its treatment guidelines to include molnupiravir

COVID-19: The current system of innovation, manufacturing and allocation does not result in health for all

Market mechanisms cannot be the solution to global health threats

The COVID-19 pandemic: choosing between public health and civil rights

Health workers ‘given incentives’ to push baby formula

EU calls for stronger cooperation to fight rare diseases

Russia invades Ukraine, wheat woes, and lessons on the nexus: The Cheat Sheet

Dangerously low medical oxygen supplies in Ukraine due to crisis, warn WHO Director-General and WHO Regional Director for Europe

Russian doctors, nurses, and paramedics demand an end to hostilities in Ukraine, BMJ 2022

WHO Warns of ‘Humanitarian Catastrophe’ as it Releases $3.5 Million in Aid to Ukraine

UNHCR mobilizing to aid forcibly displaced in Ukraine and neighbouring countries

Ukraine emergency: latest updates (WHO)

Ukraine: EU coordinating emergency assistance and steps up humanitarian aid

Ukraine: Commission proposes temporary protection for people fleeing war in Ukraine and guidelines for border checks

How Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will worsen global hunger

Policy Changes To Address Racial/Ethnic Inequities In Patient Safety

3 years on, Haitians displaced by IDB project await land compensation

“Not even close”: healthy transport in European cities is still a dream, not reality

Climate change governance and the “health security” dilemma in the Global South

Pacific Islanders: Failure to Commit to 1.5 Degrees at COP27 will Imperil the World’s Oceans

IPCC Sixth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability

Half The World’s Population Lives in Climate ‘Danger Zones’ with Health and Lives at Risk

Tax windfall profits of energy firms to raise money for green investments, EU to tell countries

African Governments Urged to Support Plastic Pollution Solutions

Lack of early warning systems ‘leave millions at risk’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

News Flash Links, as part of the research project PEAH (Policies for Equitable Access to Health), aim to focus on the latest challenges by trade and governments rules to equitable access to health in resource-limited settings

News Flash 468

Weekly Snapshot of Public Health Challenges

 

Exclusive: United States Fast Tracks Proposal to Change WHO Rules on International Health Emergency Response

Commission sets out strategy to promote decent work worldwide and prepares instrument for ban on forced labour products

Webinar registration Wemos: Review of initiatives for global access to and finance for medical products against Covid-19 Wednesday 2 March 2022 Time: 3:00 – 4:30 PM (CET)

Save the Date! On 2 March 2022 GI-ESCR is launching the report ‘The failure of commercialised healthcare in Nigeria during the COVID-19 pandemic’ with a press conference in Lagos, Nigeria

It’s Time to Take Coronavirus in Africa Seriously

WHO: Statement on Omicron sublineage BA.2

Audio Interview: Understanding the Omicron Variant of SARS-CoV-2

In year 3 of the pandemic, the challenges facing WHO are in plain sight

Vaccine advocacy groups press Biden to break WTO deadlock

Landmark ‘TRIPS Waiver’ must be agreed now: no time to lose

Three key elements for a successful waiver

Moving forward on goal to boost local pharmaceutical production, WHO establishes global biomanufacturing training hub in Republic of Korea

With technology transfer, 120 companies in low- and middle-income countries could manufacture mRNA vaccines

Africa’s COVID-19 fight bolstered with tech transfer

Nigeria’s COVID Vaccine Drive Gets a Boost as African Leaders Push 70% Vaccination Target

EMA recommends approval of Spikevax for children aged 6 to 11

EMA recommends authorisation of booster doses of Comirnaty from 12 years of age

Effectiveness of the BNT162b2 Vaccine after Recovery from Covid-19

G-FINDER 2021: NEGLECTED DISEASE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT: NEW PERSPECTIVES

No One Is Safe Until Everyone Is Safe? Reporting a Polio Outbreak at Snail’s Pace

Finally Cause for Optimism About TB Vaccine Research, Says Fauci

After Taliban promises made in Geneva, now what?

The EU’s summit of magical thinking on Africa

Il cancro, metastasi della globalizzazione

European medicines regulatory network adopts EU common standard for electronic product information

Improving Maternal and Newborn Health Outcomes in Europe by Serge Moubarak 

More than half of parents and pregnant women exposed to aggressive formula milk marketing – WHO, UNICEF

Children with Disabilities are Not Problems to Solve, but Potential to Nurture, says Nujeen Mustafa

It’s time for action on COP 26 pledges, says ClimateWorks chief

US, Egypt launch group to prepare for COP27 climate summit

Social Impacts on Coral Reef Dependent Human Activities by Siga Tamufor 

Wildfires are getting more extreme and burning more land. The UN says it’s time to ‘learn to live with fire’

In this age of climate crisis, humanitarians need to learn to love tech

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Millions of people today depend primarily on the goods and services offered by coral reefs. The keys aspects of the ecosystem impacted by climate change tends to impact the society too. To understand how climate change will impact human communities, it is important to consider the multiple pathways through which impacts can manifest, especially indirect, direct and bi-directional linkages among distinct components of social-ecological systems

 By Siga Tamufor

Nature Conservationist

Social Impacts on Coral Reef Dependent Human Activities

(i.e., Human Migration, Socio-Economic Disparities and Public Health)

 

According to Hoegh-Guldberg, climate change has rapidly emerged as one of the major long-term threats to coral reefs (Hoegh-Guldberg et al 2007). Various studies have quantified the ecological impacts of disturbance on coral reefs and examined how anticipated increases in ocean temperature, acidity and the increasing frequency of high-intensity storm events will impact coral communities (De’ath et al 2012).

Aside from fisheries impacts, little is known about how climate change may impact coral reef dependent human societies and the major drivers and pathways through which this may operate (Carpenter et al 2009). Millions of people today depend primarily on the goods and services offered by coral reefs. The keys aspects of the ecosystem impacted by climate change tends to impact the society too (Allison et al 2009).

However, climate change may not only interrupt the flow of goods and services to society, but may also alter how people interact with reefs, creating potential pathways from society to ecosystems (Butler and Oluoch-Kosura 2006). To understand how climate change will impact human communities, it is important to consider the multiple pathways through which impacts can manifest, especially indirect and bi-directional linkages among distinct components of social– ecological systems (Cinner et al 2015). The direct impacts of increased Sea Surface Temperature (SST) in tropical oceans can also affect human health. For example, increasing SST can result in increased phytoplankton blooms that are related to incidents of shellfish poisoning (Allison et al 2009) and conditions conducive to cholera outbreaks since the Vibrio cholerae bacterium blossoms in warmer waters (Ceccarelli and Colwell 2014). Microbial outbursts lead to socioeconomic impacts of human health-related incidents like health-related costs, loss of labor productivity, loss of a food source, loss of reef fish sales in both local and international markets, and changes to the social, cultural and traditional characteristics of fishing communities (Rongo and van Woesik 2012). These impacts affect human health directly, but also indirectly through a loss of tourism.

Damage to reefs from storms can also directly affect societal well-being because tourists may stop visiting certain reefs that have experienced severe storm damage, with flow-on effects to tourism-dependent livelihoods (Blythe et al 2013).

The relative importance of different linkages and major impact pathways varies according to the specific climate drivers being considered. For example, sea level rise is likely to only have strong direct impacts on societal well-being but limited direct impacts on reef ecosystems. In contrast, ocean warming will have direct impacts to multiple components of coral reef ecosystems, with flow-on effects to societal well-being.

 

References

 Allison, Edward H., Allison L. Perry, Marie-Caroline Badjeck, W. Neil Adger, Katrina Brown, Declan Conway, Ashley S. Halls, et al. 2009. “Vulnerability of National Economies to the Impacts of Climate Change on Fisheries.” Fish and Fisheries 10, no. 2: 173–96. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-2979.2008.00310.x.

Blythe, Jessica L., Grant Murray, and Mark S. Flaherty. 2013. “Historical Perspectives and Recent Trends in the Coastal Mozambican Fishery.” Ecology and Society 18, no. 4. https://doi.org/10.5751/es-05759-180465.

Butler, Colin D., and Willis Oluoch-Kosura. 2006. “Linking Future Ecosystem Services and Future Human Well-Being.” Ecology and Society 11, no. 1. https://doi.org/10.5751/es-01602- 110130.

Carpenter, S. R., H. A. Mooney, J. Agard, D. Capistrano, R. S. DeFries, S. Diaz, T. Dietz, et al. 2009. “Science for Managing Ecosystem Services: Beyond the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106, no. 5: 1305–12. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0808772106.

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…In order for countries to achieve Universal healthcare, a focus on maternal and newborn health is imperative.  Universal healthcare coverage is part of the aim of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 3, which is related to healthcare…

…To this end, PerkinElmer held a thought leadership event to bring together doctors, patient organisations and policy makers, and gather their valuable insights on the way forward. “What the current gaps that we need to address are and what we can learn from the past” was one of the several key topics discussed by the opinion leaders…

…We noted that several pregnancy related conditions, such as preeclampsia and placenta praevia, can have disastrous effects on women if they are not diagnosed early enough to ensure proper management and treatment. We also know that some places in Europe still face clear challenges in achieving effective management of antenatal care to ensure healthy newborns…

By Serge Moubarak

Vice President & General Manager, PerkinElmer, Europe, Middle East, Africa & India (EMEAI)

Serge.Moubarak@PERKINELMER.COM 

Improving Maternal and Newborn Health Outcomes in Europe

 

COVID-19 has unfortunately set us back from the great strides that were being made to save and improve the lives of at-risk pregnant women, mothers and babies across different countries in Europe. It is therefore imperative that we renew our focus on improving health outcomes.

To this end, PerkinElmer held a thought leadership event to bring together doctors, patient organisations and policy makers, and gather their valuable insights on the way forward.

“What the current gaps that we need to address are and what we can learn from the past” was one of the several key topics discussed by the opinion leaders. We noted that several pregnancy related conditions, such as preeclampsia and placenta praevia, can have disastrous effects on women if they are not diagnosed early enough to ensure proper management and treatment.

We also know that some places in Europe still face clear challenges in achieving effective management of antenatal care to ensure healthy newborns. We believe that every aspect of the care pathway from pregnancy to antenatal care, to post-natal care, is important in ensuring the health of mothers and babies.

Placenta health

The success of pregnancy is dependent on three factors: the baby, the placenta and the mother. Every one of them must be in good health to secure a healthy outcome for both the mother and the baby. Assessing the baby and ignoring the umbilical cord and the placenta would result in an incomplete picture. Problems with placental health are by far more common than pregnancies with Down’s Syndrome or birth defects.

Stillbirths

Stillbirth is one of the pregnancy related outcomes that still represents a challenge in Europe. There are no international guidelines for the prevention of stillbirths, and there are variations in Europe. There is, however, data available on the stillbirth rates in the continent, which are maintained by the European Perinatal Statistics.

Preeclampsia

In Europe, over five million babies are born each year, and two to eight per cent of pregnancies – which equates to more than one in 50 pregnant women – are affected by preeclampsia. When preeclampsia develops, it is considered as a serious condition that needs immediate treatment, often leading to premature births. Thus, preeclampsia not only affects the mother, but also the baby and the outcome of the pregnancy. Preeclampsia and preterm birth are also associated with the development of chronic illnesses and metabolic diseases in later life.

Screening for preeclampsia in the first trimester of pregnancy is a simple and cost-effective procedure consisting of a simple blood sample, combined with maternal history and blood pressure measurement. It provides the necessary information to predict the risk of developing preeclampsia with a high detection range. Screening has the potential to protect hundreds of thousands of mothers and babies from this life-threatening disorder.[1]

Preeclampsia affects quite a number of pregnancies and can be linked to an increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes such as fetal growth restriction, pre-term birth and stillbirth.[2] Through prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment some of these health conditions that women face can be alleviated.  There are tests on the market showing that placental growth has a great potential in ruling out preeclampsia.

With currently used methods, only about 40 per cent of the women that are at high-risk of developing preeclampsia before week 37 are identified in early pregnancy and there is no proper preventive care in place. Statistics in many European countries reflects the limited achievements in this field. Finding biomarkers to improve on the low percentage of identification was a key objective when PerkinElmer started a research collaboration programme with Professor Poston, Shannon and Robson in 2004.

ASPRE was a Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) EU funded, randomised control trial (RCT) to examine the efficacy of Aspirin to treat women identified as high-risk of preeclampsia in the first trimester of pregnancy between 11-14 weeks gestation. Using a combination of maternal history, an ultrasound marker, blood pressure and a biochemical marker, and placental growth factor, they were able to detect 75 per cent of women who would develop preeclampsia before 37 weeks.[3]

The high-risk group, which was 10 per cent of the pregnant population, were given 150mg Aspirin daily. The results exceeded expectations: overall, 62 per cent of preterm preeclampsia cases which would develop before 37 weeks gestation and 89 per cent of the most serious cases which develop before 32 weeks gestation were prevented. In pregnancies at high-risk of preeclampsia, administration of aspirin reduces the length of stay for the babies in the neonatal intensive care unit by approximately 70 per cent. The ASPRE study was published and acclaimed as the most important breakthrough in obstetrics in the past 20 years, by the editor of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

Preeclampsia does have long term consequences, again, for mother and baby. The mother could develop cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, heart failure or suffer a stroke. Newborns could also suffer from cardiovascular problems. Therefore, it is imperative that health systems prioritise screening and diagnosis of preeclampsia. The implementation of a first trimester preeclampsia screening programme and adopting better preeclampsia management practices will improve pregnancy outcomes, and this will have a positive impact on the economic burden to country healthcare systems. 

Newborn screening for rare disorders

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other public health bodies around the world hail newborn screening as one of the 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century. Many developed countries have built upon that success and added additional conditions for screening. A heel prick bloodspot screening test taken by a health professional is all that is required to diagnose disorders on babies. After this simple procedure, biochemical blood tests are performed on the dried blood sample to diagnose a number of serious disorders.

Newborn screening has the ability to save babies from severe and life-limiting conditions. Rare diseases can be both life-limiting and life-threatening, and disproportionately affect children. Seventy-five per cent of rare diseases affect children and more than 30 per cent of children with a rare disease die before their fifth birthday.[4]

After birth, many babies are healthy and will not have any conditions that could be identified by newborn screening tests. However, for those babies who do have health problems, the benefits of screening can be enormous. Early diagnosis and treatment can improve the affected babies’ health and prevent severe disability or even death in some instances.

Newborn babies can be screened for over 50 potentially life-threatening disorders. Many countries in Europe screen for 20 or more conditions, while parents in the US have the option to test for more than 50 conditions.

Apart from the diagnosis and treatment of these rare disorders such as metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD) and severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID); efforts are underway to gain adoption of the diagnosis of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) in Europe and globally.

Conclusion

In order for countries to achieve Universal healthcare, a focus on maternal and newborn health is imperative.  Universal healthcare coverage is part of the aim of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 3, which is related to healthcare.  There are targets that relate to maternal and infant mortality reduction. 

The relevant targets are:

3.1 By 2030, reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births.

3.2 By 2030, end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age, with all countries aiming to reduce neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 per 1,000 live births and under-5 mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1,000 live births.[5] Without a global focus on these areas goal 3 will not be achieved.

All in all, having a focus on the prioritisation of services and care for pregnant women, mothers and babies will provide better outcomes.

We look forward to working in collaboration with key stakeholders to improve health outcomes for pregnant women, mothers, and babies.

 

References

[1] Rolnik DL (2017) ASPRE trial: Performance of screening for pre-term preeclampsia. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol. 2017 Jul 25. doi: 10.1002/uog.18816

[2] Ankita Malika,1, Babban Jeeb,1, Satish Kumar Guptaa,⁎ Preeclampsia: Disease biology and burden, its management strategies with reference to India. Pregnancy Hypertension 15 (2019) 23–31

[3] Rolnik DL (2017) ASPRE trial: Performance of screening for pre-term preeclampsia. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol. 2017 Jul 25. doi: 10.1002/uog.18816

[4] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-rare-diseases-framework/the-uk-rare-diseases-framework#introduction

[5] United Nations Sustainable Development Goals – https://indicators.report/targets/3-2/