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Drug-resistant malaria is spreading, but experts clash over its global risk
The outspoken head of the Mahidol group, Nicholas White, has urged the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland, to declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, a designation reserved for the most serious outbreaks that pose a global threat.
- Categories
- Health Care
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How stoves can help solve a global pollution crisis
Dirty air, besides contributing to global warming, leads to 4 million deaths per year, according to the World Health Organization. That's about 1 millions deaths in China, 600,000 in India and 140,000 in Russia in 2012 alone.
- Categories
- Environment
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Glasses for the Masses: Because It’s Easier to Navigate a Path out of Poverty When You Can See
On this World Sight Day, VisionSpring President Ella R. Gudwin writes that though eyeglasses are a cost-effective poverty reduction tool, 2.5 billion people do not have the eyeglasses they need to earn and learn. Gudwin announces a new partnership with Target and Williams-Sonoma Inc. that aims to improve workers' vision on a grand scale to bridge the visual divide.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise
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WHO launches bold plan to slash cholera deaths by 90 percent
The challenge is daunting. Three million people get cholera every year, in Asia, Africa and Haiti, and increasing urbanization and temperatures will put more people at risk. In Yemen, the biggest epidemic in modern times is now approaching 800,000 cases, and is growing. Emergency experts say a “catastrophic” outbreak looms in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh.
- Categories
- Health Care
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Bad medicine: the toxic fakes at the heart of an international criminal racket
The recent news that another batch of fake meningitis vaccine had been discovered in Niger is just the most recent incidence of a particularly dangerous and cruel criminal racket. As many as 1,500 cases have been reported to a surveillance database launched by the World Health Organization in 2013, and that’s probably an underestimate, says Mick Deats, head of the substandard and falsified medicines group at WHO.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Tags
- public health, vaccines
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Gates Foundation and PATH wire up health data in Africa using a novel approach
The partnership is digitizing and connecting Tanzania’s healthcare system, linking a fragmented array of databases and information sources. A unified system could dramatically improve efficiency, accountability and cost savings for a country of 45 million people that struggles with infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Forget the Sexy ‘Innovations’: Build (and Monitor) More Water Pipes
Annie Feighery is CEO of mWater, an M&E and data management platform that is used in 147 countries to track water sources. In this insightful Q&A, she says, "The only way it is feasible to achieve global access to safe water is through systems" such as piped infrastructure and small-scale water treatment and distribution units. "The majority of the water-stressed (people) on the planet live within a kilometer of a piped network. They don’t need wells, they need to be part of the infrastructure."
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
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Powering Communities Through a Surprising Source of Renewable Energy: Human Waste
Around the world, a staggering 2.5 billion people lack access to decent toilets. That leads to far too many people getting sick from preventable diseases. Anne Healy and Erin Crossett of Development Innovation Ventures say the good news is that some enterprising companies are experimenting with ways to make human waste disposal profitable in the developing world.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Health Care, WASH
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