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I hope you find this issue to be informative and helpful in your work. Please send me any information you’d like posted in upcoming issues. The embedded links may not work in SlideShare, so please feel free to email me for a copy at DrChrisStout@gmail.com to be added to our email list. You can join our Facebook Group and interact with over 1700 likeminded individuals at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/CenterForGlobalInitiatives/ Any recommendations to improve this communique would be most appreciated! And if you’d like to support the Center’s work with a tax deductible donation, that would be fantastic(!) and do a great deal: http://centerforglobalinitiatives.org/donateNow.cfm Cheers, and thank you for your work, Chris
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Greetings and welcome to the latest edition of the CGI Newsletter Dr. Chris Stout, Editor Volume II, Number 8, August 2015 _____News, Tools, Reports and Shout-Outs______ The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is pleased to be part of the Global Financing Facility for Every Woman Every Child (GFF), launched on the sidelines of the Financing for Development conference, held July 13–16 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 1
USAID is committing $50 million to the GFF through multi-year funding mechanisms, subject to Congressional approval. This funding will support the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania to scale up national strategies and efforts to end preventable child and maternal deaths. Ending preventable child and maternal deaths, a core goal for USAID, will require more than resources. It will also require a new model of development and innovative financing solutions. The GFF is a new financing approach among donors and host countries to accelerate efforts to end preventable newborn, child, adolescent and maternal deaths and improve the health and the quality of life of women, adolescents and children. It will focus on narrowing the financing gap by incentivizing countries to allocate a higher proportion of funding from the World Bank’s International Development Assistance concessional loans to maternal and child health spending. Countries will also be assisted to develop strategies for sustainable financing and domestic resource mobilization. Learn more Follow @USAID and @USAIDGH on Twitter to learn more about the GFF and the Financing for Development conference Follow the conversation at #EWECisME, #FFD2015, #FFD3, and #Post2015 Read the press release about the launch and funding Find out more about the GFF Read more about Every Woman Every Child Check out the Financing for Development Conference agenda and other details Photo credit: Neil Brandvold for USAID _____Award, Grant, Funding, & Job Opportunities_____ Avon Foundation Invites Applications for Global Breast Cancer Scholar Program The Avon Foundation for Women has announced a Call for Applications for the third class of its Avon Global Breast Cancer Clinical Scholars Program. The goal of the program is to provide advanced training to breast cancer specialists living outside the United States at leading breast cancer centers so they can bring new skills and information to their home countries that 2
improve the treatment and care of breast cancer patients. The 2016 Avon Global Breast Cancer Scholars Program will bring up to twenty physicians to the United States for an intensive four-week training and preceptorship in breast cancer surgery, pathology, breast imaging (radiology), medical oncology, clinical trial design, and community and public health at Avon Foundation-funded breast cancer centers in the U.S. Scholars will study at one of the following ten Avon Foundation-funded institutions: Baylor College of Medicine (Houston), Boston Medical Center (Boston), Cedars Sinai Medical Center (Los Angeles), Emory University — Grady Memorial Hospital (Atlanta), Houston Methodist Hospital(Houston), Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore), Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston), New York Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia University Medical Center (New York), Northwestern University (Chicago), or the University of California San Francisco — San Francisco General Hospital (San Francisco). Call for nominations, USIP peace dissertation prize, US At the 2015 International Studies Association Annual Meeting in New Orleans, the United States Institute of Peace celebrated the 30th anniversary of its creation by the US Congress and its long time participation in the International Studies Association professional meetings. At the 2015 International Studies Association Annual Meeting in New Orleans, the United States Institute of Peace celebrated the 30th anniversary of its creation by the US Congress and its long time participation in the International Studies Association professional meetings. To mark this occasion, USIP has created within ISA an annual prize to be given for the best peace studies dissertation written in a calendar year. The award honors an outstanding dissertation on the analysis of violent conflict, conflict resolution, peacemaking, or peacebuilding completed in a United States graduate program. The annual prize, a $1000 cash award, will be announced and presented at the annual ISA meeting. The inaugural award will be for dissertations accepted in calendar year 2014 and nominated by the deadline of September 30, 2015. The prize winner will be notified in December 2015. The prize will be announced and awarded at ISA 2016. To be considered for this prize a dissertation must be completed at a US graduate institution and nominated by the head of the department in which the dissertation has been accepted. Each department may nominate no more than one dissertation. Submission should be sent to peacedissertation@usip.org and must include: Nomination letter from department head Prize candidate’s curriculum vitae (including contact information) Dissertation 3
Fellowship for leaders of organizations: World Peace Initiative Partner Fellowship - Uruguay Sept 2015 The WPI Partner Fellowship will bring together business leaders and heads of organizations from all over the world to share how meditation has improved their business, communication, and working relationships. The fellowship will provide the opportunity to deepen their own meditation practice, become mindful leaders and role models for their employees, and build more authentic and sustainable organizations. It will also be an opportunity to network with diverse organizations contributing to a more harmonious and peaceful world for all. The 5 days Retreat of World Peace Initiative Foundation will take place between the 9th-13th September 2015 at Hotel Solanas Vacation Club, Montevideo, Uruguay. The World Peace Initiative Foundation Retreat includes: 20 hours of meditation course provided by Thai Teaching Monks. 3 full meals per day Local Transportation Partial ticket support Course Manual Daily Yoga practice Mindfulness activities Opportunity to participate in further conferences and retreats in the region and in Thailand. For more information: http://wpifoundation.org/partner-fellowship/ Call for Applications, International MA in Peace and Conflict Studies, Hacettepe University, Turkey HACETTEPE UNIVERSITY Graduate School of Social Sciences, Department of Peace Studies 4
International MA in Peace & Conflict Studies New Semester Starting in September, 2015 in Beytepe, Ankara, Turkey In this program, an international group of students and faculty will live communally, and concepts and theories learned in the classroom will be actualized in the multicultural living environment. The motivation to promote peace and create a global society of peace and justice is developed through an immersion in this culture of peacemakers. The professors visiting the program are among the world’s best known peace practitioners. In the past semesters, Johan Galtung, Jorgen Johansen, Norman Finkelstein, and many world- famous experts and academicians thought in the programme and many others will inform and inspire the students efforts with years of collective expertise and dedication in the following semesters, too. The goal of the MA in Peace & Conflict Studies Program is to develop the students skills in critical thinking and to teach them to analyze conflicts, their underlying causes, and how to transform and manage them in a peaceful and ethical way. The programme’s inter-disciplinary nature will enhance the students ability to work in an academic manner while learning the necessary analytical skills for peace studies in the following areas: psychology, media, development, civil society, education, human rights, international law and many more. As Turkey seeks to act as a stabilizing and mediating force in the region, this program offers the peace scholar a view into the dynamic forces shaping our world. Hacettepe’s International MA in Peace and Conflict Studies is located in the Beytepe Campus of Hacettepe University. Please visit the website for more information: http://www.peace.hacettepe.edu.tr Email: peace@hacettepe.edu.tr From APA OIA: To send information items for the International news bulletin please write to international@apa.org. INTERNATIONAL NEWS BULLETIN CUBA – HOMINIS2016 Travel with APA to attend Hominis2016 in Havana, Cuba. The APA-0rganized trip takes place May 7-15. Following an evening orientation dinner in Miami (May 7) the group departs for Havana May 8. 5
Activities include orientation to the Cuban psychology education and training systems, the Cuban health care system, and Cuban society, followed by attending Hominis2016 (May 11- 13), Hominis2016 (see www.homoniscuba.com will be held in the Havana Conference Center. This trip is part of APA’s International Learning Partner Program to foster collaboration and exchange. For more information, please visit: http://www.apa.org/international/outreach/learning-partner.aspx. GLOBAL NETWORK GLOBAL CLINICAL PRACTICE NETWORK (GCPN) Mental health and primary care professionals are invited to join the GLOBAL CLINICAL PRACTICE NETWORK (GCPN). This is a network of more than 11,000 mental health researchers, clinicians and practitioners in 139 countries. For more information, please visit: http://www.globalclinicalpractice.net. GLOBAL MENTAL HEALTH FELLOWSHIP APA-IUPsyS Global Mental Health Fellowship A unique opportunity for a psychologist to spend one year in Geneva, Switzerland, at the World Health Organization (WHO), in the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse. Applicants must be APA members or have applied for APA membership at the time of application, and hold a doctoral degree in psychology. For more information visit: http://www.apa.org/about/awards/global- health-fellowship.aspx Deadline: September 30, 2015 FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR OPPORTUNITIES Core Fulbright Scholar Program For more information, please visit: http://www.cies.org/program/core-fulbright-us-scholar- program. For a listing of all Fulbright awards, please visit: http://www.cies.org/programs. Deadline: August 15, 2015 Fulbright-Fogarty Opportunities Specifically for fellows and scholars in Public Health. For more information, please visit: http://www.fic.nih.gov/Programs/Pages/fulbright-fellowships.aspx?utm_source=funding- news&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=funding-news. GRANTS Small Grants for Program Development of National Psychology Associations This award provides funds to support the growth and development of organized psychology around the world. National psychology organizations outside the U.S. and Canada are eligible to apply. Preference will be given to psychology organizations that are in developing or low-income countries and broadly representative of psychologists in their country or region. For more information visit: http://www.apa.org/about/awards/cirp-small-grants.aspx. Deadline: September 1, 2015 Henry P. David Research and Travel Grants One $1,500 Research Grant to support of ongoing research in behavioral aspects of population studies or human reproductive behavior. One $1,500 Travel Grant to support for a non-U.S. reproductive health/population science professional to travel to and participate in the Psychosocial Workshop, held in conjunction with the Population Association of America annual meeting. For more information, please visit: http://www.apa.org/apf/funding/david.aspx. Deadline: December 1, 2015. 6
Frances M. Culbertson Travel Grant $1,500 to support women from developing countries who are in the early stages of their careers by providing travel funds to attend conferences in psychology (preference for the International Congress of Psychology, Yokohama, ICP2016). Recipients of the grant also receive a two-year affiliate membership in the American Psychological Association. For more information visit: http://www.apa.org/apf/funding/culbertson.aspx. Deadline: February 15, 2016. CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS Psychological Assessment Journal A scholarly APA journal committed to empirical research relevant to clinical assessment, in broad terms, relevant to basic and applied cognition, personality, interpersonal behavior, psychopathology, forensics, and biological psychology. Call for papers for a special section on Assessment in Health Psychology. For more information, please visit: http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/pas/call-for-papers- health-psychology.aspx. Deadline September 1, 2015. Caribbean Journal of Psychology (CJP) An academic, peer-reviewed journal focused on psychology in the English-speaking Caribbean. CJP is currently available as a free, open access publication: http://ojs.mona.uwi.edu/index.php/cjpsy. CJP is now accepting papers. For more information on guidelines to submit a paper, please visit: http://ojs.mona.uwi.edu/index.php/cjpsy/about/submissions#authorGuidelines. CONFERENCES International Council of Psychologists Registration is also open for the 74th Annual Convention in Toronto, Canada from August 1-3, 2015. For more information, please visit: http://www.icpweb.org/#!events/c226e. International Psychology of Women Summit International Summit: “From International to Transnational: Transforming the Psychology of Women” registration now open. The Summit’s goal is to foster new directions in the psychology of women through exploration and awareness of international and transnational perspectives. August 4- 5, 2015, Toronto Canada. For more information, please visit: http://www.chestnuthillwebdesign.com/index.htm. APA123rd Annual Convention There is still time to register! Convention program is now available to create a personal schedule. For more information for international visitors visit: http://www.apa.org/convention/programming/international/index.aspx. 27th Greater New York Conference on Behavioral Research This conference will take place at St. Francis College, New York City, USA on November 6, 2015. The conference theme is: Promoting Peace for Children and Adults. Faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students are invited to submit papers or posters for possible presentation. Presentation proposals (300 word abstracts) are due by 5pm Friday, October 9th, 2015 to NYBehavioralConference2015@gmail.com 3rd Caribbean Regional Conference of Psychology (CRCP2016), Hosted in Port au Prince, Haïti, Nov. 7-11, 2016, with the theme "Promoting Caribbean Health with Multiculturalism and Multilingualism: Challenges and Opportunities." For more information 7
visit: www.crcp2016.org to view the Call for Submissions. Earlysubmissiondeadline: September 15, 2015 PUBLICATIONS NEW from APA Publications Wanting to Maximize the Positive and Minimize the Negative: Implications for Mixed Affective Experience in American and Chinese Contexts. Sims, Tamara; Tsai, Jeanne L.; Jiang, Da; Wang, Yaheng; Fung, Helene H.; Zhang, Xiulan doi: 10.1037/a0039276 Recovery Assessment Scale: Testing Validity With Portuguese Community-Based Mental Health Organization Users. Jorge-Monteiro, Maria F.; Ornelas, José H. doi: 10.1037/pas0000176 Psychometric Properties of Glasgow Sleep Effort Scale in Portuguese Language. Meia-Via, Mariana Soares; Marques, Daniel Ruivo; Espie, Colin A.; da Silva, Carlos Fernandes; Allen Gomes, Ana doi: 10.1037/pas0000178 Happiness and Age in European Adults: The Moderating Role of Gross Domestic Product per Capita. Morgan, Jessica; Robinson, Oliver; Thompson, Trevor doi: 10.1037/pag0000034 History of psychological knowledge in Brazilian culture: Weaving threads on the loom of time. Page 170-182 Massimi, Marina; Gontijo, Sandro R. The origins and professionalization of cognitive psychotherapy in Argentina. Page 205-214 Korman, Guido Pablo; Viotti, Nicolás; Garay, Cristian Javier Research report on a new volume on the crises in Italian psychology. Page 215-217 Morgese, Giorgia Free Access to Journals Routledge Journals offers FREE ACCESS to a collection of over 55 articles on the topic of Diversity & Cultural Psychiatry. You can now view and download each of these articles for FREE for a limited time. For more information visit:http://explore.tandfonline.com/page/beh/diversity-cultural- psychiatry-free-article-collection. Expires July 31, 2015. Free signup for APA newsletters: http://www.apa.org/support/opt-in.aspx Follow international news on twitter: @APA_Intl For more announcements visit http://www.apa.org/international/resources/announcements.aspx 8
_____Upcoming Conferences and Events_____ Call for Papers: Special 2016 Edition of the International Journal of Psychotherapy Director of Common Bond Institute This is a special issue of IJP focusing on the subject area of: Communal Trauma and Transgenerational Trauma IJP is the journal of the European Association for Psychotherapy (EAP). It is a peer-reviewed, scientific psychotherapy journal, published 3 times per annum. EAP is a member of the World Council for Psychotherapy (WCP); and an International (Non- Governmental Organisation) NGO member of the Council of Europe. Article submissions are welcome from practitioners, academics, and researchers. Submissions should be original contributions and are subject to peer review. (Any previously published articles need a special permission from the IJP editor) Submission Deadline: Authors are asked to send articles by deadline October 1, 2015 Articles that miss this deadline may be considered until Dec. 1 2015, depending on available space. Submissions should be sent electronically in MS WORD (or compatible) format, in good literary English, 12 point Times Roman font, and without embedded formatting or backgrounds. Any diagrams or maps should be in .JPEG format. Tables may appear in the text, but without frames or tints. Submissions should include: Title, Author name, contact information (mailing, phone, & email), bio (max. 50 words), abstract, professional title, affiliation or place of work, main activities, & description of familiarity with the subject. * All other technical requirements are provided on request. Manuscripts (or submissions) should be in the form of: Full-length theoretical, clinical, descriptive, and research articles, which should not exceed 9
5000-6000 words (including abstract and references), or Medium-length articles (about 2000-3000 words), or Short reports & reflections (1000-1500 words). In exceptional circumstances, longer articles or variations on these guidelines may be considered: All submissions and inquiries should be sent to: SOlweean@aol.com 1-269-665-9393 Subject Heading: “ IJP 2016 - Submission “ * Related Conference: This special IJP issue will be published prior to the 5 International Conference on Transgenerational Trauma, held in Amman, Jordan in the fall of 2016, and exhibited at the conference. Authors interested in also presenting in the Conference program (either in Oct. 2015 or 2016) are encourage to submit presenter proposals early (see www.cbiworld.org for full details, or contact: SOlweean@aol.com). _____Ebola, Infectious Disease, and More…_____ Aggregated News Reports from: Global Health NOW is an initiative of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, www.jhsph.edu. Views and opinions expressed in this email do not necessarily reflect those of the Bloomberg School. Created by Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Maryalice Yakutchik, Jackie Frank and Salma Warshanna-Sparklin. You can connect with them at: bsimpso1@jhu.edu EBOLA A Setback for Liberia A Liberian teen died of Ebola, upsetting hopes that Liberia could hang onto its Ebola-free status declared May 9. Deputy Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah said that contract tracing is underway. The teenager was not tested for Ebola until after he died. Still, Nyenswah praised Liberia’s surveillance system for catching the case, and urged Liberians to avoid panicking and to go about normal business while the authorities investigate. 10
The authorities are working to determine how the teenager, who lived in Margibi County—far from Sierra Leone and Guinea—contracted the virus, and whether his case might be linked to travel. Al Jazeera Survival Mission While Ebola maintains its grip on West Africa, survivors could hold the key to knocking it down forever. Researchers attempting to harness the immunity of survivors face almost unfathomable logistical challenges. This piece, by Ericka Check Hayden, describes the painstaking efforts of investigators like Lina Moses, an epidemiologist who collected samples and preserving the cells, and immunologists at Tulane University who are looking for effective ways to make antibody drugs from humans as opposed to mice. The Tulane team hopes to unlock not only a new treatment for Ebola, but also a blueprint to make new treatments for any virus, from influenza to Lassa fever. Wired Related: Five Minutes With Alfred Paolo Conteh: "We Were Not Expecting Ebola to Return to Freetown" – Ebola Deeply Related: Running A Business In West Africa After Ebola: A Lesson In Entrepreneurial Agility – Forbes The Costly Toll A donor pledging session underway today at the International Ebola Recovery Conference in New York is an important opportunity to focus on the restoration and strengthening of basic health services—including the health workforce, urges Zoë Mullan, editor of the Lancet Global Health. Tallying the myriad costs of Ebola in a commentary, Mullan highlights a World Bank study of health care worker mortality published this week. More than 500 health workers lost their lives in West Africa’s Ebola outbreak. Using maternal, infant, and child mortality as proxies for health system performance, the study showed that the loss doctors, nurses, and midwives probably led to an estimated 75% increase in maternal mortality across the 3 hardest-hit countries (Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone). The Lancet Global Health Related: The Ebola epidemic may be over soon, but the emergency won’t be – Africa Can End Poverty – World Bank blog Related: NGOs Working in Liberia Request Support – International Alert Related: Faces of Ebola – UNDP Related: What It’s Like To Fight Ebola When the World Stops Listening – TIME Donors at the Ebola Recovery Conference in New York on Friday announced $3.4 billion in new funds to Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone to rebuild their economies and health systems. Deutsche Welle 11
30 people are still getting infected with Ebola each week in West Africa, and 1/3 of those are surprise cases (not on the contact list)—“a big worry,” according to the UN’s Ebola special envoy David Nabarro. Reuters Guinea's president Alpha Condé is prioritizing the health system and the private sector—both devastated by Ebola. The Guardian Liberians have “great awareness about Ebola transmission, but a majority are not confident about identifying symptoms of the disease,” according to a knowledge, attitudes and practices study published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) on Friday. Healio Genetic sequencing has shown the source of Liberia's recent Ebola cluster is similar to earlier viruses found in Liberia, discounting the likelihood of an import from Guinea or Sierra Leone or a new introduction from an animal. CIDRAP Aerosol Vaccine Effective in Monkeys A single inhaled dose of an Ebola vaccine stopped the virus in monkeys, activating immune cells in their respiratory systems and providing full protection, according to anew study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. This first successful use of an aerosol vaccine to protect monkeys against a hemorrhagic viral fever was conducted at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and the NIH. As the vaccine does not require a medical professional to administer, it could prove useful in developing countries where health workers are scarce. Still, there is no guarantee that it will work in humans; earlier this year, an Ebola drug was shown to be effective in monkeys, but not people. The New York Times Related: Ebola: 'Fear, denial and fatigue fuelling outbreak' – BBC VACCINES $2 Billion Needed to Tackle Vaccine Development Crisis A $2 billion global fund is needed to correct the vaccine development crisis, report a trio of global health specialists in a New England Journal of Medicine paper. Vaccines are both badly needed and feasible for many infectious diseases—Ebola, MERS, West Nile virus—yet they are not being developed, write Stanley A. Plotkin, Adel A.F. Mahmoud and Jeremy Farrar. Industry’s flagging enthusiasm to develop new vaccines stems from a lack of governmental prioritization and a lack of market incentives. “The lesson we take from the Ebola crisis is that disease prevention should not be held back by lack of money at a critical juncture when a relatively modest, strategic investment could save thousands of lives and billions of dollars further down the line,” the co-authors write. Reuters Shingles Shot Shapes Up A shingles vaccine due to hit the market as early as 2017 promises to be effective more than 97% of 12
the time regardless of age, as opposed to the partial and waning protection offered by the current vaccine. The new vaccine employs an adjuvant—an added chemical whose sole job is to wake up the immune system. It’s a technology used by other vaccines. As a person ages, so does the immune system. “Having something to help the body respond better to the vaccine and offer more protection, ‘that's dynamite,’" says William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. NPR Shots SYRIA Water Crisis International relief agencies have stepped up efforts to boost water supplies in war-torn Aleppo, currently in the grip of an intense heat wave. In recent weeks, power outages have cut off piped water in Syria’s largest city, leading to an increased incidence of waterborne illnesses, especially among children. Despite the enhanced services, the water crisis has left an estimated 500,000 people struggling to survive. ReliefWeb PARASITIC DISEASES Research Questions Deworming Push New research has raised questions about some of the oft-professed merits of global deworming programs. Deworming programs were claimed to improve not only children’s health and growth, but also lead to education and economic benefits. Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine re-examined previous studies, however, and uncovered missing data and some evidence of bias in the finding that school attendance improved following deworming schemes. Their findings, published in 2 papers in the International Journal of Epidemiology, have spurred new evaluation of the use of limited funds for deworming. The Guardian TUBERCULOSIS 1 Million Cases Skirt India’s System Nearly a million TB cases in India have either gone undiagnosed or untreated, based on the latest assessment of India’s National Tuberculosis policy. The failure to notify authorities of new TB patients, according to the leaked report, lies with the unregulated private hospitals. Attempts to improve collaboration between the public and private sectors over the past 2 decades have not yet worked. Experts express concern about the lack of funds for the expansion of the program, especially when the economic burden of TB to the Indian economy between 2006-2014 was a staggering $340 billion. Scroll.in 13
Related: Funding Crunch Affects India's Fight Against Tuberculosis: Report – NDTV CHOLERA Promising Vaccine to Control Cholera The oral vaccine Shanchol has reduced cases of severe cholera by nearly 40% in a key trial in Bangladeshi slums. The success suggests the shot could be used routinely to help endemic countries control the life-threatening disease. For the almost 27,0000 residents aged 1 year and older from the urban slums of Mirpur, the treatment proved to be safe, easy to administer and relatively inexpensive at $1.85 per dose, according to results published in The Lancet. Reuters Related: Haitian groups sign cholera letter, head of U.N. campaign ends tenure – Miami Herald Cases Surge in South Sudan Cholera is spreading swiftly through South Sudan, just as the escalating cost of clean water in the capital forces many to drink dirty water to survive. 33 people have died in Juba, including 6 children under 5, and 700 more have been infected. The country’s economic crisis stems from increased military spending directly related to the war, while the government neglects spending on essential services, according to Oxfam. The NGO’s country director, Zlatko Gegic, said, “We need to act now. We appeal to South Sudan’s leaders to prioritise investment in water and health infrastructure to prevent future outbreaks... Donors should urgently fund life-saving activities such as chlorination for water trucks and rehabilitation of water systems.” ReliefWeb/Oxfam Related: Sudan takes measures to prevent cholera spread from South Sudan – Sudan Tribune Related: South Sudan: Patients dying after fighting compels medical staff to leave hospital – ReliefWeb/ICRC No Escape for Haiti Haiti has come close to containing the cholera epidemic that exploded in mid-2010. In 2014, however, the outbreak resurged and by April cholera cases had increased by 306% over last year. Haiti’s 5-year cholera crisis is the subject of a compelling piece by Rose George that details the disease’s unrelenting grip on the poorest country in the Americas. Despite a comprehensive government plan to improve sanitation, and optimism from Haiti’s president about containing the epidemic, a nurse in the cholera trenches holds out little hope: “We can’t eradicate cholera. We’ve no clean drinking water, there are no toilets. We are not going to escape this.” The Atlantic Related: South Sudan: Cholera treatment centre opened in Juba – MSF Cholera, Violence’s Companion A recent cholera outbreak in South Sudan has killed 39 and infected 1,212, revealing how conflict 14
and displacement fuel disease. Crowded refugee camps have created ideal conditions for the spread of the waterborne disease—as refugees drink water from water tankers, eat food from unregulated roadside vendors and defecate in the open. According to UNHCR, South Sudan has1.5 million displaced by the civil war, and also hosts 250,000 refugees who fled conflict in neighboring Sudan. International Business Times MALARIA The $100 Billion Plan Reduce the malaria burden 90% and eliminate the disease in 35 countries by 2030? The target (part of the proposed UN Sustainable Development Goals) is ambitious but doable, says the Roll Back Malaria Partnership. The cost: $100 billion. The partnership, which includes WHO, UN Children’s Fund and World Bank, says the plan prioritizes widespread access to prevention (insecticide-treated bed nets and indoor residual spraying), better diagnostics and more R&D. It estimates a $40 return for each dollar invested globally, and a $60 return for every dollar invested in sub-Saharan Africa. Global leaders at the 3rd International Financing for Development meeting are discussing the plan today in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. VOA MEASLES Vaccine Refusals Fuel Cameroon Outbreak An outbreak in Cameroon’s northwestern region has infected 300 children, and several have died. Parents refusing to vaccinate their children, despite free vaccines offered by the government, helped the virus spread, says Sama Julius a doctor with an immunization program in the area. Those children who died suffered from malnutrition as well. In response to the new cases, health officials have expanded a mass vaccination campaign started in June in districts in the capital. VOA HIV/AIDS UNAIDS Releases Global Report Card Despite extraordinary progress preventing and treating HIV/AIDS, the world has a long way to go to meet the goal of ‘ending’ the epidemic by 2030, according to a major report released yesterday at a financing conference underway in Ethiopia. Between 2000 and 2014, new AIDS infections dropped from 3.1 million to 2 million annually, and AIDS deaths dropped from 2 million to 1.2 million, according to the report,How AIDS changed everything—MDG 6: 15 years, 15 lesson of hope from the AIDS response. And yet, stubborn challenges linger: In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 70% of adults have never had an HIV test Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa saw increases of more than 25% in new HIV infections from 2000-2014 The world will need to spend $8 billion to $12 billion more each year by 2020 A ‘punitive legal environment’ in many countries. Bonus feature: UNAIDS added a new “data visualization” tool with country details to its website. 15
Science The Flip Side A Western plan to sanction Nigeria for 2014 anti-gay laws could help make that country’s government more innovative and responsible with the funds it receives for helping Nigerians living with HIV- AIDS, according to Nigerian journalist Ameto Akpe, a 2014 Nieman Fellow at Harvard. Nigeria, the second most religious nation in the world, has the world’s second highest HIV burden with 3.4 million infected people. 97% of Nigerians support anti-homosexuality laws. “President Mohammed Buhari is being watched closely,” Akpe writes, “what strategy would he take in the health sector, would he repeal or try to circumnavigate the anti-gay laws, what health financing policies would be adopted in a time of limited donor support?” NAIJ Related: Nigerian anti-gay activists fear Obama pressure on Buhari during US visit – RFI Related: Uganda Battles Increase in HIV Infections – VOA Related: People with HIV live almost 20 years longer than in 2001 – The Guardian Related: HIV infections and deaths still in decline – The Economist Related: Goal to end AIDS epidemic by 2030 "ambitious but realistic" – Thomson Reuters INFECTIOUS DISEASES MERS Lessons Re-Learned Now that the hospital-driven outbreak of MERS-CoV in South Korea has simmered down, Australian virologist Ian Mackay turns a critical eye on the health system’s poor management of the virus. Not-so-new lessons learned include the fact that MERS-CoV doesn't spread efficiently between humans, yet hospitals fuel its effort with poor infection control and by allowing healthy people to co- care for patients, he writes on his blog. Mackay stresses the need to educate and inform the public about virus transmission to avoid costly, ineffective measures, like wearing masks in public, putting thermal imaging cameras in office buildings and quarantining zoo camels. Virology Down Under PARASITIC DISEASES Vaccine for Worms George Washington University is part of a group that's working on a vaccine for hookworm, the leading cause of anemia and protein deficits in developing nations, affecting an estimated 740 million people in rural, poor areas of the world. The drug treatment for hookworm infection is an effective but often temporary reprieve. If widespread drug resistance is developed, there’s nothing else to treat hookworm. “It's always difficult to recruit people, especially when we say, 'We're going to give you worms,’" said 16
Dr. David Diemert, who leads the project and is an infectious disease expert at George Washington University. NPR Goats and Soda INFECTIOUS DISEASES They Kill Disease—and Taste Good Too! Freshwater prawns show promise as a natural solution to control schistosomiasis, a potentially deadly parasitic disease that infects at least 220 million people. In Senegal, researchers stocked a river access point with prawns that feed on parasite-infected snails. 18 months later, according to the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, there were 80% fewer infected snails and a 50% lower disease burden in residents of the prawn-stocked village. Paired with infrequent mass drug treatment, maintaining prawn populations may offer a complementary approach to controlling schistosomiasis, which can cause anemia, stunting, liver failure and bladder cancer. And the prawns, according to one of the researchers, are delicious. Stanford News Service _____ CourseWorks _____ Certificate Program and DropBox Library The Center is pleased to offer access to our Library’s DropBox collections free of charge as an educational resource to anyone with a need or interest working in resource-limited settings anywhere in the world. Just email me what sections you’d like and what your work/project is. The Library’s Table of Contents is here: http://www.slideshare.net/drchrisstout1/cgi-dropbox-library-table-of- contents There is also an option of obtaining a Certification if you are interested in doing so as well. Our curricula are based on a compilation of online lectures on global health and related areas. CGI is most indebted to and with big thanks for our good friend Jennifer Staple- Clark, founder of Unite for Sight, and profiled in my book The New Humanitarians, Vol. 1, for making their content freely available on their site (you may freely read, download, distribute, and use the material, as long as all of the work is properly cited). You rock Jen! 17
If you’re interested in earning a Certificate in one of 19 areas, CGI’s tuition is $25/course. Just contact me to enroll or if you have any questions. You may work at your own pace. It’s pretty cool, check it out: http://centerforglobalinitiatives.org/courseWorks.cfm _____ My Thanks! _____ I hope you have found this issue to be informative and helpful in your work. Please send me any information you’d like posted in upcoming issues. This Newsletter and mailing are a manual process, so if you would no longer like to receive it, just send me an email. You can join our Facebook Group and interact with over 1600 likeminded individuals at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/CenterForGlobalInitiatives/ And if you’d like to support the Center’s work with a tax deductible donation, that would be fantastic(!) and do a great deal: http://centerforglobalinitiatives.org/donateNow.cfm All past issues are available via a Pinterest Portal: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/257831147393441584/ If any of the URLs do not work in that format, just email me for the desired back-issue, or visit our website: http://centerforglobalinitiatives.org/newsletters.cfm Cheers, and thank you for your work, Chris http://DrChrisStout.com Founding Director, http://CenterForGlobalInitiatives.org LinkedIn Influencer: http://www.linkedin.com/influencer/3055695 American Psychological Association International Humanitarian Award Winner, http://www.apa.org/monitor/dec07/rockstar.html 18