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CGI Newsletter 26 October 2014

Our latest and largest edition yet!

drchrisstout
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CGI Newsletter 26 October 2014

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  1. Greetings and welcome to the latest edition of our growing newsletter! Volume 1, Number 4 A lot is going on in the world; this is our biggest issue yet…! News and Reports 1) NEWS flash…! (OK, well, at least for us it is.) We have been honored as one of the first Top-Rated Awards of 2014 from GreatNonprofits! We appreciate your support and your work! #GreatNP14 http://lnkd.in/bighaQ3 Thank you! 2) Unite For Sight’s Global Impact Corps Are you interested in volunteering abroad for one week, one month, or multiple months during the upcoming winter, spring, or summer months? We very much hope to have an opportunity to work with you in Ghana, Honduras, or India! Unite For Sight’s volunteer abroad program is available year-round, and it's not too late to participate this fall and winter! Please feel free to forward this message to others who may be interested in participating as well. 1

  2. Unite For Sight’s Global Impact Corps is an immersive global health volunteer and education experience for students and professionals who are interested in public health, international development, medicine, or social entrepreneurship. Volunteers participate with and learn from Unite For Sight's talented local partner doctors who have provided care to more than 1.8 million patients living in poverty, including more than 85,000 sight-restoring surgeries. The local doctors are social entrepreneurs who are addressing complex public health issues, and volunteers gain a comprehensive understanding about the complexities and realities of global health. Unite For Sight is the only organization in the world that:  is a healthcare delivery organization that also offers immersive global health education opportunities for students and professionals; directly teaches the importance of supporting and assisting local professionals in their own social ventures to eliminate disparities in their communities and countries; offers an opportunity to learn from local medical professionals about effective strategies to reach the hardest-to- reach patients in villages, slums, and refugee camps; develops comprehensive training materials in cultural competency, ethics, and global health best practices to prepare its volunteers for a high-impact immersive experience.    Complete details and the online enrollment instructions can be seen at http://www.uniteforsight.org/volunteer-abroad Ebola and Infectious Disease Related From J. Stephen Morrison, Director, Global Health Policy Center, Center for Strategic and International Studies: President Obama recently announced that the Department of Defense (DoD) would deploy 3,000 troops to lead a major expansion of the U.S. response to Ebola. This campaign will amplify efforts that already include the largest international response by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its history, numerous other U.S. agencies, and a large coalition of international partners assisting the affected nations. Although a military-led operation of this scale and complexity is unprecedented, involvement by U.S. military personnel in global health activities is not new, has increased considerably over the past decade, and has often been controversial. A new report authored by Dr. Chris Daniel, Senior Associate at the CSIS Global Health Policy Center, Global Health Engagement: Sharpening a Key Tool for the Department of Defense, examines recent efforts within DoD to clarify the appropriate role of global health engagement—in direct support of its mission and in support of broader U.S. security and global health goals—and to increase its effectiveness. The report, written in collaboration with Dr. Kathleen Hicks, Henry Kissinger Chair and Director of the International Security Program at CSIS, details several positive developments but also recommends additional steps to sustain momentum and further increase the value of DoD's global health efforts. In the face of heightened budgetary scrutiny - and particularly now as it takes on a prominent role in the Ebola crisis - it is essential that DoD leadership sustains its commitment to smarter global health engagement. http://csis.org/files/publication/140930_Daniel_DODGlobalHealth_Web.pdf 2

  3. Viewpoint Ebola in the United States: EHRs as a Public Health Tool at the Point of Care Kenneth D. Mandl, MD, MPH. JAMA. Published online October 20, 2014. doi:10.1001/jama.2014.15064 http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/content/QUA-309337/Ebola- CDC-Offers-Rapid-Response-to-Hospitals## Lancet Ebola Resource Center The current outbreak of Ebola in West Africa constitutes the largest and most complex to date. Declared a public health emergency of international concern by WHO, the outbreak of a disease with no known treatment or vaccination is proving difficult to contain given the already fragile and under-resourced health systems in the affected areas. In an effort to support the vital work being done, all related content from The Lancet family of journals is now freely accessible on our online Ebola Resource Centre. If you are working in an area affected by Ebola or have expertise in this field of medicine, we encourage you to share your front-line experiences by posting comments on the Resource Centre homepage. You can also follow or join the discussion on Twitter using #EbolaOutbreak. Visit the Ebola Resource Centre: http://ebola.thelancet.com/?elsca1=Ebola_email_TL&elsca2=email Recent updates include: Editorial Ebola: what lessons for the International Health Regulations? The Lancet Published Online First Comment The Institut Pasteur network: a crucial partner against Ebola The Lancet Vol. 384, Issue 9950, p1239–40 Ebola: from disease outbreak to humanitarian crisis 3

  4. The Lancet Infectious Diseases Published Online First Correspondence Ebola and compliance with infection prevention measures in Nigeria The Lancet Infectious Diseases Published Online First Ebola: a call for blood transfusion strategy in sub-Saharan Africa The Lancet Published Online First Ebola: an open letter to European governments The Lancet Published Online First Containment in Sierra Leone: the inability of a state to confront Ebola? The Lancet Published Online First Priorities for Ebola virus disease response in west Africa The Lancet Published Online First Access all Ebola content from The Lancet journals for free athttp://ebola.thelancet.com. Bookmark the page to easily visit for regular updates. Aggregated News Reports from: EBOLA "Operating on Virus Time" At an Ebola symposium yesterday, infectious disease expert Michael T. Olsterholm was brutally honest: “Let’s acknowledge we’re making this up as we go, and we have to become more comfortable with uncertainty.” The virus driving the swiftly moving epidemic has a distinct advantage. “The virus is operating on virus time, and the rest of us are operating on bureaucracy and program time, and the virus is winning hands down,” Osterholm told an audience of 350 at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and more than 6,400 unique viewers who tuned in to the live webcast. In addition to Osterholm’s keynote, five presentations and a multidisciplinary panel of discussants capped off a half-day forum that addressed everything from a lack of coordination and leadership at the global level to an overview of experimental medical counter measures for Ebola, to gut-wrenching ethical decisions that need grappling with in real-time. Among the 15 expert speakers were Peter Jahrling, chief scientist, NIAID Integrated Research Facility; Lenny Bernstein, health correspondent, Washington Post; Trish Perl, senior epidemiologist, Johns Hopkins Health System; David Peters, MD, Chair, International Health, JHSPH; and Joshua Sharfstein, Maryland’s Secretary of Health & Mental Hygiene. Jackie Powder and Maryalice Yakutchik, JHSPH Watch the entire conference (because of a technical issue, audio starts at 3:18) 4

  5. WHO’s Rap Sheet Politics and bureaucracy burden the WHO’s work to stop Ebola, according to a Bloomberg News article based on interviews with 5 anonymous sources familiar with the agency. The organization’s initial response to the outbreak boils down to 3 shortfalls: poor communication, a lack of leadership and underfunding. Even Director-General Margaret Chan admits to feeling “very unhappy” when in late June—3 months after the outbreak was detected—she learned the true scope of the health crisis in a memo outlining her local team’s deficiencies. The WHO is suffering from “a culture of stagnation, failure to think boldly about problems, and looking at itself as a technical agency rather than a global leader,” states Lawrence Gostin, professor of global health law at Georgetown University. Bloomberg News The Elusive True Death Toll Haphazard data collection and under-reporting by families are obscuring the true death toll from Ebola in West Africa, said Sorious Samura, a film maker and journalist originally from Sierra Leone who had just returned from Liberia, where he is filming a documentary on the crisis. He said that it is very hard for people to accept that their cultural burial practices must change. It has prompted some to hide the cause of death of their loved ones so that they can have a traditional burial rather than cremation. Samura also feels that Liberian authorities might be downplaying the death toll to try to ease alarm in the country. The Guardian Tall Task: Restoring Trust Newly appointed US Ebola czar Ron Klain must try to soothe Americans’ fears over Ebola, and project a sense of leadership to guide the US response. Last week’s appointment of Klain, a longtime Democratic aide (including as chief of staff to both Vice President Joe Biden and former Vice President Al Gore), was attacked by Republicans because the czar lacks a medical background. Administration officials defended the pick, maintaining that Klain is a savvy problem solver who can repair coordination between federal agencies and the states. “This is somebody who knows how to use the bully pulpit that he’s been given. I think that’s probably half of the game,” said Stephen Morrison of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who also said Klain “could help take some heat off public health professionals so they can focus on their jobs while he navigates the politics.” Reuters Rapid Response, US Military Style The US will create a 30-person team of medical experts to jump into any US region with new Ebola cases, to support civilian medical teams, the Pentagon announced yesterday. The Pentagon will dispatch the Northern Command, a unit that is mainly focused on protecting homeland security to Texas first, in case any new cases emerge in the Lone Star State. Washington Post Related: How many Ebola cases are there really? – Science AAAS Related: Many Liberian Doctors—Including President’s Son—Are Staying Away – Wall Street Journal 5

  6. Related: Jihad And Ebola, A Double Threat To The African Miracle – Worldcrunch Related: Belgium’s main airport to begin Ebola screenings – Associated Press Related: Liberians Wonder If Duncan's Death Was A Result Of Racism – NPR Goats and Soda Ebola Round-Up New Ebola cases could reach 10,000 a week within 2 months, the WHO warns, as the death toll rose to 4,447—and the true death rate is closer to 70% than 50%, because so many deaths are unreported. The Guardian Another health care worker in Texas who treated an Ebola patient has tested positive for Ebola; the CDC says it is actively trying to minimize the risk to health care workers and the patient.Reuters Nurses in Dallas, Texas report haphazard conditions, flimsy protective gear, and constantly changing protocols while caring for an Ebola patient with explosive diarrhea and projectile vomiting. Associated Press Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his pediatrician wife Priscilla Chan donated $25 million to the CDC Foundation to aid in combating the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, especially to help frontline health workers. Washington Post HIV/AIDS Kids in Need The global community has failed to prioritize pediatric HIV treatment, says Charles Lyons, president and CEO of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Only 1/4 of the 3.2 million children living with HIV accessed treatment in 2013. Without early HIV diagnosis and antiretroviral therapy, 80% of children die before their 5th birthday. If the world hopes to end HIV by 2030, Lyons has a list of essential steps: scaling up pediatric treatment and diagnostics, developing child-friendly drugs and providing treatment services closer to where children live. The Quote: “Too often, we encounter the sentiment that, with the incredible advances in treatment and prevention, the end of AIDS is all but inevitable…” says Lyons. “This could not be further from the truth.” The Lancet Global Health Blog Related: Pharmaceutical companies, WHO help India in HIV/AIDS drug crisis – Reuters 6

  7. INFLUENZA Little Fear for Preventable Foes There’s no shortage of media coverage on Ebola in Texas, but the risk to Americans from a far more familiar and preventable foe—the flu—seem to incite far less interest, New York Times columnist Frank Bruni reminds us. During last year’s flu season, he writes, fewer than half of Americans got a flu shot, even though the flu stands to take anywhere from 3,000 to nearly 50,000 lives annually in America. It’s not just the flu, either. Where skin cancer and tanning is concerned, he writes, “vanity trumps sanity, and melanoma rides its coattails.” And over half of Americans who died in car crashes weren’t wearing seatbelts. The Quote: “On matters exotic, we’re rapt. On matters quotidian, which are nonetheless matters of life and death, we’re cavalier.” The New York Times (Opinion) ENTEROVIRUS D68 New Test Could Reveal Wave of Cases The CDC launched a new test for enterovirus D68 yesterday, which it hopes will accelerate testing and help churn through a backlog. As a result, officials expect to see the number of confirmed cases jump from 30 a day to 90 or more. The virus is blamed for sending hundreds of children with asthma-like respiratory illnesses to the hospital, is being investigated as a cause of at least 6 deaths, though officials believe cases are now waning. As ofFriday, the CDC had confirmed cases in 691 people in 46 states and the District of Columbia. Associated Press ENVIRONMENT BPA’s Airborne Exposure Risk We’ve heard a lot about hormone-disrupting Bisphenol A (BPA) in our plastic products, and less about the inhalation risk. But US companies emitted about 26 tons of BPA in 2013, contaminating the air near manufacturing plants, writes Brian Bienkowski. Ohio, Indiana, and Texas hosted the top emitters. With limited data to go on, scientists call for more studies to explore whether inhaled BPA is absorbed in the lungs, and if it is metabolized. By bypassing the liver—a powerful metabolizer of toxins—airborne exposure may be more dangerous than oral exposure, warns Bruce Blumberg, a University of California, Irvine, biology professor who recommends expanding air quality monitoring to include BPA. Environmental Health News 7

  8. INFRASTRUCTURE Roads to a Better Life A foot soldier during the Green Revolution, Ambassador Kenneth M. Quinn stands by one lesson that decades of diplomatic work reinforced: Rural roads improve lives. Quinn eloquently describes first-hand experiences that sketch a clear parallel between the absence of quality roads and hunger, poverty, political instability and terrorism. One vignette flashes back to Cambodia in the early 1990s, when genocidal troops plagued the country: “As we rebuilt the highways and roads, we could see a ‘medicinal effect,’” writes Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation. “The roads were the bloodstream that carried chemotherapy to the tumor that was the Khmer Rouge.” National Geographic News GLOBAL HEALTH HISTORY Lessons from the League As World War I ended, the Spanish Flu took hold and killed an estimated 50 million people globally. The yearning for peace and health led to the creation of the League of Nations—the first-ever world organization. The treaty included long-term work towards disease prevention and health education. In an early form of public-private partnership, the League brought together national governments, private charities and experts to foster the basic idea that global health can only be protected through international cooperation. The League’s network on global health—one of the topics explored in the new free MOOC, “World War 1: Paris 1919 - A New World Order?” offered by the BBC and University of Glasgow—still offers lessons for today’s leaders. BBC News Magazine From NIH Research Matters: Progress Toward an H7N9 Avian Flu Vaccine An experimental vaccine against H7N9 avian influenza prompted substantial immune responses in 59% of volunteers. The approach could lead to improved flu vaccines. EBOLA Nigeria's Public Health Triumph The global health community is lavishing praise on Nigeria for its dramatic success in putting down an Ebola outbreak, averting a potentially catastrophic epidemic in Africa's most populous country. Yesterday, WHO classified Nigeria as "Ebola free," declaring that the country had pulled off "a piece of world- class epidemiological detective work." There has not been a new case of the disease in the country since September 5. Authors of a paper in Eurosurveillance write that key elements in Nigeria's winning battle against Ebola were 8

  9. fast tracing of potential contacts, thorough monitoring of contacts and rapid isolation of potentially infectious contacts. The Quote: "Actually what Nigeria did is routine, regular—but vigorous and rigorous—public health practice," said William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University. Scientific American Related: WHO Situation Assessment on Nigeria WHO Required Reading for the Ebola-ed Out There’s a cast of compelling characters in this tour de force about genomics research and Ebola by legendary science writer Richard Preston. One is a scientist who, when she’s not studying virus evolution in her Harvard lab, is the lead singer and songwriter for an indie band. Another, of course, is the virus itself, which Preston describes as “a life-form of mysterious simplicity.” “Ebola is not a thing but a swarm,” he writes. Preston’s piece will engage and enlighten you no matter how you’ve read about Ebola in the past months. Narrative gems like this make it impossible to stop reading once you start: “In this outbreak, everybody was flying in near-zero visibility. Below the helicopter, lost in the rain, Ebola was maneuvering in secret.” The New Yorker Post-Ebola Reckoning The idea that a stronger and more effective WHO could rise up—should rise up—in the aftermath of the Ebola crisis is argued for in this Lancet commentary by superstar editor Richard Horton. “Once Ebola has been contained, 2015 should be a moment to bring humbled nation-states together to reinvest in a WHO that still remains the only front-line institution designed to defeat health threats to global security,” he writes. Global health security is weaker today than a decade ago, during the SARS epidemic—the first global epidemic of the 21st century, Horton reports, adding: “Paradoxically, Ebola provides an opportunity to make it stronger once again.” The Lancet Keep the Skies Open Some Americans may want to stop flights to and from West Africa, but NPR blogger Michaeleen Doucleff speaks to how essential they are to stopping the epidemic and helping millions of people. Riding on a plane to Monrovia, Liberia, she sat among dozens of U.S. military personnel, medical teams from NGOs and a few guys wearing hats with "public health" emblazoned on them. Almost everyone on board was traveling to help with the epidemic. “There are only a handful of commercial flights still flying to Monrovia. Without them, how would these aid workers arrive?” asks Doucleff. “Liberia isn't an easy place to reach.” NPR 9

  10. Related: CDC Releases Revised Ebola Gear Guidelines – Associated Press Related: No, a Surgeon General Couldn’t Stop Ebola – Mike Stobbe, Politico Related: Talking all things Ebola with Laurie Garrett – Humanosphere (Podcast) MALARIA Low-Key Leadership The quietly effective, coach-flying, self-deprecating leadership of Rear Adm. R. Timothy Ziemer, coordinator of the President’s Malaria Initiative, shines through in this unusual profile by Donald G. McNeil, Jr. Since 2006 when Ziemer started the job, global malaria deaths have dropped 40 percent (from one million annually to about 600,000), thanks in part to tactics like mosquito net distributions and routine medication for pregnant women. On trips across Africa and Asia, he presses partners on measurement, spending, and remaining obstacles. In Zambia “when I asked where our money was going and I got the ‘stunned owl’ look,” he responded by shuttering a $200,000 program. Zeimer wins praise for going the extra mile to talk to village chiefs, malaria educators, and rural health workers—not just the health minister and officials. The Quote: “The people who just go to meetings in hotels aren’t the ones who matter. They enjoy each other’s shrimp, then go home and forget everything,” Ziemer. The New York Times Grant and Funding Opportunities Impact Investing Public health projects can seek a new source of cash flow from Wall Street and other investors via “social-impact bonds.” The incentive: If the program provides solid evidence they have saved taxpayer dollars and improved health outcomes, investors recoup their principal and get a return—typically from the government. One program hoping to attract investors is sending asthma prevention workers to help children in Fresno, California breathe easier and stay out of costly emergency rooms. Private funding could enable the program to expand from about 200 kids to 3,500. The estimated savings per child: more than $7,700 in healthcare costs, according to project organizers. The Atlantic US-Russia Social Expertise Exchange (SEE) is pleased to announce that applications for Emerging Professional Fellows are now being accepted! The US-Russia Social Expertise Exchange (SEE) is accepting applications at this time for its Emerging Professional fellowship component. Candidates must be citizens of either the United States or Russia, have proficiency in both English and Russian, and possess up to five years of professional experience in one or more of the following areas of expertise: Child Protection 10

  11. Community Development Education and Youth Gender Equity Higher Education Migration Protection of Flora and Fauna Public Health Rule of Law Fellows establish valuable professional connections and collaborate with experts in their field during a period of four weeks between February and April 2015. For more information and application materials, please visit http://www.usrussiasocialexpertise.org/#fellowships. Application Deadline: November 23 at 3:59 p.m. EST (11:59 PM Moscow time) Upcoming Conferences and Events 6th Annual Global Health Conference Mobilizing Research for Global Health Sheraton Boston Hotel | Boston, MA March 26-28, 2015 (Special Satellite Sessions Wednesday, March 25th) ABSTRACT DEADLINE EXTENDED TO OCTOBER 31, 2014 Click Here for More Information Oral Abstracts Published by The Lancet Global Health Selected Poster Presentations Published by Annals of Global Health Please download the flyer below to distribute to those interested in the 2015 CUGH Global Health Conference Click Here to Download a Conference Abstract Flyer 11

  12. Extended Abstract Deadline: October 31, 2014 To Register or Submit an Abstract for the CUGH Global Health Conference , Visit: www.cugh.org http://www.humiliationstudies.org/whoweare/annualmeeting/24.php 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 this Newsletter, just send me an email. And any recommendations to improve this communique would be most appreciated! 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 12

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