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Archive for "Development"



Development &poverty &Vaccine Bill Brieger | 28 Apr 2022

African Immunization Week Press Briefing: Reducing Poverty, Saving Lives

The World Health Organization’s African Regional Office held a press briefing to mark World Immunization Week/African Immunization Week. Three experts shared their observations of developments and trends and responded to questions over the course of an hour on Thursday 28th April. The panelists included Dr Benido Impouma, Director, Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases, WHO Regional Office for Africa, Professor Helen Rees, Executive Director, Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, and Hon. Dr Kailash Jagutpal, Minister of Health and Wellness, Government of Mauritius. In addition, Dr. Mory Keita answered questions about the latest Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Concerns about COVID-19 featured in this immunization briefing for several reasons. First was the low coverage of COVID vaccines on the continent. Second was the way that COVID put demands on health workers’ time as well as on precautions to be undertaken, which limited the reach and coverage of immunization services for other vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs). Also, the resulting reduction in immunization coverage was responsible for other deadly outbreaks, notably measles. Between January and March 2022, for example, there was a 400% increase in measles cases compared to the same period last year.

Dr. Impouma that COVID ‘taught the lesson’ that catch-up campaigns for VPDs were not only necessary but could be handled successfully. Finally, health services learned the importance of integration, whether joining COVID and Yellow Fever vaccination efforts in Ghana or integrating COVID with maternal and child services and immunizations. Ultimately, health workers learned that by strengthening ‘routine’ immunization, health systems overall could be strengthened thus, making progress on achieving Health For all through Universal Health Coverage.

Dr. Jagutpal shared key considerations for successful life-course immunization programs. Mauritius offers free, universal vaccination from birth. Thirty VPDs are addressed ranging from Human Papilloma Virus to flu and not of course, COVID-19. Success is based on involvement of all stakeholders through regular meetings where real time decisions can be made. Mauritius in one of the first to formalize the COVID Vaccine Pass Card and has achieved 60% full vaccine coverage including booster shots.

Prof Rees noted that the term ‘routine services’ makes vaccines seem boring and less important, when in fact, they should be seen as “Core Services”. This central role of vaccines goes beyond preventing specific diseases. By saving children’s lives and reducing the time demands on parents who care for children suffering VPDs, immunization promotes human development, reduces poverty, enhances the economy, and strengthens employment. There remain children who have had no vaccines. Identifying these ‘zero dose’ children and the communities in which they cluster can help us focus on ameliorating the vulnerabilities of their families and bring multi-sectoral resources to bear on strengthening poor communities.

Dr Keita reviewed the two recent cases, now deaths from Ebola in Équateur Province in DRC, its third EVD outbreak. Ebola vaccine teams have started working, reaching 78 contacts. He lamented that much of the DRC has a natural ecological predisposition for the animal reservoirs of Ebola, so more effort on making regular vaccines and treatment available is required. As Prof Rees pointed out, this setting is a perfect example of the need for a One Health approach to many of our health challenges which are zoonotic in nature. Even with coronaviruses, animal reservoirs are a central element of transmission.

Additional research is recommended in several areas. The slowly increasing laboratory capacity in Africa was mentioned. It contributed to finding Omicron and its variants. Potential new ones may have been identified recently. Seropositivity analysis has found that 80-90% of people tested may already have COVID antibodies. Research can clarify the role of vaccines in these circumstances. Research as well as regular program monitoring is still needed to determine the factors that may cause children to miss vaccines. It is often not the case that parents are ‘hesitant’, but that system and community factors combine to prevent them from seeking care. Research can also assist in finding vaccines and tools for tackling other deadly pathogens such as Lassa Fever.

Vaccines save lives from endemic diseases, but in the long-term vaccinated families and communities can fight poverty which itself is a leading factor in illness and death. This will accomplish the theme of this year’s observance, “Long Life for All.

Agriculture &Children &Climate &Coordination &Development &Elimination &Environment &Epidemiology &Food Security Bill Brieger | 15 Apr 2022

Malaria elimination challenges around the world

In the past week, news has featured challenges to malaria elimination around the globe. Starting in Papua New Guinea which accounted for accounted for 86% of all cases in the Western Pacific Region in 2020. While there are 39% fewer cases in the region since 2000, there was an increase of 300,000 cases between 2019 and 2020. It is mainly in the six countries of the Greater Mekong subregion where progress has been steady.

Moving east to the Brazilian Amazon, one finds wildcat gold mining operations are not only destroying Native American ecosystems but are carving huge holes in the earth which are perfect breeding conditions for mosquitoes. This means that malaria cases among the Yanomami indigenous people living in the Brazilian Amazon have increased by more than 12 times since 2014.

Also within South America, one finds that although Paraguay was certified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as free of local transmission of malaria in 2018, experts are warning that travelers entering the country from areas with malaria transmission could easily reintroduce the disease. Hence vigilance is urged.

Crossing next to sub-Saharan Africa, one reads of studies showing an increasing link between malaria and agriculture across the region. As population expands in the region, more food, water and agricultural commodities are required. Irrigation and deforestation to clear land for agriculture increase the risk of childhood malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. The experts recommend that African ministries of agriculture, health, and environment need to collaborate on safer development policies and practices, not only to curb malaria, but the devastating effects of climate change.

Finally continuing back to Asia, one finds what might be termed an epidemiological conflict between Nepal, which is nearing malaria elimination for 2025, and its southern neighbor India, which is a source of imported malaria. Although the number of indigenous cases is nearing zero, health authorities fear that imported cases of of malaria from India are so high that local transmission could be reignited.

Malaria is clearly a global health problem. Collaboration and coordination across continents is needed to eliminate the scourge.

Agriculture &Development &Epidemiology &Food Security &Integrated Vector Management &ITNs Bill Brieger | 25 May 2018

Agriculture and Promotion of Food Security Can Affect Malaria Transmission

The link between malaria and food security in a global context has been made. The influence of malaria on food security was examined. Now the connection between agriculture practices/food security and malaria is pursued below.

A common complaint with programs that distribute insecticide-treated bednets to prevent malaria is that the nets may be used for other purposes that the intended effort to prevent infected mosquitoes from biting people. All informants interviewed for a study in Western Zambia reported that ITNs are regularly used for fishing and the misuse is widespread. Unsustainable fishing practices, drought and population pressure were mentioned as reasons for fishery decline. The implication was that the use of free ITNs for fishing at least saved the population money in a time of declining fortunes.

A broader review of the ITNs for fishing issue was done through contacting expert witnesses across Africa. Mosquito net fishing (MNF) was found to be a broadly pan-tropical activity, particularly prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa. The authors found that, “Perceived drivers of MNF were closely related to poverty, revealing potentially complex and arguably detrimental livelihood and food security implications.”

The mosquito breeding potential of dams cuts across Africa with the number of dams located in malarious areas projected to increase according to Kibret and colleagues. This is because “The population at risk of malaria around existing dams and associated reservoirs, is estimated to increase from 15 million in 2010 to 21-23 million in the 2020s, 25-26 million in the 2050s and 28-29 million in the 2080s.” In addition, areas with dams but without malaria transmission at present, will likely transition to regions of unstable transmission due to climate change.

Likewise, a study in Ethiopia starts with the assertion that, “Dams are important to ensure food security and promote economic development in sub-Saharan Africa,” and then stresses the importance of understanding the consequences of these projects. The researchers found that “the mean monthly malaria incidence and anopheline larval density was generally higher in the dam villages than in the non-dam villages” in all the three dam settings studied. So while dams can increase agricultural production, the authors concluded that, “the presence of dams intensifies malaria transmission in lowland and midland ecological settings.”

Hydro-agricultural projects include dams and irrigation. Human bait mosquito captures volunteers in hydro-agricultural and river bank sites in Cameroon Akono et al. found that mosquito biting rates were higher in hydro-agricultural sites of less urbanized and urban settings than in natural river banks sites. An additional implication is that urban farming, an important component of food security, may influence mosquito and malaria prevalence.

Stoler and colleagues pursued this question of urban agriculture. The odds of self-reported malaria are significantly higher for women in Accra, Ghana who are living within 1 km of urban agriculture compared with all women living near an irrigation source, the association disappearing beyond this critical distance. Likewise in Kumasi, Afrane et al. learned that “adult and larval mosquito abundance and larval survival were high in the irrigated fields in the irrigated (urban) vegetable farm. This therefore, contributed significantly to adult mosquito populations and hence malaria transmission in the city.”

Even agricultural practices in smaller subsistence farms can foster malaria mosquito breeding. Practices found in southwest Nigeria include collection of pools of water in the farms for soaking cassava tubers, digging of trenches, irrigation of farms, and the presence of fish ponds.

Communities can perceive how agricultural practices may contribute to malaria. In Tanzania a fair number of rural respondents associated growing of rice with malaria. They also noted that the need to sleep on their farms at times meant they could not benefit from the mosquito nets hanging back in their house, some hours walk away. The idea of rice cultivation and malaria was tested in central Kenya. Mwangangi and co-researchers found that, “Rice fields and associated canals were the most productive habitat types,” for malaria mosquito breeding. Overall, Mboera et al. found, “evidence that malaria transmission risk varies even between neighbouring villages and is influenced by agro-ecosystems.”

Although we can establish the two-way link or intersection between malaria and food security, we can see that recommended joint or integrated programming may not always be optimal at various levels from the nation to the community. Greater collaboration between health and agricultural ministries and agencies is needed, supported by national policies that see malaria and food production as part of overall national development goals.

Climate &Community &Development &Epidemiology &Malaria in Pregnancy &Mosquitoes &Surveillance &Urban &Zoonoses Bill Brieger | 11 Jul 2017

Population Health: Malaria, Monkeys and Mosquitoes

On World Population Day (July 11) one often thinks of family planning. A wider view was proposed by resolution 45/216 of December 1990, of the United Nations General Assembly which encouraged observance of “World Population Day to enhance awareness of population issues, including their relations to the environment and development.”

A relationship still exists between family planning and malaria via preventing pregnancies in malaria endemic areas where the disease leads to anemia, death, low birth weight and stillbirth. Other population issues such as migration/mobility, border movement, and conflict/displacement influence exposure of populations to malaria, NTDs and their risks. Environmental concerns such as land/forest degradation, occupational exposure, population expansion (even into areas where populations of monkeys, bats or other sources of zoonotic disease transmission live), and climate warming in areas without prior malaria transmission expose more populations to mosquitoes and malaria.

Ultimately the goal of eliminating malaria needs a population based focus. The recent WHO malaria elimination strategic guidance encourages examination of factors in defined population units that influence transmission or control.

Today public health advocates are using the term population health more. The University of Wisconsin Department of Population Health Sciences in its blog explained that “Population health is defined as the health outcomes of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group.” World Population Day is a good time to consider how the transmission or prevention of malaria, or even neglected tropical diseases, is distributed in our countries, and which groups and communities within that population are most vulnerable.

World Population Day has room to consider many issues related to the health of populations whether it be reproductive health, communicable diseases or chronic diseases as well as the services to address these concerns.

Development &Funding &Mortality Bill Brieger | 28 Oct 2010

Does Development Aid Work?

David Reiff, in reviewing the book Famine and Foreigners: Ethiopia Since Live Aid by Peter Gill, quoted William Easterly, who argues “not only that much aid is wasted—about this optimists and skeptics largely agree—but that, after five decades, outside aid, whether given by governments or by the increasingly important philanthropic sector … has done little to alleviate the condition of the world’s poor.”

angola-children-get-nets-an-child-welfare-clinic-sm.JPGThis view provides an interesting contract to a review by Steketee and Campbell entitled “Impact of national malaria control scale-up programmes in Africa: magnitude and attribution of effects.” These two authors report on studies occurring up to the end of 2009, that identified a three-fold increase in ITN household ownership (34 studies) and in malaria-endemic countries in Africa, with at least two estimates – pre-2005 and post-2005 when massive scale-up started.

Another key finding of the scale-up review was child “mortality declines have been documented in the 18 to 36 months following intervention scale-up.” They concluded that while, “Several factors potentially have contributed to recent health improvement in African countries, but there is substantial evidence that achieving high malaria control intervention coverage, especially with ITNs and targeted IRS, has been the leading contributor to reduced child mortality.”

In contrast to the pessimism of the wider development Aid Community, Steketee and Campbell stress that, “The documented impact provides the evidence required to support a global commitment to the expansion and long-term investment in malaria control to sustain and increase the health impact that malaria control is producing in Africa.”

Reiff also refers to James Grant, the former Unicef Executive Director who “was as unyieldingly optimistic about human possibility as he was clear-eyed about the extent of human suffering among the bottom half of the world’s population.”  The fact that Grant’s “optimistic scenario for what could be achieved has not come to pass does not necessarily mean that Grant was wrong to say – as, were he alive today, he almost certainly would say – that there was every reason to believe that it could do so.”

The political factors described by Gill that have ‘created’ modern famines are also likely to affect development work as it relates to malaria. Ironically Ethiopia, the scene of this famine narrative is also one of the success stories in malaria control. Were he here today James Grant might look at the unfolding malaria story and find support for his optimistic views of development.

That said, the ultimate success of malaria control rests in free, open societies where equitable access to all malaria interventions is possible for all citizens.

Development &Funding Bill Brieger | 22 Sep 2010

MDGs – an electrifying experience

The UN Millennium Development Goals Summit is underway in New York. The New York Times reports on one aspect of development, guaranteeing regular supplies of electricity. For example …

In Nigeria, a major oil exporter with a population of about 155 million people, 76 million do not have electricity, (Fatih Birol) said. “If only 0.4 percent of their oil and gas revenues were invested in power production, they would solve the problem,” he said, “so it’s not just a question of money, it’s how the money is managed.”

lscn4010b.JPGElectricity is not the only issue that requires greater investment.  African countries have also been asked to designate 15% of their national budget for health, but as the New Vision explained, “UGANDA cannot allocate 15% of the national budget to health as agreed by the African Union (AU), a government minister has said.”

We need to recognize that all MDGs are interrelated. Malaria and electricity, for example, have connections.

  • Rapid Diagnostic Tests need to be stored at cool temperatures at national, regional and district health stores, and so air conditioners and fans are needed
  • When villages are electrified people can close doors to mosquitoes at night and use fans – and with light, children can read their school books on how to prevent diseases like malaria
  • Electricity ensures that laboratories run more efficiently and computers are able to analyze monitoring and evaluation data for enhance decision making
  • When schools of nursing, medicine, etc. have electricity, students can learn about malaria using the latest technology and access the internet to gain more knowledge on the disease

These direct and indirect connections between malaria and electricity demonstrate that endemic countries need to invest their resources to control and eliminate the disease. The MDGs are not something that stop in 2015. The projected gains in health and development status must be sustained beyond 2015 if malaria is to be eliminated – hopefully the political will to invest in health will be sustained, too.

Development Bill Brieger | 07 Jul 2010

United Nations Reports on MDG Progress

Five years remain to achieve the target of the Millennium Development Goals.  Malaria is considered within the wider context of development. So how do things look for achieving the target of 50% reduction in malaria mortality in the context of other MDG goals that might influence the success of malaria interventions?

The 2010 MDG progress report by the United Nations was released last month. Female education is one of the key factors that influences a family’s uptake of health innovations  and reductions in child mortality for example in Brazil and in Ghana. School enrollment has increased from 58% in 1999 to 76% in 2008 in Sub-Saharan Africa, a ways to go to reach universal education access. The following gaps have been found:

Household data from 42 countries show that rural children are twice as likely to be out of school as children living in urban areas. The data also show that the rural-urban gap is slightly wider for girls than for boys. But the biggest obstacle to education is poverty. Girls in the poorest 20 per cent of households have the least chance of getting an education: they are 3.5 times more likely to be out of school than girls in the richest households and four times more likely to be out of school as boys in the richest households.

mdg-report-2010-sm.jpgConcerning access of women to employment, which helps the family be able to afford malaria interventions, the UN says that, “Women are largely relegated to more vulnerable forms of employment.” Specifically, “Women are overrepresented in informal employment, with its lack of benefits and security.

Concerning the goal of reducing child mortality, or which malaria is an important contributor, the UN reports that “Child deaths are falling, but not quickly enough to reach the target.” In Sub-Saharan Africa, the most malaria endemic region of the world, the 2008 rate of child mortality is 144/1,000 live births, double that of the developing countries overall.  Worldwide malaria directly accounts for 8% of deaths among children under age five in 2008. Malaria in pregnancy contributes to low birth weight, which predisposes to many other causes of infant death.

The goal of improved maternal health shows progress in the area of increased attendance at antenatal care with a skilled health worker.  Even with improved ANC attendance we know that health systems challenges such as procurement and supply chain problems often mean stock-outs for IPTp and ITNs for pregnant women.

Goal 6 – reduction of disease burden – shows progress in world-wide production on ITNs, but even in the best circumstances, most recent surveys show no country in 2008 was close to attaining the 2010 target of 80% of children under five years of age, speeling under nets. Poverty is still a major factor associated with low net ownership and use or inability to get appropriate malaria treatment

Concerning environmental goals, the UN reports that, “The rate of deforestation shows signs of decreasing, but is still alarmingly high.” Recent reports from Brazil show that malaria increases with deforestation.

The goal of partnership looks promising, but while “Aid continues to rise despite the financial crisis, … Africa is short-changed.”

The malaria statistics are certainly not new to us. What is helpful about the 2010 MDG report is that it shows us the context – development, poverty, education, equality – in which we are trying to achieve malaria control targets and makes us realize that an integrated approach is needed.

Advocacy &Development Bill Brieger | 05 Aug 2009

USAID rudderless? – implications for malaria

A front page headline in the Washington Post today worried that, “Leadership Vacancy Raises Fears About USAID’s Future.” Although the previous administration began the process of absorbing USAID into the State Department, it at least created the President’s Malaria Initiative, an inter-agency partnership housed within USAID that boosted USAID’s worldwide technical leadership in malaria control.

Leaving the USAID Directorship post vacant for over 6 months contradicts the State Department’s intentions to continue to pursue strong leadership in health and development. This is expecially true in the field of malaria that is facing some serious deadlines and targets in 2010.

Various excuses of this leadership lapse have been offered, according to the Post, including the new administration’s detailed vetting process that discourages potential candidates for the Directorship.  If the administration really believes, as it is quoted as believing, that development is an important part of diplomacy, then why does the vacancy persist?  It certainly gives room for fears that this administration may finish the job started by the previous one of swallowing US development efforts under the political aims of diplomacy, threatening the credibility and independence of US leadership in the health and development arena.

Health, and particularly malaria, do not feature much in the Post article, even though the Secretary of State’s first stop is Kenya, one of the key PMI countries. The State Department’s own briefing on the trip to Africa also does not emphasize health or mention malaria. If health has any role in the Secretary’s 11-country visit, it does not reflect in the travel diary on the State Department’s website which says, “Throughout her trip, the Secretary will reaffirm the commitment of the United States to building new partnerships to promote responsible governance, economic opportunity, and shared responsibility.” So are health and development really components of the current State Department’s diplomatic goals?

This is certainly not to say that such goals of the current visit are not important – resolution of Kenya’s discord over its presidential elections and peace in Somalia are urgent issues. The visit simply reasserts concerns expressed in the Post article that without strong leadership for USAID, the health and development agenda may get lost, and thereby, threaten the ability of the U.S. to contribute in a timely and meaningful manner to achieve the 2010 Roll Back Malaria targets.

Communication &Development Bill Brieger | 03 Aug 2009

Child Health Week – what can campaigns achieve

Professor Olikoye Ransom-Kuti was famous for promoting strengthening of primary health care services when he was Minister for Health in Nigeria twenty years ago.  When certain donors and partners wanted to push campaigns as the best way to achieve high coverage of childhood immunizations, the Professor resisted as best he could.  Ultimately he was proved correct – strengthening stable routine service delivery is tha main way to maintain coverage in the long run.

As Nigeria embarks on another series of campaigns known as Child Health Week, Nigeria Health Watch observes that, “We seem to be already very addicted to campaigns as a means of vaccinating our children rather than ongoing sustained routine programmes.” Specifically UNICEF reports that, “Executive Director, Ann M. Veneman and the Nigerian Health Minister, Professor Babatunde Osotimehin, launched the first ever National Health Week in Nigeria which will take place 1 to 8 August, 2009.”

Ideally “Over the course of the week, children, especially those in rural areas, will receive immunizations, deworming medicines, insecticide treated mosquito nets. Mothers will be counseled on key household practices like breast-feeding and basic hygiene.” Since there is a separate effort to provide universal coverage with mosquito nets in about half the states this year, it is not clear where additional nets will come from for this campaign, but we can hope that at minimum health education on malaria will feature.

But will coverage be achieved.  The Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs (JHUCCP) found in 2007 that while nearly 83% of women in northern Nigeria had heard about immunizations through campaigns and the media, actual immunization coverage remained low. Various social and cognitive factors – father’s beliefs and approval, levels of social support influenced coverage.  These are factors that cannot easily be addressed by campaigns aimed at mothers.

When malaria interventions are tied to such campaigns, they too may suffer from the poor response attributable to beliefs and concerns about immunizations and fears of strangers moving around the community delivering these interventions. One would hope that strengthening routine services would also be a way to strengthen trust in the intentions and reliability of local health workers.

Interestingly UNICEF’s Executive Director, in commenting on the Child Health Week efforts also observed that, “Malnutrition is a silent emergency in Nigeria. Among children under age five, 29 percent are underweight. Nearly three million children are suffering from chronic malnutrition and more than one million from stunting. This is simply unacceptable.”  Nutrition is certainly not an issue that can be addressed by a week-long campaign.

A timely juxtaposition of news drew attention to this nutritional challenge in today’s Washington Post, which said, “The nation blessed with Africa’s largest oil reserves and some of its most fertile lands has a problem. It cannot feed its 140 million people, and relatively minor reductions in rainfall could set off a regional food catastrophe, experts say.” A change in weather patterns could be a deadly tipping point –

Today, about 90 percent of Nigeria’s agricultural output comes from inefficient small farms, according to the World Bank, and most farmers have little or no access to fertilizers, irrigation or other modern inputs. Most do not even grow enough food to feed their own families (according to the Post).

So as Nigeria Health Watch resigns itself to campaigns by saying, “BUT yes… if that is the only way to reach most of our children….so be it,” we can hope that policy makers become more attuned to the broader health systems and economic development requirements that will guarantee families access to routine malaria control services and regular food supplies.

Corruption &Development &Funding Bill Brieger | 24 May 2008

Malaria – following the money

Two global financial issues appeared online today – accounting for Global Fund grants and reduced IMF loans. What do they mean for malaria control?

Three years ago Global Fund grants in Uganda were suspended basically because money was stolen. After highly visible firings of top officials and efforts to audit the program and improve accounting, the grants were allowed to continue and new grants have been awarded. A recent visit by a Global Fund official reported in the Monitor reminded the Ugandans that the US$ 1.6 million still missing has not been returned.

After sacking of 3 top officials and transferring another, some funds were returned, but no further action has been taken. 24 priority cases are yet to be prosecuted, but 373 cases should be investigated according to the Monitor. In short, the people who perpetrated the theft and mismanagement are still at large and presumably still involved in the management of the Global Fund-supported programs. The excuse is financial – no funds to investigate the cases! Will this unresolved problem jeopardize Uganda’s international malaria funding again?

ghana-nmcp.jpgWhile many countries are expanding their malaria efforts using external funding, the question arises concerning long term ability of countries to maintain programs. Overall IMF loans have dropped from US$ 117 billion in 2003 to only US$ 16 billion in 2007. The Washington Post article identified malaria endemic countries like Ghana that “had joined a long list of developing countries in Africa and beyond enjoying record periods of growth, with the robust economy leaving it no longer in need of more IMF cash.” Ghana is even issuing its own bonds to improve infrastructure. Specifically the Post says that, “The economy here turned as hot as the local pepper soup earlier in the decade, with soaring global demand for the nation’s riches — gold, cocoa and bauxite — sparking a rush to modernize Ghana’s decaying roads, rails and power grid.”

Whether Ghana will also turn some of its profits to disease control now or in the future remains to be seen, but these experiences point out the importance of promoting equitable global trade as a long term solution to helping countries fund their disease control efforts and wean countries from foreign assistance that appears too sweet and easy for some government officials to avoid tasting.

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