Download or read book Riverblindness in Africa written by Bruce Benton and published by Johns Hopkins University Press. This book was released on 2020-12-01 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It provides a template for a broad range of global health efforts and is an excellent example of evolving, increasingly effective approaches to disease control and elimination.
Download or read book And Then Forgot to Tell Us Why written by David Wigg and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1993 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Riverblindness in Africa written by Bruce Benton and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2020-12-01 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The remarkable story of how a large public-private partnership worked to control and defeat riverblindness—a scourge which had devastated rural communities and impeded socioeconomic development throughout much of Sub-Saharan Africa for generations. Riverblindness (onchocerciasis)—a pervasive neglected disease, transmitted by the blackfly, that causes horrific itching, disfigurement, and loss of vision—is also known as "lion's stare" in reference to the fixed, lifeless glare of the eyes blinded by the disease. The disease has destroyed countless lives for generations, particularly in Africa. Its effects are so devastating that the areas where it is most common (large expanses of land around rivers where the fly breeds) end up abandoned as villages move farther and farther away to more arid environments in order to escape the fly-biting, and hence the disease. The disease devastates communities from multiple angles: a large portion of each stricken community's population is disabled, often permanently blind in the prime of life, placing a burden on the rest, and communities' efforts to escape infection force them to move to areas where farming is less productive. To defeat riverblindness would not only release these communities from the heavy toll of the disease, but would also open more fertile areas in Africa to be inhabited, thus alleviating extreme poverty. These were the goals of the World Bank, led by then-president Robert McNamara, when launching a partnership to combat riverblindness more than forty-five years ago. In this book, Bruce Benton tells the remarkable story of that partnership's success. An authoritative account of the launch and scale-up of the effort, the book covers the transformation of the fight from a top-down high-tech operation to a grassroots drug treatment program covering all of endemic Africa. How, Benton asks, did the effort become such a unique partnership of UN agencies, donors, NGOs, a major pharmaceutical company, universities, African governments, and the stricken communities themselves? Highlighting the importance of disease control in alleviating absolute poverty and promoting development, Benton examines the key developments, individuals, and notable qualities of the partnership in realizing success. He also extracts lessons from this particular story for addressing future challenges through partnership. Drawing on Benton's twenty years of experience managing the riverblindness program for the World Bank, along with extensive research and interviews with 100+ players in the program, Riverblindness in Africa is the first and only book of its kind. The story of the battle has an epic scale, both in terms of geography and the vast number of people and organizations involved. It provides a template for a broad range of global health efforts and is an excellent example of evolving, increasingly effective approaches to disease control and elimination.
Download or read book Beyond Challenges written by Nina Lum and published by . This book was released on 2019-09-12 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Doctors are ordinary people who experience challenges and failures just like everyone. This short must-read book offers the reader stories and sound advice on how regular women struggled with failure and rejection to finally succeed in medicine. At the core of this book are lessons on resilience, faith, determination and persistence told by 15 immigrant African women who dared to dream in the face of different challenges in order to answer the physician's call in faraway America.Born and raised in parts of the African continent where for many, hardship is commonplace and opportunities few, these women were as fearless as they were bold in pursuing their dreams. Their career aspirations would be enwrapped in different journeys characterized by years of rejection and failure in Africa, the Caribbean Islands, and the United States where some would eventually join the ranks of life-saving physicians and others, rejected but ever hopeful residency applicants.Recounts of the challenges common to the 21st-century woman on finding love, interracial dating in a racially charged society, heartbreak, divorce, single parenthood, acculturation, managing life-changing illnesses and successfully balancing family life and career aspirations, are as many as the tales of the academic and career challenges experienced by these women, further exacerbated by being women, immigrants and racial minorities.The stories are different and the experiences unique; but they all have the common result of demystifying medicine and echo recurrent lessons of resilience, strength, unwavering faith, resolve, and the tenacity that is needed to soar beyond challenges.
Download or read book African Health Leaders written by Francis Omaswa and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most accounts of health and healthcare in Africa are written by foreigners. African Health Leaders: Making Change and Claiming the Future redresses the balance. Written by Africans, who have themselves led improvements in their own countries, the book discusses the creativity, innovation and leadership that has been involved tackling everything from HIV/AIDs, to maternal, and child mortality and neglected tropical diseases. It celebrates their achievements and shows how, over three generations, African health leaders are creating a distinctively African vision of health and health systems. The book reveals how African Health Leaders are claiming the future - in Africa, but also by sharing their insights and knowledge globally and contributing fully to improving health throughout the world. It illustrates how African leadership can enable foreign agencies and individuals working in Africa to avoid all those misunderstandings and misinterpretations of culture and context which lead to wasted efforts and frustrated hopes. African Health Leaders challenges Africans to do more for themselves; build on success; tackle weak governance, corrupt systems and low expectations and claim the future. It sets out what Africa needs from the rest of the world in the spirit of global solidarity - not primarily in aid, but through investment, collaboration, partnership and co-development. It concludes with a vision for improvement based on three foundations: an understanding that 'health is made at home'; the determination to offer access to health services for everyone; and an insistence on the pursuit of quality.
Download or read book The Onchocerciasis Control Programme in West Africa written by Ebrahim M. Samba and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An analysis of the many factors that have contributed to the striking success of the Onchocerciasis Control Program in West Africa (OCP), a major public health initiative now entering its twenty-first year. Throughout its history, OCP has been distinguished by its large size, the complexity of its operations, the long time frame needed for success, and the degree of commitment required by donors and participating countries alike. The Program has also been distinguished by its explicit aim to eliminate a disease, which has been a major obstacle to socioeconomic development as well as a cause of great disability and suffering. In examining the Program's many successful features, the author, who has directed OCP since late 1980, draws upon extensive personal experience, supported by the results of several external evaluations, to show how international collaboration, careful planning, and well managed field operations can overcome what may seem to be insurmountable obstacles. Throughout this analysis, an effort is made to extract lessons useful in the management of other large public health programs. The book also gives careful attention to managerial principles that will be important when OCP ceases operation and participating countries take over responsibility for the surveillance and management of recrudescence. The book has two parts. Chapters in the first part give a detailed account of the history, structure, operation, and achievements of OCP. Part two, on the management of OCP, explains how sound budgeting, detailed plans, time-limited goals, task-focused training, and careful computation of costs worked to maintain well-organized operations and keep staff motivated and efficient
Download or read book APOC and the Fight to Rid Africa of River Blindness written by African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 19 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Under the Big Tree written by Ellen Agler and published by Johns Hopkins University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-15 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a foreword by Bill Gates, this book fascinates, inspires, and gives readers concrete steps for further engagement.
Download or read book The Colonial Disease written by Maryinez Lyons and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002-06-06 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A case-study in the history of sleeping sickness, relating it to the western 'civilising mission'.
Download or read book Blue Marble Health written by Peter J. Hotez and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2016-09 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do diseases of poverty afflict more people in wealthy countries than in the developing world? In 2011, Dr. Peter J. Hotez relocated to Houston to launch Baylor’s National School of Tropical Medicine. He was shocked to discover that a number of neglected diseases often associated with developing countries were widespread in impoverished Texas communities. Despite the United States’ economic prowess and first-world status, an estimated 12 million Americans living at the poverty level currently suffer from at least one neglected tropical disease, or NTD. Hotez concluded that the world’s neglected diseases—which include tuberculosis, hookworm infection, lymphatic filariasis, Chagas disease, and leishmaniasis—are born first and foremost of extreme poverty. In this book, Hotez describes a new global paradigm known as “blue marble health,” through which he asserts that poor people living in wealthy countries account for most of the world’s poverty-related illness. He explores the current state of neglected diseases in such disparate countries as Mexico, South Korea, Argentina, Australia, the United States, Japan, and Nigeria. By crafting public policy and relying on global partnerships to control or eliminate some of the world’s worst poverty-related illnesses, Hotez believes, it is possible to eliminate life-threatening disease while at the same time creating unprecedented opportunities for science and diplomacy. Clear, compassionate, and timely, Blue Marble Health is a must-read for leaders in global health, tropical medicine, and international development, along with anyone committed to helping the millions of people who are caught in the desperate cycle of poverty and disease.
Download or read book Lost Crops of Africa written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2006-10-27 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report is the second in a series of three evaluating underexploited African plant resources that could help broaden and secure Africa's food supply. The volume describes the characteristics of 18 little-known indigenous African vegetables (including tubers and legumes) that have potential as food- and cash-crops but are typically overlooked by scientists and policymakers and in the world at large. The book assesses the potential of each vegetable to help overcome malnutrition, boost food security, foster rural development, and create sustainable landcare in Africa. Each species is described in a separate chapter, based on information gathered from and verified by a pool of experts throughout the world. Volume I describes African grains and Volume III African fruits.
Download or read book Neglected Tropical Diseases Sub Saharan Africa written by John Gyapong and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-01-13 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an overview on the major neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa, such as Leishmaniasis, Buruli Ulcer and Schistosomiasis. In well-structured chapters epidemiology and biology of these parasitic diseases will be discussed in detail. Further, diagnostics and therapeutic approaches as well as prevention strategies will be reviewed. The book will be of interest to basic researchers and clinicians engaged in infectious disease, tropical medicine, and parasitology, and a must-have for scientists specialized in the characteristics of the Sub-Saharan region.
Download or read book Onchocerciasis written by World Health Organization and published by . This book was released on 1974 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Water and Sanitation Related Diseases and the Changing Environment written by Janine M. H. Selendy and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2019-02-06 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The revised and updated second edition of Water and Sanitation Related Diseases and the Changing Environment offers an interdisciplinary guide to the conditions responsible for water and sanitation related diseases. The authors discuss the pathogens, vectors, and their biology, morbidity and mortality that result from a lack of safe water and sanitation. The text also explores the distribution of these diseases and the conditions that must be met to reduce or eradicate them. The text includes contributions from authorities from the fields of climate change, epidemiology, environmental health, environmental engineering, global health, medicine, medical anthropology, nutrition, population, and public health. Covers the causes of individual diseases with basic information about the diseases and data on the distribution, prevalence, and incidence as well as interconnected factors such as environmental factors. The authors cover access to and maintenance of clean water, and guidelines for the safe use of wastewater, excreta, and grey water, plus examples of solutions. Written for students, and professionals in infectious disease, public health and medicine, chemical and environmental engineering, and international affairs, the second edition of Water and Sanitation Related Diseases and the Changing Environment isa comprehensive resource to the conditions responsible for water and sanitation related diseases.
Download or read book Medicine Science and Merck written by P. Roy Vagelos and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-01-05 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book traces the careers of Roy Vagelos, who eventually became the CEO of Merck and Co., Inc.
Download or read book Forgotten People Forgotten Diseases written by Peter J. Hotez and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-07-24 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Forgotten People, Forgotten Diseases Second Edition The neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are the most common infections of the world's poor, but few people know about these diseases and why they are so important. This second edition of Forgotten People, Forgotten Diseases provides an overview of the NTDs and how they devastate the poor, essentially trapping them in a vicious cycle of extreme poverty by preventing them from working or attaining their full intellectual and cognitive development. Author Peter J. Hotez highlights a new opportunity to control and perhaps eliminate these ancient scourges, through alliances between nongovernmental development organizations and private-public partnerships to create a successful environment for mass drug administration and product development activities. Forgotten People, Forgotten Diseases also Addresses the myriad changes that have occurred in the field since the previous edition. Describes how NTDs have affected impoverished populations for centuries, changing world history. Considers the future impact of alliances between nongovernmental development organizations and private-public partnerships. Forgotten People, Forgotten Diseases is an essential resource for anyone seeking a roadmap to coordinate global advocacy and mobilization of resources to combat NTDs.
Download or read book The River Blindness Control Programmes Ocp and Apoc in Africa written by André Rougemont and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Onchocerciasis Control Programme in West Africa (OCP; 1974 - 2002) was one of the most successful large scale operations ever carried out in the field of vector transmitted diseases. It is also an example to demonstrate that a programme without any medical intervention was able to eradicate a disease, on a scale of several countries. This success was achieved first because of the feasibility of the eradication of the vector, but also because of the very well controlled activities and very precise data collected and processed almost daily as a continuous evaluation process. Moreover, the target being the eradication of flies, the OCP achieved two of the most important goals in the process: reduction of the flies' bites and the transmission of the disease. Flies bites are considered by affected populations (mostly agricultural workers) as the most disturbing aspect of the disease complex even more so than blindness. Unfortunately, after roughly 30 years, there remains a doubt concerning the sustainability of these impressive results. The reason is that all around the OCP area, Simulium blackflies are ever present and since stopping the spraying of insecticides, flies are coming back to reinvade the areas of population settlement. During the first period of reinvasion, the flies are harmful even if non infective because of the disappearance of the disease in man. But African people are travellers, including those infected with O. volvulus. This could be enough to make the flies infective again after a few years. The African Programme of Onchocerciasis Control (APOC; 1995-2010) was implemented in more than 20 countries all around the OCP original area. It was made possible after a drug, ivermectin, became available for public health use. APOC was created with a very different conception of control of river blindness. First, it was based not on the eradication of the vector of the disease, but on a very large scale distribution of ivermectin. The hundreds of millions of tablets needed are provided free of charge to all African countries involved in the programme for an indefinite period of time by the Merck Company Ltd. The authors' opinion is that such a programme raises concerns, the most important being (1) a large scale action based on the good will of a community and weak national health services is not sustainable; (2) the programme is not really evaluated (except through the counting of tablets distributed); (3) it will stop as such in 2010 ; (4) it does not address the flies' nuisance at all which will lead to a lot of other problems, in particular regarding the population's compliance and cooperate with the programme and the national health services' motivation as well; (5) the efficacy of ivermectin at a very late stage of individual infection and disease will lead to partial and very unstable epidemiologic results. The more general point of fighting a vector transmitted disease through the large scale distribution of a drug is also discussed and compared with the situation of schistosomiasis for which a much more effective product than ivermectin for onchocerciasis has been available for decades and which has been effective only with accompanying environmental and behavioural measures.
