AFRICAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: The Millennium Development Goals - Innovations That Could Save 1.2 Million Lives In Africa Showcased!
November 12, 2013 - AFRICA - Ten innovations that could save the lives of 1.2 million children and mothers by the end of 2015 and help achieve the health-related Millennium Development Goals have been highlighted in a recent report by a US-based international NGO.
See all of the innovative products HERE.
PATH worked with public and private institutions to produce a shortlist of promising low-cost health innovations and then used a modelling tool to estimate how many lives could be saved if they were implemented in developing nations.
The modelling is based on the innovations' use in the 75 highest-burden countries for maternal, newborn and child death, says Joy Lawn, a paediatrician at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom, who was involved in developing the modelling tool.
"The 75 countries include all low and most middle income countries and over 95 per cent of all the world's maternal newborn and child deaths," says Lawn.
She says the PATH used data on the causes of deaths of children and mothers, and the coverage of each planned or ongoing health intervention, to help estimate the number of lives each innovation could save.
"The ten innovations are not equal in their impact," Lawn tells SciDev.Net. "Some are already out there and starting to make a big difference, while others are still in pilot studies."
Amie Batson, chief strategy officer at PATH, says the shortlist highlights "the power of innovations to make change".
"We could have had 15 or 20, but we focused on what was going to be the most impactful and provided a sense to the community about the array of interventions," Batson tells SciDev.Net.
These innovations include ROTAVAC, a vaccine against the diarrhoea-causing rotavirus that was developed by a team led by the Indian government, and a diarrhoea-treatment-and-prevention kit (Kit Yamoyo) designed by UK charity ColaLife.
Kit Yamoyo (meaning kit of life in Chichewa language) makes use of drink firm Coca-Cola's distribution chain to reach remote areas in Zambia.
"I saw that you could get a Coca-Cola everywhere but you could not get medicine to treat a child with diarrhoea," Simon Berry, founder and CEO of ColaLife, tells SciDev.Net. Kit Yamoyo is designed to sit in empty spaces between soft drink bottles in full crates.
Each kit includes oral rehydration salts, soap and an instruction booklet. Its packaging acts as the measuring device for the water used to make up the salts, a mixing and storage container with a lid and a cup to drink from.
The kit's year-long trial in Zambia has just ended and the results will be shared later this year at a conference in India.
Another shortlisted innovation is a medical sensor that can be attached to any mobile phone through its headphone socket and that draws its power from the phone. The Phone Oximeter measures blood oxygen levels using a light sensor placed on a patient's finger.
After a free app has been downloaded to the mobile, the sensor displays its results on the phone screen.
"Its ability to non-invasively detect blood oxygen saturation level allows for diagnosis and treatment of people with pneumonia and other conditions, like pre-eclampsia in pregnant women," says Tom Walker, CEO of LionsGate Technologies, a spin-off company from the University of British Columbia, Canada, that developed the first prototype.
Trials of the sensor are taking place in Bangladesh, India and Uganda.
The PATH's report also calls for a focused commitment of resources and political will to provide broad access to these innovations where they are needed most.
"The key message here [in the report] is that more innovation is needed and it should be targeted to where it's going to reach the poorest," says Lawn.
Batson adds that by highlighting these innovations PATH has put more attention on what could be done. PATH is now working on partnerships with WHO and funding agencies "to rev-up the access" to these innovations and move them forward. - All Africa.
See all of the innovative products HERE.
PATH worked with public and private institutions to produce a shortlist of promising low-cost health innovations and then used a modelling tool to estimate how many lives could be saved if they were implemented in developing nations.
The modelling is based on the innovations' use in the 75 highest-burden countries for maternal, newborn and child death, says Joy Lawn, a paediatrician at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom, who was involved in developing the modelling tool.
"The 75 countries include all low and most middle income countries and over 95 per cent of all the world's maternal newborn and child deaths," says Lawn.
She says the PATH used data on the causes of deaths of children and mothers, and the coverage of each planned or ongoing health intervention, to help estimate the number of lives each innovation could save.
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| Helping Babies Breathe®: A baby’s first breath is the most important. Helping Babies Breathe®, an initiative of the American Academy of Pediatrics and others, is working to train 1 million birth attendants to ensure every baby takes its first breath no matter where it is born. The program, which reduced newborn mortality by as much as 47 percent in Tanzania, uses innovative teaching tools—including Laerdal’s NeoNatalie newborn simulator —to arm health workers with simple supplies and knowledge needed to safely deliver babies in any setting. Photo: Laerdal Global Health. |
"The ten innovations are not equal in their impact," Lawn tells SciDev.Net. "Some are already out there and starting to make a big difference, while others are still in pilot studies."
Amie Batson, chief strategy officer at PATH, says the shortlist highlights "the power of innovations to make change".
"We could have had 15 or 20, but we focused on what was going to be the most impactful and provided a sense to the community about the array of interventions," Batson tells SciDev.Net.
These innovations include ROTAVAC, a vaccine against the diarrhoea-causing rotavirus that was developed by a team led by the Indian government, and a diarrhoea-treatment-and-prevention kit (Kit Yamoyo) designed by UK charity ColaLife.
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| Backpack PLUS: Many people in developing countries may never visit a doctor or hospital. Their link to the health system is through community health workers, who work at the “last mile” of delivery. The Backpack PLUS project, a partnership among the United Nations Children’s Fund, Save the Children, MDG Health Alliance, frog design, and others, developed a toolkit to empower health workers and save lives. The prototype includes medicines, diagnostics, and health supplies that address life-threatening diseases like pneumonia and malaria, and it emphasizes the role of supply chains, training, and supervision to save lives. Photo: Backpack PLUS. |
Kit Yamoyo (meaning kit of life in Chichewa language) makes use of drink firm Coca-Cola's distribution chain to reach remote areas in Zambia.
"I saw that you could get a Coca-Cola everywhere but you could not get medicine to treat a child with diarrhoea," Simon Berry, founder and CEO of ColaLife, tells SciDev.Net. Kit Yamoyo is designed to sit in empty spaces between soft drink bottles in full crates.
Each kit includes oral rehydration salts, soap and an instruction booklet. Its packaging acts as the measuring device for the water used to make up the salts, a mixing and storage container with a lid and a cup to drink from.
The kit's year-long trial in Zambia has just ended and the results will be shared later this year at a conference in India.
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| Magnesium sulfate: Magnesium sulfate costs less than a dollar per dose and is the most effective drug to prevent and treat life-threatening convulsions among women with severe preeclampsia and eclampsia—pregnancy-related conditions that claim about 63,000 women’s lives each year. But barriers to the effective use of magnesium sulfate in developing countries—including complex dosing regimens, a lack of product harmonization, and low provider familiarity of the drug—limit its potential impact. To improve effective use, several groups, including Jhpiego, PATH, Merck for Mothers, and others are working with the World Health Organization and the UN Commission on Life-Saving Commodities for Women and Children to create more user-friendly treatment regimens and modes of administration in low-resource settings. Photo: PATH/Evelyn Hockstein. |
Another shortlisted innovation is a medical sensor that can be attached to any mobile phone through its headphone socket and that draws its power from the phone. The Phone Oximeter measures blood oxygen levels using a light sensor placed on a patient's finger.
After a free app has been downloaded to the mobile, the sensor displays its results on the phone screen.
"Its ability to non-invasively detect blood oxygen saturation level allows for diagnosis and treatment of people with pneumonia and other conditions, like pre-eclampsia in pregnant women," says Tom Walker, CEO of LionsGate Technologies, a spin-off company from the University of British Columbia, Canada, that developed the first prototype.
Trials of the sensor are taking place in Bangladesh, India and Uganda.
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| Kit Yamoyo: We know how to treat diarrhea. Zinc and oral rehydration solution (ORS) are proven, affordable treatments, yet diarrhea still kills nearly 600,000 children annually. In rural areas, it’s often easier to find a bottle of Coca-Cola than these lifesaving medicines. ColaLife developed Kit Yamoyo to bundle and deliver zinc and ORS to African children by piggybacking on the beverage company’s delivery system and local social marketing. The kit contains zinc, ORS, and soap, and the packaging serves multiple purposes: a measuring guide, a mixing and storage device, and a cup. Photo: ColaLife. |
The PATH's report also calls for a focused commitment of resources and political will to provide broad access to these innovations where they are needed most.
"The key message here [in the report] is that more innovation is needed and it should be targeted to where it's going to reach the poorest," says Lawn.
Batson adds that by highlighting these innovations PATH has put more attention on what could be done. PATH is now working on partnerships with WHO and funding agencies "to rev-up the access" to these innovations and move them forward. - All Africa.
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