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World Health Leaders Change Targets to Reach 2030 Maternal Health Development Goal
The COVID pandemic did much to upend global health. Not only were hospitals filled to overcapacity worldwide with patients experiencing severe COVID symptoms, but entire health systems were also brought to a halt. Routine medical procedures and quality care in other areas besides COVID were preempted by the global virus. This has caused global health…
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Biden Agrees to $4 Billion in Funding for Global Equitable Access to COvid Vaccines
Tomorrow at President Biden’s first G-7 meeting as commander-in-chief, an announcement will be made by the White Hourse outlining $4 billion in funding that will provide Covid vaccines to 92 low-and-middle income countries. Thus far, Covid vaccines have been made readily available to rich nations while poorer nations have previously been relegated to months-long delays.…
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First Malaria Vaccine Rolls Out in Malawi
It is heartening to see progress in the fight against malaria. Over the past thirty years and with hundreds of millions of dollars invested thus far, the RTS,S malaria vaccine was officially rolled out yesterday in Malawi. In 2017, I wrote about the vaccine trials that began in 2009 and the announcement of the three countries…
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Why Mothers Aren’t Accessing Antenatal Care Early in Their Pregnancies
Anja Smith, Stellenbosch University South Africa has extremely high maternal mortality levels. This is true when compared with developed countries as well as other developing countries. According to the World Health Organisation, for every 100,000 live births in the country in 2015, 138 women died due to pregnancy and childbirth complications. In Sweden, fewer than…
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HIV ‘Test and Treat’ Strategy Can Save Lives
By Sydney Rosen, Boston University The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) continues to take a tremendous toll on human health, with 37 million people infected and 1.2 million deaths worldwide in 2014. In sub-Saharan Africa, where the HIV epidemic has been most devastating, more than 25 million people are HIV-infected, about 70 percent of the global total.…
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Malaria No More Launches #MalariaSucks Campaign
As you might know last Friday marked World Malaria Day, a day to encourage the global health community, the private sector, governments, NGOs, and everyday, ordinary people to keep up the fight to help defeat malaria. Every minute a child dies of malaria somewhere in the world, most of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa. In…
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[Photos in B&W] Historical Look at Child and Newborn Health in the US
There is a long tradition of newborn and child healthcare in the United States and around the world for that matter. See photos below. From 1900 – 1997 the child mortality rate decreased more than 90% in the United States – a laudable national health achievement. Now there is an accelerated global move to save more…
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16 Days Against Gender-Based Violence #16Days
Through December 10 USAID is spearheading a global call to action over the course of 16 days to speak out against gender-based violence. You may not know that 1 in 3 women and girls will be abused, beaten or coerced into sex? Or, that abuse of women reaches as high as 70 percent in some…
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Why We Need World Prematurity Day
One of the world’s greatest tragedies is when babies are born too soon. Every day a mother around the world experiences the heartache of delivering her baby before 37 weeks gestation whether she is walking on foot to a rural health facility in Bangladesh, delivering her baby in a hut in the lush countryside of…
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Can $1 Really Save a Life?
Can $1 really save a life? Global malaria eradication NGO, Malaria No More, says yes. With Power of One (Po1), Malaria No More’s new, innovative campaign that takes the power of people’s desire to do good coupled with a low price point to online and mobile philanthropy, Malaria No More is on a mission to close the…
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Family Planning Conversations During Women Deliver #WD2013
The second day of the Women Deliver conference was led by robust conversations and discussions about family planning. Wednesday’s events began with the plenary session: Global Progress on Family Planning—Putting Women at the Heart of the Global Health Agenda which was opened by Melinda Gates, Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive…
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The Narrowing Health Gap Between Rich and Poor Countries
The World Health Organization released its annual World Health Statistics report. In the report the WHO looked at all of its global regions to see how countries fared in various global data stats including maternal and child mortality, life expectancy, and health coverage as examples. “Intensive efforts to achieve the MDGs have clearly improved health…
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Key Tweets From the Global Newborn Health Conference
Today marks the start of the first ever Global Newborn Health Conference. Thus far conference-goers have heard opening remarks from high level executives at the World Health Organization, Save the Children, UNICEF, MCHIP, USAID, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Below are key tweets from the early morning session as well as those of…
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![[Photos] Celebrating World Health Workers Week](https://socialgoodmoms.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/fontline-health-workers.jpg)
[Photos] Celebrating World Health Workers Week
This week from April 8 – 12, 2013 the World Health Organization is celebrating World Health Workers Week. This is a week to honor those who are literally on the frontlines of health care in the developing world every single day. They are the ones who make sure mothers’ babies are attended to directly after…
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![[Photos] An Historical Look at Tuberculosis](https://socialgoodmoms.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/lc04125r.jpg)
[Photos] An Historical Look at Tuberculosis
Yesterday marked World TB Day. There is still much to be done to eradicate the infectious disease globally. Here in the United States, TB rates remain around 3.4 cases per 100,000 people. And 62% of TB cases in the United States are from foreign-born persons. While tuberculosis was rampant in the early to mid part…
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A Global Update on Tuberculosis on World TB Day
Today marks World TB Day, a day that has been celebrated since 1982 to remember those who have succumbed to the disease, celebrate the achievements met to lower TB rates, and resolve to do more to treat those who have tuberculosis. According to the Stop TB Partnership 1.5 million people die every year from tuberculosis.…
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African Partnerships for Patient Safety
We hear a lot about patient safety here in the United States, but did you know patient safety is also a priority in Africa? The World Health Organization’s African Partnerships for Patient Safety (APPS) has prioritized patient safety by pairing African hospitals with hospitals in England, France, and Switzerland. Currently 14 African countries are a…
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The Importance of Clean Cookstoves – A Personal Experience
When I was in Ethiopia last week observing frontline health workers with Save the Children I had the unfortunate circumstance of going into a home, a traditional hut, where the mother was cooking on her indoor cookstove. The smoke from the burning wood was so thick and powerful I could hardly breathe and couldn’t imagine a…
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The Guardian Looks at Key Millennium Development Goals Datasets
If you follow the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) you know there are a variety of global datasets that sometimes are in concert with one another and other times contradict one another. It is important to know the critical datasets to zero in on in order to analyze the progress of the MDGs. The Guardian published…
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Maternity Equality in Uganda: How You Can Help
ACTION: Become a Shanti Uganda Birth Partner. Why and how below. As a mother who has given birth twice I feel a strong, overwhelming kinship with women all over the world who have or will also give birth even if I don’t know them nor will I ever. That global kinship makes me work harder…