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Lives Depend on Climate Deal as Islands Bear Brunt of Impact
Small islands that bear the brunt of rising sea levels also face the greatest risk of diseases linked to a warmer planet, health leaders said on Saturday, as 13 million medical professionals added to the calls for a global climate pact.
- Categories
- Environment, Health Care
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World Bank, IFC Unveil Off-Grid Lighting Solution for Nigeria
The World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) have unveiled an off-grid solar power solution for Nigeria tagged Lighting Africa.
- Categories
- Energy, Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- renewable energy, solar
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NexThought Monday: Women Entrepreneurs to the Rescue
Ebola was always an emergency within an emergency, says Faruque Ahmed, executive director of BRAC International. Now, with the immediate threat of the disease gone, West Africans have the much-needed space to shift their energies back to tackling the even greater scourge of rural poverty and powerlessness.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care
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Sanofi’s Unveils Made in India Injectable Polio Vaccine
Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of Sanofi, has unveiled ShanIPV, an injectable inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) manufactured by its affiliate Shantha Biotechnics, Hyderabad.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- vaccines
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Safaricom Unveils ‘Mobile Wallets’ Initiative for Healthcare
A new mobile money platform has been launched to help donors disburse money directly to beneficiaries and track its usage.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Viewpoint: Health: The Glaring Omission at COP21
Malaria in Europe? It sounds quite implausible doesn't it but such a scenario may not be too far off. The disease is currently confined to Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia, but the impacts of climate change on the health of individuals and populations, combined with the globalization of trade, could see it spread to parts of southern Europe. This scenario will happen if the issue of health is still ignored by world leaders meeting this week for the United Nations climate change conference in Paris.
- Categories
- Health Care
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How a Change in Perspective Helped Ignite Cookstove Sales
Envirofit is a social enterprise that since 2007 has produced and sold low-cost biomass cookstoves in developing nations. Along the way, it learned that good things happen when firms treat the BoP market as customers to be served, rather than beneficiaries.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise
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The Ebola Vaccine, Latrogenic Injuries, and Legal Liability
Making vaccines is a risky, oftentimes unenviable business. Vaccines are administered to healthy people who tend to be unforgiving if an adverse side effect or injury subsequently develops. The risk of being sued, even when a vaccine supplier follows best practices, combined with growing anti-vaccination sentiment, creates a climate that is not conducive to vaccine innovation. The dissuasive effect of litigation risk and legal liability is heightened both for vaccines aimed at diseases of poor countries, for which the financial inducements are weak anyway [1,2], and vaccines for public health emergencies, which are developed in accelerated clinical trials that may lack the statistical power or detailed follow-up necessary to detect rare adverse effects. Yet, as the West African Ebola outbreak demonstrates, the world can ill afford not to have vaccines against diseases of poverty in emergency situations [1]. Several reasons exist for not having a vaccine available, relating to the biology of the virus and the epidemiological challenges pertaining to evaluating a vaccine for a rare disease. However, financial incentives and disincentives for vaccine manufactures to invest in vaccine trials for rare diseases in resource-poor countries also need to be considered. We argue that, as one part of a comprehensive plan to promote vaccine development, there needs to be a plan to lessen the risks of litigation and liability to remove disincentives for these vaccines to be developed and later deployed. As others point out, no satisfactory plan now exists [3].
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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