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Latin American link-up aims for US$1 syphilis test
Paraguayan and Uruguayan scientists are working together to develop a US$1 diagnostic test for syphilis, which they hope could be launched as early as next year. The early-detection kit for a disease that affects three million people in Latin America would be used alongside pregnancy tests to cut cases of congenital syphilis, say the researchers, who have linked up through the UN University's Biotechnology Programme for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNU-BIOLAC), based in Venezuela.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Latin America
- Tags
- public health
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New Investment Fund Will Advance Late-Stage Vaccines and other Global Health Technologies
A new investment fund structured by JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will, for the first time, allow individual and institutional investors the opportunity to finance late-stage global health technologies that have the potential to save millions of lives in low-income countries. With $94 million committed by a pioneering group of investors -- including anchor support from Grand Challenges Canada (funded by the Government of Canada), the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (acting through KfW) and the Children's Investment Fund Foundation -- the Global Health Investment Fund ("GHIF" or the "Fund") will help advance the most promising interventions to fight challenges in low-income countries such as malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and maternal and infant mortality.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
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Humans Trump Gadgets: How our focus on quick technology wins in global health is distracting us from the fundamental business of health care delivery
Devices, technology platforms and reformulated medications have captured the imagination of some of the top funders in the social impact and social innovation space. Somehow the business of health care delivery has fallen by the wayside.
- Categories
- Environment, Health Care, Technology
- Tags
- public health, scale
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Comment: Rebranding disease to launch global change
A little over a year ago, a group of young people – connected by a passion for addressing the leading cause of global deaths – had an idea. Re-brand the way we perceive a group of conditions, and the narrative we collectively conjure when hearing their name – Non-Communicable Diseases. Challenge the current, misguided perception that diseases like diabetes, heart disease and cancers are simply the result of poor choices and laziness, and instead use inspiring stories from young health advocates to paint an accurate global and local picture.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Tags
- public health
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Unequal Access to Health Care in Latin America No. 1 Killer of Moms & Kids
An international delegation recently concluded their meeting on infant and maternal health in Latin America. The conclusion – unequal access to health care is still the number one killer for mothers and their children. While child mortality has more than halved in the region according to the World Bank, children from impoverished homes are five times more likely to die before they turn five years old. The majority of those deaths deemed preventable. Over the past 20 years significant improvements have been made on maternal health and mortality rates have dropped by 40 percent.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Latin America
- Tags
- public health
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Health Franchising: World Health Partners’ strategy to strengthen India’s village-level private providers
How low-cost communication technologies and remote diagnostics are turning private health workers into lifesaving connectors between the high-quality care available in India’s urban areas and the 70 percent still residing in rural communities where no care is available.
- Categories
- Environment, Health Care
- Tags
- public health
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Swaziland: MSF Rolls Out Innovative Approach to Prevent Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission
Stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS from mothers to their children is an essential step in curbing the epidemic of the disease in Swaziland. Beginning in February 2013, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been rolling out an innovative approach, commonly referred to as PMTCT B+ (prevention of mother-to-child transmission, option B+), in southern Swaziland's Nhlangano area.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- public health
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Apollo pins hopes on affordable healthcare
Apollo Hospitals will bank on its own revenues for its rural healthcare drive under the brand Apollo Reach, with an aim at faster return on capital expenditure. “We have 10 Reach hospitals in operation. In the next three years, we’ll have 1,300 beds set up in Tier I cities, and another 1,100 in Tier II cities,” said Joint Managing Director Suneeta Reddy. Setting up a Reach hospital in a Tier II city will cost about Rs 50 lakh, which is less than half of what it takes for a healthcare centre in a city, she said. Each Reach hospital has about 120 beds.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- public health