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Addressing Eye Care in Emerging Markets with Blended Finance
WHO estimates that 39 million people suffer from blindness, more than half of them due to cataracts, and more than 90 percent of blind people live in the developing world. Cataracts are often curable but the traditional surgery is expensive. Convergence is supporting GlobalVision's plan to build on the affordable eye model that Aravind pioneered in India and establish a network of 60 eye care hospitals in emerging markets over the next 10 years, borrowing techniques from the microfinance sector.
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- Health Care, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology
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How to make global universal healthcare a reality
"All healthcare models have their challenges in terms of systems capacity, fiscal space and good governance."
- Categories
- Health Care
- Tags
- public health
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The World Bank’s “pandemic bonds” are designed so investors pay in the event of an outbreak
The money raised comprises the bulk of a $500 million Pandemic Emergency Financial Facility that will provide funds for poor countries in case of outbreaks of infectious diseases over the next five years. The bonds are designed to transfer the risk of a health crisis in low-income countries to the global financial markets. World Bank president Jim Yong Kim said this will help move away from “the cycle of panic and neglect” that has characterized recent pandemics.
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- Health Care
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- public health
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Q&A: Rajeev Venkayya on why vaccines are a worthy investment
Venkayya has seen vaccines from every angle. Before launching Takeda’s global vaccine business five years ago, he served as senior director for biodefense at the White House and director of global health delivery at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The success of vaccines going forward, he says, requires public and policy support for investments “to make sure that we're driving strong immunization coverage everywhere but also investing in new vaccines for the diseases that should be vaccine preventable,” he said.- Categories
- Health Care
- Tags
- public health, vaccines
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Reinventing the toilet
Traditional flush toilets aren’t an option in many parts of the world, but neither is leaving people with unsafe and unhygenic choices. Now, one company is piloting a new loo that's waterless, off-grid and able to charge your phone. Lina Zeldovich travels to Madagascar to witness the start of a lavatorial revolution.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- public health, SDGs
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WHO strengthens surveillance, alert and response using an innovative electronic system in South Sudan
The overall objective of the web based system is to overcome the reporting challenges of the transmission of paper-based standardized data tools and strengthen surveillance and response capacities and ultimately reduce morbidity and mortality from epidemic prone diseases as well as other public health events.
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- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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PRESS RELEASE: ‘Project Last Mile’ Expands to Liberia and Swaziland, Strengthening Health Systems Across Africa
"With our strong commitment to reducing the HIV/AIDS burden in Swaziland, we are very pleased to be able to partner with Project Last Mile and tap into Coca-Cola's vast experience to find ways to implement innovative marketing approaches to increase demand for HIV prevention services and treatment," said Ms. Rejoice Nkambule, Deputy Director, Public Health, Ministry of Health of Swaziland.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- public health
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WHO creates controversial ‘reserve’ list of antibiotics for superbug threats
Such resistance has created a world in which even the most minor of infections and illnesses can quickly turn deadly and in which diseases once thought conquered, such as tuberculosis and gonorrhea, are becoming untreatable in more and more cases.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Tags
- public health