Our Global Voices Posts
Controlling hepatitis B in Sierra Leone
The leading cause of liver cancer worldwide is hepatitis B virus (HBV). Sierra Leone is thought to have a high percentage, at least 8%, of the population actively infected with HBV. Some studies report that in Sierra Leone, 6% to 11% of pregnant women have active HBV infection, which they can transmit to their babies Read More >
Posted on byThree Responders talk about their experiences in Uganda
Protecting Uganda’s Border Vance Brown, Ebola Coordinator and Deputy Director for the Division of Global Health Protection Program in Uganda. Vance and team provide technical support to the Government of Uganda to prevent, detect and respond to especially dangerous pathogens, including Ebola. “It was 8:00 p.m. on a Friday when I got the call. CDC Read More >
Posted on byThe Joint External Evaluation (JEE) Process: Assessing health security in Côte d’Ivoire
Conducting a JEE Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) is a small country in West Africa, neighboring Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Ghana. It has a population of over 25 million people, about half of whom live in urban centers across the country. Diseases of great concern for the country include yellow fever, cholera, meningitis, measles, Read More >
Posted on byTaking Back the Lives That Tobacco Use Cuts Short: One Story from a Physician in Senegal
I went into medicine because I am passionate about helping others. I became an oncologist, a doctor who cares for people with cancer, because it gives me the opportunity to save lives and improve a patient’s health care every day. I practice in Senegal, my beautiful country of origin in West Africa. As a young Read More >
Posted on byConfronting the Silent Killer in Nepal
“We are measuring the blood pressure of many people who’ve never had their blood pressure measured before,” explains Dr. Dinesh Neupane, the country coordinator for May Measurement Month in Nepal. “When we approach people about being screened, we often hear that they don’t need their blood pressure checked because they feel healthy.” But Dr. Neupane Read More >
Posted on byTracking Lassa Fever Across Three Countries
When a Beninese migrant worker fell ill in Nigeria in December 2017, he decided to return to his parents’ home in Togo for care. His condition deteriorated during his trip through Benin. On his trip he stopped at Tandou Health Center in Tchaourou, Benin, was attended to by two healthcare workers, and continued his Read More >
Posted on byFrom Mangoes to Meningitis: A Tale of One Laboratory Scientist in Burkina Faso
Rasmata Ouédraogo-Traoré PhD is the Chief of the Medical Analysis Laboratory of the Charles De Gaulle Pediatric Hospital, which houses the National Reference Laboratory for meningitis in Burkina Faso, and a professor of bacteriology-virology, medical sciences and pharmacy at the University of Ouagadougou. A concerned mother in Burkina Faso says to me, “I think that Read More >
Posted on byOvercoming Refusals to Polio Vaccination in Uttar Pradesh, India
In 2014, WHO South-East Asia Region (SEAR) became the fourth region, among WHO’s six regions, to be certified as having interrupted all wild polio virus (WPV) circulation. India was the last country to eliminate polio in SEAR, proving that polio could be eradicated in the most challenging settings. Multiple international partners collaborated with Government of Read More >
Posted on byI have seen Ebola. Now you have a vaccine.
Debut of preventive use of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) vaccine for health care and frontline workers in Uganda before an outbreak For the first time, an unlicensed Ebola vaccine tested in clinical trials during the West African outbreak was offered to health care workers (HCWs) and other front line workers (FLWs) working in facilities bordering Read More >
Posted on byReadying the World for Maternal RSV Vaccine
Updated from the original posting on Vaccines Work on February 18, 2019 By getting vaccinated in pregnancy, mothers can safeguard themselves and their infants in the first few vulnerable months of life against certain diseases. This strategy is a powerful approach for reaching two stages of life often underserved by current immunization programs—pregnancy and early Read More >
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