Science and tech for global health

Professor Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, discusses science and post-2015 development. 

A panel debate at the Royal Society in London last month (6 June) brought together scientists, policymakers, NGOs and the media to discuss the role of science, technology and innovation in the post-2015 development agenda. 

Participants thrashed out ideas for how scientists can make their voices heard in dialogue around the new Sustainable Development Goals, to ensure the goals reflect science's critical role in driving development. The report published in May by the High Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda — and its implications for science — was a key topic for debate.

During the event, SciDev.Net spoke to Professor Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, about his views on the importance of integrating science and technology into post-2015 development, and the urgent challenges facing the global community as it draws up the next set of development goals.  


Click here to download the full High Panel report http://www.post2015hlp.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/UN-Report.pdf

Professor Peter Piot on science and post-2015 development

[BRIGHTON] In this podcast, Alvaro Bermejo, executive director of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, explains how the fight against HIV/AIDS has transformed thinking across a broad spectrum of health research and treatment programmes.   

He describes some of the lessons learned from the fight against HIV and AIDS — including the importance of creating forums to bring together different perspectives and stakeholders — and the vital role that HIV programmes have played as ‘testing grounds’ for global health concepts.   

With World AIDS Day taking place this Sunday 1 December, Bermejo also illuminates some of the pressing issues that the global community and policymakers must now address, and the importance of nurturing global solidarity in efforts to provide better health for all.   

The interview was recorded in July, during the annual conference of the Centre for Global Health Policy at the University of Sussex, United Kingdom. 

http://www.scidev.net/global/hiv-aids/multimedia/q-a-alvaro-bermejo-on-how-hiv-has-reshaped-global-health-policy.html

Q&A: Alvaro Bermejo on how HIV has reshaped global health policy

Bringing emergency relief and longer-term support to communities affected by natural disasters or conflict can be deeply complex, demanding astute, multipronged analyses of the diverse needs of different groups. In this podcast, David Constantine discusses how, when disasters occur, people with disabilities are particularly vulnerable. Disabilities can make accessing emergency care and medical support even more of a challenge – and relief agencies have often been slow to ensure their needs are integrated into emergency response programmes. Here, Constantine explains how, through a DFID and Humanitarian Innovation Fund-sponsored programme, Motivation has been designing wheelchairs for people affected by natural or manmade disasters. The design was unveiled at the AidEx event in mid-November, and the first consignment of wheelchairs has now arrived in the Philippines, to support communities affected by Typhoon Haiyan.

David Constantine on responding to the needs of disabled people during emergencies

The award-winning co-founder of a global disability charity talks about how tech and training can improve lives.

http://www.scidev.net/global/multimedia/q-a-david-constantine-on-technology-that-transforms-lives.html

Q&A: David Constantine on technology that transforms lives

In this podcast, we meet the researchers behind a trial that is taking a different approach to tackling the disease.

http://www.scidev.net/global/hiv-aids/multimedia/hiv-treatment-as-prevention-in-africa.html 

HIV treatment as prevention in Africa

In this podcast, Afghanistan’s health minister, Suraya Dalil, discusses the country’s efforts to improve healthcare.

http://www.scidev.net/global/children/multimedia/afghanistan-children-health.html

Q&A: A brighter future for Afghanistan’s newborn babies

In June's podcast, we also hear about e-learning platforms and balancing conservation and development in Costa Rica.

http://www.scidev.net/global/disease/multimedia/june-podcast-dengue-vaccine.html

SciDev.Net Podcast: A promising dengue vaccine and more

For World Humanitarian Day today, we speak to Bayard Roberts, director of the European Centre on Health of Societies in Transition at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom, and a member of the school’s Centre for Global Mental Health. 

Drawing on his research in South Sudan and Uganda, Roberts explains some of the impacts of exposure to conflict on mental health and discusses the challenges to providing better mental health services, particularly for women and young people. He describes how research can help build stronger, more cost-effective and culturally appropriate mental health services, and he outlines ideas for how the international community could work more closely with researchers to provide these kinds of services to communities affected by war.  

http://www.scidev.net/global/conflict/multimedia/impact-war-mental-health.html


Q&A: The impact of war on mental health

This month’s podcast sheds light on the role of medical research in the current Ebola crisis. We learn about the main experimental treatment available and what the scientific institutions in the United Kingdom are doing to enable a fast and effective response to the outbreak.

We then travel to Maputo, capital of Mozambique, to discover how African universities are joining up their efforts to foster a new generation of agricultural scientists — in the belief that a dynamic scientific community can better prepare society for future environmental and economic challenges.

Looking at the current agenda for tomorrow’s global development we sit down with Camilla Toulmin, director of the International Institute for Environment and Development, to discuss the main points of its 2014-2019 strategy. She explains why tackling hunger doesn’t mean we must produce more food, and how fighting inequality starts with targeted action against policies that lead to inequality.

And we’ll be on safari in Tanzania, where we visited a Maasai community outside Arusha to report on a project that combines clean technology and local entrepreneurship to empower women.

Finally, we hear about World Water Week, which kicks off today and which you will be able to follow through coverage on our website and social media until 5 September. 

http://www.scidev.net/global/water/multimedia/podcast-ebola-research-maasai-entrepreneurs.html


SciDev.Net podcast: Ebola research, Maasai entrepreneurs and more

[OXFORD]  In response to the growing Ebola crisis in West Africa, scientists in the United Kingdom and United States last week launched human trials of an Ebola vaccine candidate, and the plan is to carry out trials in Mali too within the next few weeks. 

SciDev.Net spoke to Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford and lead researcher for the UK-based trials. He told us about the exceptionally fast review process that enabled scientists to start the trials within a few weeks, the international collaboration driving the fight against this public health emergency, and his hopes that a vaccine could be available by the end of the year. 

http://www.scidev.net/global/medicine/multimedia/fast-tracking-ebola-vaccine-human-trials.html

Q&A on fast-tracking Ebola vaccine human trials

[LONDON] In this interview, we talk to Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom, and one of the team who identified the Ebola virus in 1976. He talks about what lessons the West African Ebola outbreak holds for global health planning and emergency response. And he discusses the need to radically improve local health infrastructure in the affected countries, and to bring together different sectors and ways of thinking to respond to disease outbreaks. 

The interview was recorded this week (8 October) at the Royal African Society’s meeting, ‘West African Ebola Outbreak: Gaps in governance and accountability’ at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. 

http://www.scidev.net/global/disease/multimedia/peter-piot-lessons-ebola-crisis.html

Q&A: Peter Piot on the lessons from the Ebola crisis

[LONDON] We talk to Kandeh K. Yumkella, UN undersecretary-general for Sustainable Energy for All and chairman of UN-Energy, and formerly minister for trade in Sierra Leone’s government, about what action Sierra Leone should take to improve its response capacity and health infrastructure.

He explains how poor energy infrastructure has affected Sierra Leone’s ability to provide emergency healthcare during the Ebola outbreak. And he explains why investing in science, technology and a robust research sector is crucial to enabling Sierra Leone to move beyond “quick fixes”, towards a long-term public health strategy built on rigorous analysis of the country’s health and infrastructure needs. 

http://www.scidev.net/global/energy/multimedia/kandeh-yumkella-energy-ebola.html

Q&A: Kandeh Yumkella on energy's role in fighting Ebola

For World Development Information Day today, we speak to Carlos Chirinos, director of SOAS Radio at the University of London, United Kingdom, and visiting professor at New York University, United States, about the role of radio and music in keeping people in West Africa informed about Ebola and access to health services.

He explains why radio’s accessibility and speed of production can save lives during public health emergencies. In his view, musicians can be innovative pioneers who bridge the divide between communities and public health. For example, he talks about ‘Ebola: Invisible Enemy’, a song he’s creating with Malian musicians Amadou and Mariam. 

Chirinos believes the global and scientific community must do more to work with musicians and radio stations to ensure public health awareness work is well-informed and appropriate.

http://www.scidev.net/global/icts/multimedia/-singing-safety-rules-ebola.html

Q&A: Singing safety rules for avoiding Ebola

Earlier this year, the 2014 Royal Society Pfizer Prize was awarded to Kenyan scientist Faith Osier for her efforts to understand human immunity to malaria in endemic areas of Kenya. 

The prize is given to young African scientists making outstanding contributions to the biological sciences on the continent. Last week, Osier, who works at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust research programme in Kilifi, Kenya, gave a presentation on her work at the Royal Society in London, United Kingdom, and was awarded a visiting professorship at the University of Oxford. 

In this interview, she explains to SciDev.Net how her team’s research into child and adult immunity to malaria can aid vaccine development, and about plans to carry out further related studies on immunity across seven African countries over the next five years. She also shares her thoughts on how to improve links between researchers and policymakers in East Africa, and on creating a more supportive environment for girls and women pursuing scientific careers in Kenya. 

http://www.scidev.net/global/malaria/multimedia/malaria-vaccine-research-africa.html

Q&A: Rolling out malaria vaccine research across Africa

According to the WHO, bad air quality was responsible for 7 million deaths in 2012. In this interview Paulo Saldiva, dean of the department of pathology at the University of São Paulo, explains that there are no measures to protect people against air pollution, and so public health policies are vital to avoid serious consequences, particularly in large cities. He says the science needed to address the risks of air pollution is in place, but that poor countries lack the resources to implement it with solutions that work locally.

http://www.scidev.net/global/pollution/multimedia/local-science-tackle-air-pollution.html

Q&A: A call for local science to tackle air pollution

Find out how community-based drug outlets in the Philippines provide cheaper medicines and boost healthcare. 

How village pharmacies are aiding the Philippines’ poor

Last August, the WHO declared the Ebola outbreak in West Africa a “public health emergency of international concern”. The epidemic, with over 22,000 cases across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and almost 8,800 likely victims, is the biggest Ebola outbreak ever recorded.

This month, as the rate of new Ebola deaths slowly declines, we examine how the world got together to fight the crisis, making use of different skills in the fields of medical research, technology and the media. Experts hope the world will be better equipped to respond fast and effectively to future global health emergencies.

We discover how researchers in Oxford, in the United Kingdom, have helped to fast-track trials of one potential Ebola vaccine, in accordance with WHO guidelines. We also discuss how the unprecedented international drive to speed up vaccine development may help highlight the underfunded field of neglected tropical diseases.

Although action against the outbreak has so far mainly been by doctors and NGOs, now designers are chipping in with a prototype protective suit for those treating Ebola patients. Experts at the Johns Hopkins University in the United States won an award to help develop technical innovations to fight Ebola and support their deployment.

While doctors work in the field to treat patients, others are using social media to build ‘health literacy’ among the population. We talk with the man behind the successful social media platform EbolaAlert, which helps inform people, builds networks among health professionals and tests social media’s potential to assist future research into similar crises.

SciDev.Net Podcast: Vaccines and design against Ebola

In this audio interview, economist Rana Roy discusses new evidence of the toll of air pollution in China and India.

Q&A: Putting a price on deaths from vehicle pollution

Public health responses to the Ebola crisis neglected to build trust among affected people, and more must be done to engage with the ‘human factor’ when disease outbreaks occur, anthropologist Heidi Larson warns in this audio interview. 

Larson, director of the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom, says crisis response programmes must address public fears around disease. One critical lesson to emerge from the Ebola epidemic, she says, is that failing to focus on communication and trust-building with communities early on can lead to heightened fears and misinformation that jeopardises safety and helps a disease spread.

Social scientists and medical experts need to work hand-in-hand to devise responses, Larson says, because “a public health or medical expert and an anthropologist will look at the same situation and notice very different things”.

The interview was recorded at ‘Ebola – The 21st-century plague?’, a conference at the Royal Society of Medicine, United Kingdom, on 6 February. 

http://www.scidev.net/global/health/multimedia/community-trust-epidemics-ebola-audio.html


Q&A: How building community trust helps combat epidemics

Although antiretroviral drugs are not a cure, they can stop people infected with HIV from developing AIDS by keeping the amount of virus in the body low.

This audio feature explores a UK trial that used the antiretroviral drug Truvada to prevent a group of homosexual volunteers, considered at risk of contracting HIV, from doing so. Although the drug was successful in the United Kingdom, experts warn that more effort will be needed to develop targeted campaigns to administer the treatment  in regions where HIV is endemic, such as Sub-Saharan Africa.

HIV trial holds promise for preventing infection

SciDev.Net podcasts look at key global development issues and the ways in which science can have a positive impact on equitable and sustainable development and poverty reduction. 