PHM-Exch> Gates Foundation Effort to Focus on Mothers and Children -

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: vern weitzel vern.weitzel at gmail.com
crossposted from: "[health-vn discussion group]" health-vn at anu.edu.au



 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/health/08maternal.html

 <http://www.nytimes.com/>
        Reprints<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/health/08maternal.html?pagewanted=print#>
This copy is for your personal, noncommercial use only. You can order
presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or
customers here<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/health/08maternal.html?pagewanted=print#>or
use the "Reprints" tool that appears next to any article. Visit
www.nytreprints.com for samples and additional information. Order a reprint
of this article
now.<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/health/08maternal.html?pagewanted=print#>
   <http://www.nytimes.com/adx/bin/adx_click.html?type=goto&opzn&page=www.nytimes.com/printer-friendly&pos=Position1&sn2=336c557e/4f3dd5d2&sn1=43821ff2/d00405a3&camp=foxsearch2010_emailtools_1225554e_nyt5&ad=Cyrus_120x60_e_01.25&goto=http://www.foxsearchlight.com/cyrus>

------------------------------
June 7, 2010
 Gates Effort to Focus on Mother and Child By DENISE
GRADY<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/denise_grady/index.html?inline=nyt-per>

The Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation<http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Pages/home.aspx>said it
would spend $1.5 billion over the next five years on maternal and
child health, family planning and nutrition programs in developing
countries, representing a new emphasis for the foundation, whose health
efforts so far have focused on infectious
diseases<http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/specialtopic/travelers-guide-to-avoiding-infectious-diseases/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier>,
vaccines and H.I.V.<http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/aids/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier>and
AIDS.

In a speech Monday<http://www.gatesfoundation.org/press-releases/Pages/women-deliver-2010-100607.aspx>at
a conference in Washington, D.C., Melinda
Gates<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/melinda_gates/index.html?inline=nyt-per>said
that
pregnancy<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/pregnancy/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>and
childbirth often “end in tragedy” in poor countries, but that most of
the deaths could be prevented at a “stunningly” low cost. “The world must
come together to save women’s and children’s lives,” she said.

In a telephone interview, Ms. Gates said the foundation was inspired to move
in this direction by signs that the problems could be solved. She cited
Malawi as an example, noting that though it is one of the poorest countries
in Africa, it has begun to lower childhood death rates and to take on
maternal mortality as well. She said she met one woman from a remote village
whose baby had been in a breech position and who almost certainly would have
died if she had not been taken by health workers to a clinic to give birth.

The Gates Foundation, with assets of about $35.2 billion, has already spent
$10 billion on global health
projects<http://www.gatesfoundation.org/global-health/Documents/global-health-fact-sheet-english-version.pdf>,
including $4.5 billion on vaccines. The foundation said in January that it
would spend at least $10 billion more on
vaccines<http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DEED91630F933A05752C0A9669D8B63>over
the next decade. So far, it has already spent about $1.8 billion on
maternal, newborn and child health. Ms. Gates said much of the next $1.5
billion would go to programs in India, Ethiopia and other countries where
mothers and children have relatively high death rates.

The money will pay for projects like training health workers, developing
improved antibiotics<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/antibiotics/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>for
infections in newborns and finding better ways to treat hemorrhage in
mothers. Ms. Gates said she hoped the foundation’s spending would inspire
rich countries to provide more aid as well.

Also at the conference, Ban
Ki-moon<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/ban_ki_moon/index.html?inline=nyt-per>,
secretary general of the United
Nations<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/united_nations/index.html?inline=nyt-org>,
announced<http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=34938&Cr=maternal&Cr1=>a
“joint action plan” to help save women and children. The plan calls on
governments, nonprofit aid groups, the private sector and United Nations
agencies to provide money and services and to develop policies that will
help countries reach goals set previously to reduce death rates among
mothers and children.

“We are seeing a global movement for an end to the silent scandal of women
dying in childbirth,” Mr. Ban said.

Recent studies have suggested that efforts to lower the death rates of women
and children are starting to pay off. In April, for the first time in
decades, researchers reported a significant drop
worldwide<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/health/14births.html>in
the number of women dying each year from pregnancy and childbirth, to
about 342,900 in 2008 from 526,300 in 1980. The findings, published in the
medical journal The Lancet, challenged the prevailing view that high rates
of maternal mortality were an insoluble problem.

Similarly, a Lancet study published online in May found that death rates in
children under 5 had
dropped<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/24/health/24child.html>in many
countries at a surprisingly fast pace from 1970 to 2010. The study
predicted that worldwide, 7.7 million children would die this year — still
an enormous number, but a vast improvement over the 1990 figure of 11.9
million. Mr. Ban said this was the time to build on growing global momentum
to save women and children.

The three-day conference, Women Deliver, continues through Wednesday.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://phm.phmovement.org/pipermail/phm-exchange-phmovement.org/attachments/20100609/3af74d48/attachment.html>