Today’s blog post comes to us from Lindsay Ford of Spectrum, United States partner and chair of GLOBALHealthPR.
Today, October 10th, is World Mental Health Day. On this day, people join to raise awareness of mental health issues around the world. Organizations like the World Health Organization invest resources to develop technical and communication materials to raise awareness and combat stigma surrounding mental illness. [Read more…] about How to Make a Difference on World Mental Health Day
Today’s blog comes to us from our GLOBALHealthPR Australia partner, VIVA! Communications
It is the sum of every individual event, large and small, that makes World Rabies Day a global movement.
Saturday, September 28, 2013 marks the sixth annual World Rabies Day, co- sponsored by the Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). World Rabies Day aims to raise awareness about and prevent the spread of rabies – a life-threatening disease that affects more than 3.3 billion people living in enzootic areas.
Rabies is the deadliest disease on earth with a 99.9 per cent fatality rate once the first sign of clinical symptoms appear. Rabies is endemic in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas and is transmitted by a wide range of animals. The virus attacks the central nervous system causing severely distressing neurological symptoms before death occurs. [Read more…] about World Rabies Day 2013 is Fast Approaching!
Diabetes prevalence is on the rise and has reached epidemic levels in China. According to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the percentage of Chinese with diabetes has surpassed that of the U.S. In China, 11.6 percent of adults – 114 million people – have diabetes. Most alarming, only 30 percent of Chinese with diabetes are aware they have the disease.
Ninety-five percent of Chinese citizens have health coverage and overall health spending in the country might hit $1 trillion by 2020. Despite these expenditures, there is still a major shortfall in identifying, screening and treating populations who are at-risk for diabetes.
How do health care providers and government leaders address this?
In China and elsewhere, urgent action is needed to expand screening initiatives to reach more patients. Bi-directional screening, where testing for an infectious illness (such as TB or HIV) is combined with a non-communicable disease screen (such as diabetes or cancer), could be key. This allows health professionals to integrate new programs into already-existing clinics. In China, the World Diabetes Foundation and World Health Organization have shown some promise in integrating diabetes and tuberculosis screenings.
However, if any real, measurable progress is to be made in reducing the 70 percent of undiagnosed diabetes cases in China, we must go beyond the traditional tactics of stakeholder meetings and training sessions that often result in only a few thousand screenings. While meetings and trainings are essential to global health intervention, they must not be considered primary tactics.
“
Capacity building” is a buzz term popular in development and public health NGO spheres. If real capacity is to be built in China and beyond, we must change the paradigm of how we measure success of chronic health interventions. We should aim to screen hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people. We must also aim to implement improvements in dozens or hundreds of hospitals & clinics, not just a few.
I’ve been screened: Now what?
Ultimately, screening initiatives fail if newly-diagnosed patients do not have access to treatments. Here are three ideas to achieve success in the fight to reduce diabetes:
The new JAMA study suggests the Chinese diabetes epidemic is greater than previously imagined, but it is not an insurmountable barrier. International partnerships are essential to overcoming the burden of diabetes in China, and it’s time for all players to re-think how they can maximize ROI on screening and treatment interventions.
The Find the Other 150 Campaign is a joint Progeria Research Foundation and GLOBALHealthPR collaboration to locate the remaining 150 of the estimated 200-250 children living globally with Progeria.
Beginning in July and through the next several months, approximately 40 children from around the world will travel to Boston, Mass., in the United States to participate in the Triple Drug Trial, the latest clinical trial to test potential treatments for Progeria. To mark this expansion, The Progeria Research Foundation (PRF) is re-launching its highly successful “Find the Other 150” campaign to locate the remaining unidentified children living around the world with Progeria. [Read more…] about Help us Find the Other 150
GLOBALHealthPR IHSMS 2.0 Initiative Reveals Opportunities for Healthcare Providers, Communicators, Industry and Public Health Advocates to Shift Dialogue Related to Global Health Crisis
[Read more…] about Global Health Group Identifies Alarming Trend in Childhood Obesity Conversation
I learned several weeks ago that I’m to receive the Genetic Alliance “Art of Reporting” Award in June for Spectrum’s work on behalf of The Progeria Research Foundation‘s (PRF) “Find the Other 150” campaign. I want to publicly thank Genetic Alliance for recognizing this campaign and our commitment to such a rare disease.
Progeria is a rare, rapid aging disease in children and our client, PRF, is working to find a treatment and cure for this disease. As of October 2009, experts estimated that there were approximately 150 unidentified children with Progeria around the world. Spectrum and our global partners, GLOBALHealthPR, teamed up with PRF to launch a global communications effort to find these 150 children.
I am accepting this award on behalf of our team at Spectrum and our GLOBALHealthPR partners who bring their local market expertise to this global outreach effort. Our partners have been so instrumental in the success of this campaign, continually assisting with media outreach and support to find new and creative channels to spread PRF’s message.
This campaign is a great example of the power of strategic global communications. When we started the “Find the Other 150” campaign more than a year ago, the medical director of PRF said that if we found even one child, the campaign would be considered a success. Today, our efforts have led to the discovery of 17 children with Progeria from 12 countries around the world. Each child identified brings PRF one step closer to finding effective treatments and a cure. In addition, each child benefits from PRF’s unique medical care and is connected with trained medical professionals as well as other families of children with Progeria. PRF’s drive and determination is awe-inspiring and continues to be a daily motivation for our team.
As honored as I am to receive this award, I am just as honored to have the privilege to work with PRF, as well as serve on the organization’s board of directors. Our Spectrum team and GLOBALHealthPR partners are passionate about working with PRF to pursue the “Find the Other 150” mission of identifying children around the world with Progeria. We hope to continue to exceed their expectations in finding other children as the campaign continues.
I’ll report back on the Awards Ceremony in June. Thank you again, Genetic Alliance!
