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Erle Frayne Argonza
Good morning from Manila!
A heartwarming news from India and Vietnam concerns the reduction of prices of vaccines for cholera. To recall, India is among the countries that lead in bringing down pharmaceutical costs, thus saving the day for many poorer folks in the south who are relentlessly victimized by the rent-seeking practices of Western drug companies.
Enjoy your read!
[02 August 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]
Cheaper cholera vaccine passes pilot trial
Sanjit Bagchi
23 June 2008 | EN | 中文
The current international cholera vaccine is too expensive for developing countries
Flickr/larskflem
A reformulated oral vaccine against cholera promises to be an affordable and effective weapon to combat the disease for people living in endemic areas of developing countries, according to a new study.
The internationally licensed cholera vaccine currently available is too expensive for use in developing countries, where it is most needed.
Vietnam produces its own two-dose oral cholera vaccine and distributes it through its public health system at US$0.40 a dose. Nine million doses have been delivered so far.
To kick-start the process of scaling up this vaccine in developing countries around the globe, the vaccine was reformulated to comply with WHO standards.
Researchers from India, Korea and Sweden conducted a pilot trial of the vaccine at Kolkota’s Infectious Diseases Hospital in eastern India. Cholera is endemic in Kolkota.
The study evaluated the vaccine’s safety and efficacy outside Vietnam.
Participants were healthy and included 101 adults aged 18–40 years and 100 children aged 1–17 years. They received two random doses of either the vaccine or a placebo, 14 days apart.
After immunization, 53 per cent of the adults and 80 per cent of the children showed at least a four-fold increase in their antibody levels against Vibrio cholerae O1, the predominant strain of cholera-causing bacteria.
Safety tests revealed that “no adverse event occurred more frequently in the vaccinated than in the placebo group”, say the researchers.
“Cholera affects a large number of children in developing countries, and so a vaccine that is safe and effective for children sounds impressive, and the development as a whole appears to be a step towards global rolling out of the cholera vaccine,” says Sumana Kanjilal, associate professor of paediatric medicine at Calcutta National Medical College Hospital, India.
The reformulated vaccine is now undergoing a trial in around 70,000 people in Kolkata. “If the vaccine is found to be safe and protective, this could pave the way for the use of this vaccine in the control of cholera worldwide,” the researchers write.
The study was published in PLoS ONE.
Erle Frayne Argonza
Climate change is reshaping human engagements the world over. In Africa, observations have already been made before regarding vulnerabilities to climate change and related attendant ecological concerns.
Below is a report regarding energy interventions that could re-adjust the livelihood/economic engagements of peoples of Africa.
[09 August 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila. Thanks to eldis.org database news.]
A preliminary assessment of energy and ecosystem resilience in ten African countries
Authors: Connor,H.; Mqadi,L.; Mukheibir,P.
Produced by: HELIO International (2007)
Africa is vulnerable to climate change on two fronts: firstly, because of existing vulnerabilities and secondly, due to capacity limitations for disaster mitigation and inability to adapt to climate change. There is an urgent need to ensure that activities centring on adaptation to climate change and sustainable energy development are increased and maintained so as to generate sustainable livelihoods.
This paper is a preliminary attempt to identify points of vulnerability as they relate to climate change-related events and sketch out what changes are needed – both politically and programmatically – to increase resilience. It explores the current state of vulnerability and details potential for adaptation. Results are presented summarising the key vulnerabilities for eight sub-Saharan countries: Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda.
It is argued that energy development for Africa in a changing climate will require greater emphasis on small-scale, decentralised and diversified supply and increased distribution to households and enterprises alike. A diversified and distributed energy mix is identified as the best insurance policy against climate change. However, it is argued that adaptation of energy policies and systems is only part of the solution; building up the resiliency of local populations and energy systems is equally important.
Key priorities identified for policy are:
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- harness the value of indigenous knowledge to plan and achieve resilience
- mobilise adequate and stable financial resources
- mainstream adaptation and resilience in the development process
- develop policies to institutionalise and mobilise “social capital”
The authors conclude that, despite the obstacles facing Africa, hope is not lost. They identify a number of positive characteristics upon which successful programmes can and should be built, including:
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- culturally, Africa has strong social networks, which serve an important function in educating communities, disseminating information and serving as substitutes for collateral in micro-loans
- as primary collectors and users of biomass and water, women are well-placed to monitor and manage resources, spur innovation on adaptive techniques and experiment with new management approaches
- Africa’s decades-long experience coping with poverty that may be its strongest resource. By its collective survival, the region has shown itself to be adaptive and resilient despite enormous obstacles.
Available online at: http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/?doc=38442&em=310708&sub=enviro
Erle Frayne Argonza
Consistently following ‘physical economy’ practices would mean a sustained construction and renovation of agricultural infrastructures. Conversely, the sustained destruction of such infrastructures will lead to rapid agricultural decay, such as what’s happening in the USA.
Africans know their physical economy principles well, and practice them precisely by boosting agricultural infrastructures. Below is a news item that captures relevant efforts in Ghana, Mali and Madagascar.
Enjoy your read!
[30 July 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila. Thanks to SciDev database news.]
Ghana, Madagascar, Mali get agricultural revamp
Bandé Moussa Sissoko & Rivonala Razafison
19 June 2008 | EN
USAID
Small-scale farmers in Ghana, Madagascar and Mali are the first beneficiaries of a multi-billion dollar project to rehabilitate agricultural infrastructure.
The project, part of the efforts to reach the UN Millennium Development Goals tackling poverty, will later be expanded to other developing countries.
Kofi Annan, of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), signed a memorandum of understanding this month (11 June) with the US government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).
Under the agreement, infrastructure will be established or improved, agricultural research will be strengthened, and seeds and other technologies will be distributed to small-scale farmers.
Mosa Justin of Madagascar’s Millennium Challenge Account, which distributes MCC money, says the joint project will work with researchers to better distribute seeds in three different zones: maize in Antsiranana, rice and butter beans in Menabe, and maize and rice in Boeny.
The Malagasy agriculture ministry has also signed a partnership with private fertiliser companies to increase production. “There is a need to create a fertiliser map according to the type and variety of soils, and then a blending plant to make the most appropriate fertiliser,” says Justin. Fertiliser use in Madagascar is currently one twelfth of the African average.
In landlocked Mali, the Millennium Challenge Account has begun a large rice irrigation project in the central Alatona region, which relies on water from the Niger river delta.
Project director Tidiani Traoré says work will begin on extending the Sahel Canal by 23 kilometres, building a new 63 kilometre canal and boosting the banks of the Malado Fala — an ancient dry stream bed used as a natural canal — by December this year.
About 16,000 hectares of farmland — roughly half the Alatona region — will receive improved irrigation, Traoré told SciDev.Net.
Traoré says plans also include formalising land titles, education about land tenure rights, increasing farmers’ access to agricultural advice and training in fish, livestock and financial management.
The Mali project also aims to construct a bridge and tar the first 81 kilometres of road from the rice paddies in the Niono inland delta, which floods annually, by October 2008.
Ghanaian plans include starting a dialogue between the private and public sector on how best to work together in getting seeds of new crop varieties to farmers fields.
Link to Memorandum of Understanding between MCC and AGRA [16.5kB]
Erle Frayne Argonza
England has launched an award system recently to innovators around the world who can revolutionize stove technology. The purpose of stove innovation is to increase access of people and market end-users to energy by utilizing fuel resources available in the locality, such as coconut and wood wastes.
Below is a heartwarming news about a stove innovation from South Asia that won the award. As reported, it surely has made energy available to many people in India which lacks sufficient energy due to the rapidly rising demand for fuel.
Enjoy your read!
[29 July 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila. Thanks to SciDev database news.]
Stove projects stir up energy award success
Katherine Nightingale
A TIDE cooking stove in use
Ashden Awards/TIDE
Innovators bringing sustainable energy to communities in developing countries were recognised last night (19 June) at an awards ceremony held in London, United Kingdom.
Projects from Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Ethiopia, India, Tanzania and Uganda were all awarded prizes of £20,000 (around US$40,000) at the annual Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy.
The Technology Informatics Design Endeavour (TIDE) project, which designs safer and more efficient wood-burning stoves, was crowned the overall Energy Champion, winning a £40,000 prize.
These TIDE stoves are a boon for an estimated eight million people working in small industries in southern India — for example, in textile dying, spice drying and street food vendors.
Svati Bhogle, chief executive of TIDE, said the award “gives us the motivation to venture into uncharted terrain, to first break new ground and then develop it into a beaten track”.
The stoves can use waste material such as coconut shells as well as wood. Improved heat transfer, insulation and combustion creates less heat and smoke, resulting in improved working conditions. They were designed with each industry specifically in mind, with users contributing to the development.
Bhogle said 10,500 stoves are now in use in 12 industry sectors, saving 140,000 tonnes of fuel and 200,000 tonnes of emitted carbon dioxide.
“There is a serious energy crisis in rural India, but access to energy and its efficient use, accompanied by well-conceived and well-implemented enabling mechanisms, has the potential to transform rural areas.”
Other stoves were prominent among this year’s winners. The Kisangani Smith Group in Tanzania designed a stove that uses compressed waste sawdust or rice husks, rather than expensive charcoal.
The GAIA association has opted to use ethanol fuel produced from the waste molasses of the sugar industry in their stoves, which they have distributed to Somalian refugees living in a large camp in eastern Ethiopia.
Elsewhere, both the Aryavart Gramin Bank in India and Grameen Shakti in Bangladesh — a 2006 winner and recipient of this year’s Outstanding Achievement Award — provide affordable loans for people without access to the electricity grid to install solar power in their homes.
The Ugandan project, Fruits of the Nile, harnesses the power of the sun to dry fruit. Simple solar dryers, constructed from a wooden frame covered with plastic, let the light in, keep insects out and use natural convection.
Ashden also published a report, commissioned by the UK Department for International Development, analysing ten previous winners. More ways must be found to provide financial and human resources for innovative research and development, it concluded, with clear national energy policies to guide projects.
Erle Frayne Argonza
In the lands of the Semites comes brightening news about medical imaging. This news is particularly great for poorer families of developing economies, who can do their own information gathering and monitoring of health-related problems right in their palm.
Happy reading.
[20 July 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila. Culled via SciDev news.]
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Researchers devise ‘mobile’ medical imaging system
Wagdy Sawahel
16 May 2008 | EN | 中文
The new system transfers medical images via mobile phones
Flickr/johnmuk
Researchers have developed a new system enabling medical images to be transferred via mobile phones, which could make imaging technology cheaper and more accessible to poor countries.
According to the WHO, three quarters of the world’s population does not have access to medical imaging and more than half of available medical equipment in developing countries is not used due to maintenance problems and lack of trained personnel.
To address this, Boris Rubinsky at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, and colleagues separated the components required in a medical imaging system.
A simple device ― one measuring electrical impulses for example ― collects data from the patient in the field. This is transmitted via the mobile phone to a central site where the data is processed, an image produced and sent back to the field, again via the mobile phone.
Using the system, the researchers successfully produced a clear image of a simulated breast cancer tumour.
“The wide availability of cellular phones has suggested that imaging devices do not have to be all in one physical place and that their components can be spread around the world and connected through cellular phones, rather than connected physically with electrical wires,” Rubinsky told SciDev.Net.
“The physicians can use their own cellphones to plug into [the data collection device] and send the raw data, in the form of a text message or email, to a geographically distant central facility — that can serve thousands of users — and within seconds sends back the processed image the way you would send a picture to your cellphone,” he says.
“This system is economical as the cost of [the data collection device] near the patient site is not a major part of the cost of the entire system, making it less expensive and easier to maintain,” he adds.
Rubinsky hopes they can develop a more advanced prototype for the detection of breast cancer within a year.
Morad Ahmed Morad, a professor of medicine at Tanta University, Egypt, says the device is an “ideal example of turning information and communication technology into solutions making a real health impact on lives of poor people in developing countries”.
The study was published in PLoS ONE last month (30 April).
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