Thread: scholorship

# Scholarship Description
# Students are asked to respond to the question, “What is the most important thing the US can do to improve global health over the next 15 years?”

CSIS is looking for:
•Emotionally persuasive argument to back up your ideas. If you’ve been involved in global health as a professional or volunteer, please use your experience to illustrate your point. We especially value personal narrative.
•Ideas that are sustainable in the long term – at least 15 years out from now.
•Big gains – ideas that will really change lives.
•Ideas that reduce morbidity and mortality of the world’s most vulnerable people, whether by direct intervention or by altering personal, institutional, or governmental behaviors.

http://www.scholarships.com/Award.aspx?AWARD_ID=1

I'm trying to think of ideas, if anyone has any suggestions please pm me.

(sorry if this post counts as soliciting or is otherwise against the forum rules, I won't be mad if it's deleted)

the first thing that comes to mind is malaria

indeed, i never knew how prevalent of a disease it is, thanks marnix

+ with the potential of becoming more so, as resistant strains are starting to spread

I have a good idea, I'll have to wait to submit it before sharing it though. Thanks marnix for your suggestion, I've thought of a way the US can help in the fight against malaria as well as the effects of poverty in general.

Of course I don't know much about economics, and therefore cannot be sure of the practicality of my idea, I'm sure it will satisfy the requirements for the essay.

You could talk about how pharmaceutical corperations are directed toward the wealthy and profitable clients, whereas the people who need it most, the 3rd world countries, are often neglected because they are unprofitable.

This also ties in with Malaria and such.

More info-
http://www.globalissues.org/article/...dical-research

can you think of the economic impact if malaria re-establishes itself in countries like the US, Britain and Italy where it was around not that long ago ?

what caused it to no longer be established in these places?

usually draining of marshy areas + better health care - once the pool of infected humans is too small, the mosquitoes are no longer infected either

however, increased mobility of humans across the globe may re-establish new hearths of infection - either from immigrants or from tourists

During the 20th century, the disease of smallpox was rendered extinct. If you are looking at actions with long term benefits for global health, look at infectious diseases that affect only humans. Once the last human has been vaccinated, or cured, that disease becomes extinct and can never again harm another human being. That is the ultimate in long term benefit!

Examples include polio and leprosy. Polio is preventable by vaccination. A decade or two back, it was almost rendered extinct. The last remining stronghold was in the back blocks of Nigeria. Sadly, human stupidity and paranoia stuffed up the effort. A bunch of utterly moronic muslim leaders went around saying that the polio vaccine was an American conspiracy and caused sterility. People stopped accepting vaccination and the disease took off again, and is now extant in a number of countries. However, we can again get to the point of wiping it out, with enough effort. http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/mspot/arc/polio.php

Leprosy is caused by a bacterium (Mycobacterium leprae) which is found only in humans. It can be cured by multi-drug therapy. With a big effort, the last leper can be cured, which will make it extinct.

There are other diseases which might be targets for such an effort. Believe it or not, one is AIDS. People who are on multi-drug therapy for AIDS do not get cured, but they are no longer infectious. If we can get all HIV positive people world-wide onto full drug therapy, and keep them on it (they are all highly motivated!), then the disease will disappear when the last such victim dies of old age.

Malaria is caused by a human specific parasite. Currently, we cannot wipe it out, but there is progress on several fronts, from attacking the vector mosquitoes, to developing vaccines, to new cures. This may become a target for extinction in the future.

Indeed, that is what happened in the mid 1900s with malaria. The world had made great strides in eliminating it with a combination of methods, including those that marnix mentioned, as well as the the increase of cheep housing with things like bug screens, cheep clothes, and insecticides.


preventing bites through a variety of methods and early diagnosis accompanied by complete treatment are the most probable solutions

but to prevent bites takes compliance and education of governments and citizens

and early diagnosis/treatment takes education and compliance between citizens and doctors





My main question is this: aren't there more economical ways to protect individuals than investing in individual bed nets?

such as wire screens in windows and doors

Protecting individuals from malaria?

Indeed. A very cheap method is to spray, once per year, the inside walls of the crude homes (often mud huts) in malaria ridden areas, with DDT. I know that a lot of people will throw their hands up in horror at this. However, the environmental impact of such localised spraying is next to zero.

The Anopheles mosquito is a lousy flyer. It stops to 'rest' on surfaces frequently. Typically, when it flies into a hut where a person is sleeping, it will pause several times on the inside surfaces of that hut before flying down to its victim. If those inside surfaces have a film of DDT, then it will never reach its vicitm.
http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=16465896

This costs, literally, a few cents per hut per year. It is highly effective.

I read that the bugs almost always rest after eating too. Which doesn't help that one person it just ate from, but it does help the next people.

here's a study on the different methods to protect houses from mosquitoes in Tanzania

http://www.malariajournal.com/content/8/1/221