Global Healing

 

Fall 2013: Volume 6, Issue 2

 



MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Within the world of global health today, we see huge strides being made. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS recently cited a 33% global reduction in new HIV cases since 2001 in its annual report. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been a huge driving force behind that effort, pumping billions of dollars into HIV/AIDS reduction since the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) was created in 2003. This funding has been used not only for prevention, treatment and care for those with HIV/AIDS, but also to address blood safety.

Ten years later, we can see the dramatic impact that PEPFAR and other programs have had in reducing HIV. However, the funding for blood safety programs is quickly drying up, as it is for many other global health initiatives. The need for global health interventions will continue to increase, especially as the world becomes more suspectible to pandemics, non-communicable diseases, and environmental changes. So how do we address the myriad challenges to wellbeing that we face?

Unfortunately we don’t have the answer, but we can confidently say that the path forward involves collaboration between organizations to address the most pressing issues of global health. We need to learn from one another and share experiences, resources and information to improve the effectiveness of our programs. Most importantly, we must work together to combine our institutional strengths into something greater than the sum of its parts.

Over the past year, Global Healing has made significant progress in doing just that. From the International Blood Safety Alliance to the Alianza Latinoamericana de Sangre, we have led the call to collectivize our efforts. We are also currently working with the University of California, San Francisco to create a robust program for the Bay Islands of Honduras. We look forward to updating you as these partnerships and alliances grow.

 

Sincerely,
sig
Luke Ifland


HUM

ABOVE:The Hôpital Universitaire de Mirebalais
is open and treating patients. Read the article about our project in Haiti.


JOIN US IN DENVER AT AABB ANNUAL MEETING

Global Healing president Luke Ifland will be attending the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) Annual Meeting this year in Denver on October 12-15. We invite you to join us at two very important events:

  • Sunday, October 13, 9:00-10:00am at the Helmer Scientific booth (#1329): Powering the Engines of Global Blood Safety Collaboration with keynote Lauren Larsen, world renowned blood donation advocate. To attend, RSVP to Donna Holpuch at dholpuch@helmerinc.com.

IBSA was born out of the International Blood Safety Forum in March 2013. Since that first step, Global Healing has developed a directory (below) to bring together organizations involved in improving blood safety around the world. The
directory is online at: www.globalhealing.org/IBSA.



HASILO NEPAL: PROMOTING GOOD NUTRITION AND ORAL HEALTH FOR NEPALI CHILDREN

NEPAL

Hasilo Nepal (hasilo means “smile” in Nepali), is an oral health and nutrition promotion program funded by Global Healing since 2010. It is coordinated by a team from the University of California, UC Berkeley School of Public Health in collaboration with a Nepali NGO Self Reliant Centre (SRC). The program was started by a Nepali-American student, Sidhanta Gurung, with UC professor Dr. Karen Sokal-Gutierrez, who had developed a successful model of community-based oral health and nutrition promotion in Latin America. The SRC team is led by Ms. Aparna Bhatta and a team of experienced community health workers and dentist consultants. Since 2010, dozens of health professionals and students from UC Berkeley and UCSF have traveled to Nepal to work with dozens of Nepali health professionals on the Hasilo Nepal team.

In Nepal, as in developing countries throughout the world, the shift from traditional diets to the modern diet—processed and sugary foods and drinks—has led to a pandemic of early childhood tooth decay. Tooth decay is now the most prevalent chronic disease of childhood worldwide, affecting 60-95% of children. It can have severe consequences for children’s health and wellbeing—chronic infection, mouth pain, malnutrition, and inability to sleep and concentrate in school. The problem is most prevalent in urban areas, but has reached rural areas as well. Unfortunately, the pandemic of tooth decay has been largely neglected by global child nutrition programs.

Hasilo Nepal is an innovative program that addresses nutrition and oral health with a unified intervention. The program aims to prevent childhood tooth decay and malnutrition by educating the Nepali community health workers—who, in turn, educate the teachers, parents and children—about the importance of proper nutrition (especially avoiding sugary snacks and drinks) and oral hygiene, from birth. The program also provides families with free toothbrushes and fluoride toothpaste, and applications of fluoride varnish to the children’s teeth twice per year. In addition, children who are identified with severe tooth decay are referred for treatment by local dentists.

To date, Hasilo Nepal has worked with over 1,000 families of children from birth through 6 years of age in urban Kathmandu and rural Sindupalchok District. The program includes a rigorous evaluation to measure its success. Data is collected annually through interviews of mothers about nutrition and oral health practices, and exams of the children for dental and nutrition status. Preliminary results over the past 3 years show improvements in knowledge and practices around nutrition and oral hygiene, and modest reductions in tooth decay, mouth pain and malnutrition. In addition, the community health workers, teachers and families have expressed tremendous enthusiasm for acquiring more knowledge and skills to protect their children’s health. The Hasilo Nepal team has presented the program model and preliminary results to key health organizations in Nepal such as the Nepali Ministry of Health, UNICEF, USAID, Family Health International, Nepal Public Health Foundation, and Kathmandu Model Hospital Dental Clinic; and there has been considerable interest in this unique model of child health promotion.

Over the next 2 years, the Hasilo Nepal team will focus on a plan for sustainability of the oral health and nutrition promotion program. In December 2013, a team of undergraduate students from UC Berkeley and dental students from UCSF will return to Nepal to conduct another health camp and continue to collect follow-up data. In addition, the team hopes to continue to meet with the key Nepali health organizations to present the study results and further explore possibilities for sustainability through ongoing local health programs.

For more information, contact the Hasilo Nepal coordinator Ashmita Baral ashmitab@berkeley.edu, or Dr. Karen Sokal-Gutierrez ksokalg@berkeley.edu.



INVESTIGATING BLOOD NEEDS AND THE SUPPLY IN HAITI

HUM

ABOVE: A donor at Hôpital Universitaire de
Mirebalais Blood Bank
gets ready to save a life

Across Haiti, there is an acute shortage of lifesaving blood products and the area where we work is no exception. The Hôpital Universitaire de Mirebalais (HUM), located in the Central Plateau of Haiti, is slowly expanding services available to the community, including bloodintensive services like labor & delivery, accident and emergency, surgery and oncology.

In response to these growing needs, Global Healing brought Tony Chang MD, a University of California, San Francisco anesthesiology resident, to Haiti to conduct a blood utilization study and allow us to better understand the blood supply, demand and clinical use of blood in the Central Plateau. Dr. Chang spent three weeks in Haiti, spending the majority of time at HUM but also visiting nearby hospitals in Hinche and Cange.

"Being given the opportunity to work in Haiti was incredibly humbling and rewarding. The people were very warm, welcoming, and appreciative. I hope to return in the near future to help continue the development of their blood bank.”
Tony Chang MD

This information will enable the hospitals to better maintain inventories, improve patient management and create a coordinated system of sharing blood products amongst one another. While the data will allow for immediate insight, Global Healing and HUM will continue to build upon these data points to monitor trends in future years.

Beyond blood utilization, it will be important that the blood system in Haiti makes sure there are sufficient stores of blood available. To these ends, Global Healing is sending equipment and materials to both HUM and the Croix-Rouge Haïtienne (CRH) that will be used to increase blood collection, including mobile donor lounges, centrifuges, and collection scales. CRH is formulating a national plan to increase overall blood collection in the country, which will greatly help HUM. Thanks to all the organizations who have already donated equipment for this cause!

In November, Global Healing will send another team of trainers to continue working with HUM staff on transfusion medicine, quality assurance and compatibility testing. Due to the heavy request for blood and lack of standaridzed transfusion practices at the hospital, Global Healing will cover transfusion guidelines to ensure patient safety.



ALIANZA LATINOAMERICANA DE SANGRE

Global Healing has assumed leadership over the Latin American Blood Alliance, or Alianza Latinoamericana de Sangre (ALAS), from America’s Blood Centers. Similar to the Asia Pacific Blood Network and the European Blood Alliance, the Alliance will serve to help improve the quality and availability of the blood provided in Latin America, as well as the effectiveness and efficiency of their operations for the patients they serve.

Although the project is still in its strategic planning phase, there are a variety of objectives the program will likely tackle. Many blood systems in Latin America need to increase blood collections from voluntary, non-remunerated blood donors, improve transfusion medicine practices and communicate best practices with one another. Global Healing is working with the Grupo Cooperativo Iberoamericano de Medicina Transfusional (GCIAMT) to integrate the alliance into their activities and ensure longterm success after Global Healing completes its role.



PEDIATRICANS NEEDED!

RVPC

Volunteer at the Roatán Volunteer Pediatric Clinic (RVPC) in Honduras! We need pediatric attendings and residents to serve at the RVPC for two to four weeks. Pediatricians must be board-certified or -eligible and proficient in Spanish.

Learn more about the clinic at www.roatanclinic.org or email us at rvpc@globalhealing.org to volunteer.

 


GLOBAL HEALING LOOKING TO EXPAND PRESENCE TO VIETNAM

IBSF

ABOVE: Dr.Colin Partridge MD (UCSF) examines a newborn at Thái Bình Hospital.

Global Healing is looking to start a new Pediatric program and the search has brought us to Vietnam! Dr. Colin Partridge MD, MPH, neonatologist at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), connected Global Healing to leadership at the National Hospital of Pediatrics in Hanoi, Vietnam to begin discussions about establishing a pediatric program there.

In August, Dr. Colin Partridge and Global Healing’s program manager, Vincent Lok, visited the National Hospital of Pediatrics (NHP) and several other hospitals in the area to assess current training and equipment needs, as well as to better understand medical education, practices, and capabilities.

Vietnam is a country of over 90 million citizens. We were impressed by the sheer volume of patients and cases seen on a daily basis. NHP receives the most critical patients from all over the country, with over 600,000 outpatient cases a year and over 60,000 inpatients a year. The neighboring obstetric delivery hospital delivers around 40,000 babies a year the second most in Vietnam! The remarkable patient volume will allow Global Healing to have a significant impact on the lives of many children each year.



TBILISI ROTARY CLUB ROLLS UP SLEEVES FOR BLOOD DONATION

 

Global Healing is working with the Georgian Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC) and the Jo Ann Medical Center Blood Bank (JAMC) to involve Tbilisi Rotary Club in the national campaign for volunteer donor recruitment. In a novel approach for Georgia, all parties are coming together toleverage Rotary’s presence and profile in the community as a vehicle to increase voluntary blood collection in the country.

The Global Blood Fund has graciously awarded Global Healing funding to bring Sharron Zimmerman MT(ASCP)SBB, an American Rotarian, to work on this project. Sharron brings a wealth of blood banking experience. Our goal is to enable Rotarians to host blood drives at their respective businesses and educate the community about the importance of voluntarily donating blood. By connecting them with the NCDC and JAMC, Tbilisi Rotary Club will be an integral player in national donor recruitment.

Global Healing hopes that this model can also be used at the Rotaract and Interact levels, engaging future young generations of Georgians to continue and perpetuate voluntary blood donations. We look forward to this partnership and the potential future involvement of Rotary International and their action group Global Network for Blood Donation in raising awareness about the great needs for voluntary blood donors, not only in Georgia but also around the world.



VEIN-TO-VEIN UKRAINE

ukraine

Global Healing and the American International Health Alliance have completed assessments of the facilities in Ukraine that will be included in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention technical assistance project to improve blood safety in Ukraine. Over the past several months, teams of volunteer medical specialists have visited blood donor centers and hospital transfusion departments in various cities: Bila Tserkva, Luhans’k, L’viv, Kiev, Odesa, Rivne and Zhytomyr. In October, we will work with leaders from across the country to create a plan that will allow “vein-to-vein” improvements in the availability, safety, and quality of blood products and transfusions. Over the next four years, we will enact these plans with local stakeholders to make improvements to the blood service.

According to the World Health Organization, Ukraine has one of the most severe HIV/AIDS epidemics in Europe. Because approximately 5-10% of HIV transmission can occur through unsafe blood transfusions, an effective intervention must address the safety of the blood supply. Moreover, blood is a vital resource for physicians across medical specialties and offers the opportunity to improve clinical outcomes for mothers, children, the elderly and the population at-large. Thus, by improving the safety and availability of blood, we will be able to improve the lives of many patients simultaneously.



HOW YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE

As always, Global Healing appreciates all the support from our donors and our sponsors. The sustainable healthcare programs we have implemented worldwide would not have garnered such great success and development without the generosity from our partnering organizations. As we continue to build upon our accomplishments and provide accessible healthcare to other underdeveloped nations, we greatly appreciate donations in any form.

Please join Global Healing in our mission to provide modern medicine for the developing world. If you would like to find out how you can help Global Healing, by volunteering, making a cash contribution, or otherwise, visit our website: Donate online today!

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Global Healing is a U.S. & UK registered nonprofit organization.
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