Global
Apr 23, 2024
A young boy who has received a vaccine. Photo: #HumanlyPossible Campaign.
Sometimes we overlook the everyday tools that keep us safe and healthy. For many of us, it’s easy to overlook the impact of vaccination, which has saved and improved
Blog
Mar 27, 2024
At a human milk bank in Vietnam, health workers divide donated milk into bottles for newborns. Photo: PATH.
This article was originally posted on PATH.org, the link can be found here.
When a mother is unable to breastfeed, donor milk can
Blog
Mar 06, 2024
Nurse supervisor Joseph Muhisi checks on a suspected cholera patient in Kanyaruchinya, DRC, at a displacement camp for families fleeing the volcanic eruption of the Mount Nyiragongo in 2021. The camp implemented oral cholera vaccine to stem the tide
Blog
Feb 21, 2024
A displacement camp in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Displacement can impact access to routine immunization for children and their families. Credit: PATH/Ley Uwera.
Vaccines are one of the most successful public health interventions to
Blog
Feb 14, 2024
European scientists said 2023 was the hottest year ever recorded, and 2024 is predicted to surpass it. The global temperature exceeded 2°C above pre-industrial levels on November 17th last year. These events of temperature rise warn us of the dire
Blog
Jan 24, 2024
Diarrhea is the second leading killer disease of children less than five years old around the world. Diarrheal disease is caused by infection with various bacterial, viral, and parasitic organisms. There are six pathogens that are responsible for
Blog
Jan 10, 2024
The new year is a great opportunity to prepare for innovative projects, initiatives, and efforts to Defeat Diarrheal Disease, but also a time to reflect on what we have learned. Despite strong progress, we know we have more work to do that requires
Blog
Nov 16, 2023
A woman standing in front of a well constructed toilet in Northwest Nigeria. Photo: UN-Water/Apochi Owoicho.
Sanitation is a human right and yet 3.5 billion people still have no safe toilets and 419 million still have to defecate in the open.
Blog
Nov 06, 2023
What is the longest you’ve had to wait to use a toilet? It’s a scenario that can quickly turn from distressing to desperate. Yet for billions of people around the world, it is a daily reality to live without a toilet at all. And it’s dangerous to
Blog
Oct 18, 2023
Communities throughout the world have felt the effects of climate change. The impact of flooding, heat waves, drought, and other extreme weather events on humans – and on human health – has been a topic of discussion within the scientific community
Blog
Aug 01, 2023
A woman in a health clinic in Kenya breastfeeds while waiting for immunization. Breastfeeding can be done anywhere. Photo: PATH/Anthony Karumba.
Breastfeeding offers children vital health and nutritional benefits with positive lifelong impacts.
Blog
Jul 01, 2023
Handwashing with soap is easy, inexpensive, and it saves lives. Seems like common sense, but how does handwashing with soap actually work? Why can’t you just use water? What even is soap?
To answer these questions, we’ll need to go back to school
Blog
Mar 10, 2023
Annet Onyamasi administers an oral rotavirus vaccine to a child at the Khwisero Health Clinic in Kenya. Photo: PATH.
The world has quickly become accustomed to vaccines on demand, as scientists and pharmaceutical companies pursue and release
Blog
Jan 18, 2023
Researchers are working to advance a vaccine against Shigella. Here, one of the candidates is being prepped for use in a clinical study. Photo: PATH.
This post originally appeared on the PATH website.
Shigella remains an underappreciated child
Blog
Dec 13, 2022
“No diarrhea; more smiles.” “The answers are in the poop.” This and more poo-etic wisdom from our the VASE Conference attendees graced the open spaces between the poster presentations.
PATH recently hosted its third international Vaccines Against
Blog
Nov 23, 2022
A health worker in Nepal prepares a typhoid vaccine. Photo: PATH.
When there is danger downstream, it helps to have a strategy—and the right equipment—before you find yourself in rough waters. In the shifting currents of global health, prevention
Blog
Nov 16, 2022
Meet Poo Guru! She is flush with facts about toilets, sanitation, and their vital role in global health. This World Toilet Day, as we celebrate all kinds of loos and latrines, the Poo Guru is our guide. She aims to raise awareness and investment in
Blog
Nov 10, 2022
The Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea outlines an integrated approach to simultaneously tackle these leading infectious killers of children.
Scores are steadily rising in Mali, and children are the clear
Blog
Nov 03, 2022
An example of the kind of charts available through the Immunization Agenda 2030 scorecard, this image conveys how global trends fall short of zero-dose children coverage targets.
The Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) scorecard is a new publicly
Blog
Oct 14, 2022
A simple handwashing station sits outside Kilingili Health Centre in Ikolomani sub-county of Kakamega, Kenya. Photo: PATH/Tony Karumba.
The past two years shone a spotlight on the crucial role of handwashing in safeguarding public health. New
Blog
Aug 16, 2022
Squeamish about eating mealworms whole? Try mealworm powder! Photo: Jeff Miller, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Anyone who works in global health or nutrition knows that global food security is tenuous today, pressured by a growing population
Blog
Jun 08, 2022
A mother spoon-feeds her child oral rehydration solution in the oral rehydration therapy corner of Malava County Hospital in Kakamega, Kenya. Photo: PATH/Tony Karumba.
Water. Sugar. Salt. These are the ingredients of oral rehydration solution
Blog
Mar 04, 2022
Source: Burcu Köleli for UN Women (2022).
You’ve probably heard this before: women and girls are more impacted by climate change than men and boys. But what does this really mean?
On March 8, 2022, we celebrate International Women’s Day
Blog
Feb 22, 2022
While the world continues to battle COVID-19, it’s encouraging to see that research on other public health priorities is still making strides. Although the development of new interventions for diarrheal diseases has slowed during the pandemic, there
Blog
Feb 17, 2022
Image from Waschulin V, and Specht, L. Cellular Agriculture: An Extension of Common Production Methods for Food. Washington D.C.: The Good Food Institute; 2018. Available at https://www.gfi.org/images/uploads/2018/03/Cellular-Agriculture-for-Animal-
Blog
Feb 07, 2022
Photo: Mothers wait outside Chiradzulu District Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi. The RoVI study compared immune responses to rotavirus vaccines across children in Malawi, India, and the United Kingdom. PATH/Miren Iturriza-Gomara
Rotavirus is the
Blog
Feb 02, 2022
Last month, in collaboration with the Child Health Task Force, the ORS/Zinc Co-pack Alliance (ORSZCA) and its co-chairs, Dr Moseda Chowdhury (BRAC, Bangladesh) and Samy Ahmar (Save the Children, UK) made its official debut. More than 30 countries
Blog
Dec 16, 2021
The gut microbiome is an area of great interest for researchers and clinicians alike. While we know that the bacteria, viruses, and parasites that live in our gut have a huge impact on our health, we are still learning exactly which ones are most
Blog
Nov 19, 2021
The DefeatDD team was recently invited to join the Faecal Sludge Management Alliance (FSMA) for a discussion on their podcast, FSMA Presents, with award-winning science journalist and author Chelsea Wald. In Pipe Dreams: The Urgent Global Quest to
Blog
Nov 17, 2021
Over 800,000 children under 5 die from pneumonia each year—that’s one child every 39 seconds. Pneumonia continues to kill more children worldwide than any other infectious disease. Diarrheal diseases—the second leading infectious cause of death of
Blog
Nov 10, 2021
Note from DefeatDD: Our current sanitation systems are insufficient for the challenges of the future. The supposed “gold standard” of sewered sanitation protects against disease but wastes water and energy and requires expensive maintenance. Too few
Blog
Oct 27, 2021
Here in Ghana, we introduced rotavirus vaccine into our national immunization program in April 2012 and our rotavirus vaccine coverage rates are consistently high. Despite this, many of our children still suffer from rotavirus diarrhea, with an
Blog
Oct 13, 2021
This blog was originally published on the Global Handwashing Partnership Community Forum.
The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown into stark relief longstanding inequities. Families without access to primary healthcare, vaccines, nutrition, or safe
Blog
Oct 12, 2021
Diarrheal disease can be caused by many different pathogens - including rotavirus, adenovirus, Shigella, enterotoxigenic E. coli, Cryptosporidium, and others - and many models for estimating the burden of diarrheal diseases across populations rely
Published research
Oct 06, 2021
E. coli, Shigella, Cryptosporidium, Salmonella.
Among infected children, these gut pathogens can cause serious illness, long-term consequences such as stunted growth and weakened immunity, and, too often, death. That’s why scientists and advocates
Blog
Sep 30, 2021
The link between malnutrition and diarrheal disease is well-established, but understanding the precise mechanisms of the many connections remains a complex research frontier. Here’s one thing we do know: vitamin A is a key player in diarrhea
Blog
Sep 21, 2021
Photo: A latrine in Ecuador floods after heavy rains, causing sewage to seep into groundwater. Credit: Karen Levy
The world has made substantial progress in combatting diarrhea over the last decade. Climate change is a direct threat to that
Blog
Aug 30, 2021
As the lead of UNICEF’s Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) programs in Vanuatu, an island nation in the Pacific, Emily Rand feels she has a front row seat to climate change’s impacts on disease. Vanuatu is currently experiencing a dengue fever
Blog
Aug 18, 2021
Rotavirus vaccines are the best way to prevent illness caused by rotavirus, the most common cause of severe and fatal diarrhea in children under 5 years of age. Since 2006, over 110 countries have introduced rotavirus vaccines in their national
Blog
Aug 09, 2021
As everyone knows, the world has changed considerably in the last 18 months. In March 2020, we were busy getting ready for our third biennial Vaccines Against Shigella and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) Conference—known as the VASE
Blog
Aug 03, 2021
Photo: Salim Asim Mapesa prepares food while his wife Hadija Akongo breastfeeds Ruth, their 6-month-old infant in Kakamega, Western Kenya. Engaging male partners increases support for optimal infant feeding. PATH/Evelyn Hockstein
Exclusive
Blog
Jul 29, 2021
There’s a reason why oral rehydration solution (ORS) has been called one of the greatest scientific achievements in the twentieth century: this simple mixture of sugar, water, and salt has saved millions of lives.
In children, the dangerous
Blog
Jul 19, 2021
On Friday, July 16, 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) released its first updated rotavirus vaccine position paper since 2013. WHO’s position papers summarize all currently known research relevant to a vaccination against a certain pathogen
Blog
Jun 29, 2021
As the world brings their attention to advancing women’s rights with the Generation Equality Forum this week in Paris, let’s remember how vital a tool good nutrition is in achieving women's and girls’ empowerment.
Women are 50% more likely to
Blog
Jun 25, 2021
Women’s health and well-being are inextricably linked to children’s health and well-being. When women thrive, children are better able to thrive, too. But while the world has made some progress toward gender equality in the past few decades, we are
Blog
Jun 17, 2021
Our graphic on gut damage illuminates a few of the ways enteric infections exacerbate malnutrition. Researchers like Dr. Richard Guerrant are continuing to uncover new insights about how these pathogens cause long-term damage.
Diarrheal disease
Blog
Jun 02, 2021
Healthcare facilities employ various approaches to limiting the introduction of external pathogens to wards. Photo: Adam Drolet/PATH.
What would run through your mind if you showed up to a healthcare facility to receive medical care and learned
Blog
May 18, 2021
Our DefeatDD team is heartbroken by the passing of our friend, colleague, and child health champion, Alfred Ochola.
If you have followed us for a while, chances are you’ve met him virtually as he guided you through his lifesaving work in Kenya;
Blog
Apr 22, 2021
Children are change agents – and there are few global issues today that impact young people than climate change. Around the world, youth are demonstrating a deep personal understanding of the implications of our evolving earth and are claiming a
Blog
Mar 16, 2021
COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of studying virus diversity and the emergence of virus variants to ensure that vaccines remain effective. But in the field of virology, the potential for virus diversity to impact the effectiveness of vaccines
Blog
Feb 23, 2021
Photo: These are a handful of the cuties whose wisdom is featured in this blog. Clockwise, starting from top left: Dylan, 3, and Joaquin, 5; Zachary, 5; Lily, 7, and Rosie, 4; Camden, 6; TJ, 4; Cody, 8; Jude, 5.
As child health advocates, we
Blog
Feb 01, 2021
Photo: A mother in Vietnam helps her children wash their hands while wearing face masks. The COVID-19 pandemic has made clear the links between health and handwashing.
Health and water are inextricably linked. Yet, policies and programs related
Blog
Jan 21, 2021
Photo: Dr. Alaullah Shiekh, a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. James Fleckenstein’s lab at Washington University in St. Louis, is hard at work analyzing images of ETEC’s effects on the human gut.
Short-lived diarrheal infections can sometimes
Blog
Jan 11, 2021
Although Cryptosporidium is now identified as one of the leading causes of diarrheal disease among young children, this is a fairly recent development. Cryptosporidium (or Crypto) was first recognized as a human pathogen in the 1970s, but it wasn’t
Blog
Dec 22, 2020
An infant in Dibrugarh, Assam, India receives ROTAVAC, a lower-cost rotavirus vaccine made in India. In 2020, new rotavirus vaccines and technologies helped expand access despite challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo: IVAC/Monica Tiwari
Blog
Dec 09, 2020
For some families, a child’s diarrheal infection is a rare and mild inconvenience. It means a runny diaper. A fussy toddler. A trip to the local drug store to grab oral rehydration solution (ORS) and zinc—and then back to normal within a few days.
Blog
Nov 23, 2020
The number of drug-resistant infections is growing worldwide. By increasing access to recommended tools to prevent and treat diarrhea—vaccines, oral rehydration solution (ORS) + zinc, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)—we can help slow the
Blog
Nov 16, 2020
As COVID-19 continues to surge over the globe, it forces us to reckon with the fact that true global health equity – universal access to primary healthcare – is an unfinished task that we pay for at our collective expense.
Universal access to
Blog
Nov 12, 2020
Although we have seen incredible progress with notable declines in childhood mortality over the last 20 years, two of the leading killers - pneumonia and diarrhea - continue to claim the lives of over 1 million young children each year. Pneumonia
Blog
Oct 28, 2020
A mother in Katete District, Zambia, holds Kit Yamoyo - the brand name of an ORS+zinc co-pack commercialized in Zambia. Photo: ColaLife
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends co-packaged oral rehydration salts (ORS) and zinc—a simple and
Blog
Oct 21, 2020
A new laboratory diagnostic tool can help identify environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) in children using biomarkers related to micronutrients, growth, inflammation, and oral vaccine immunogenicity. Photo: PATH
We all know that children
Blog
Oct 13, 2020
NOTE: This blog was originally posted on the Global Handwashing Partnership website.
When the COVID-19 pandemic first began and little was known about the novel coronavirus, one of the World Health Organization (WHO)’s first recommendations was
Blog
Oct 01, 2020
When evaluating the cost of diarrheal disease, one should include not only direct treatment expenses, but also direct non-medical costs such as travel expenses for a visit to a health care facility and indirect costs such as lost income and
Graphics
Sep 29, 2020
Photo: A health worker sits at a desk in a pediatric hospital room in Zambia. When children fall ill with diarrheal disease, the hospital bills can add up—and the indirect costs, too. PATH/David Jacobs
Diarrheal disease costs too many lives, too
Blog
Sep 29, 2020
We applaud you with clean hands! Thank you for all that you do.
Video
Sep 22, 2020
In wealthy countries, toilet paper hoarding became a reactionary phenomenon in the early months of the pandemic: a case study in stubborn inequity as two billion people around the world don’t have a toilet.
Climate change. Inequity. COVID-19 and
Blog
Sep 10, 2020
Levels and Trends in Child Mortality: Report 2020 from UNICEF and partners in the UN Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME) shows the full scope of child mortality rates across the world – from newborns to adolescents, including
Reports
Sep 10, 2020
Interrupted access to pneumonia and diarrhea medicines could account for almost half of the additional deaths during COVID-19, according to recent estimates.
Child health is at one of the most critical inflection points in recent history. Newly
Blog
Sep 03, 2020
This blog originally appeared on the Take on Typhoid website.
The power of data is increasingly recognized for its ability to help solve complex public health challenges and inform public health decision-making. One of the biggest and enduring
Blog
Sep 01, 2020
At the start of 2020, more children lived to see their first birthday than at any time in history. Child mortality had fallen by 50% since 2000.
But the progress did not reach every woman, nor every child. The gains have proven fragile and the
Reports
Aug 14, 2020
This post originally appeared on Vaccines Work.
Diarrheal disease is the second leading infectious killer of children under five worldwide. Lessons learned from tackling this deadly disease could also help us recover from COVID-19 stronger than
Blog
Aug 01, 2020
From the UNICEF website:
The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) produces internationally comparable estimates of progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and is responsible for monitoring the Sustainable Development Goal (
Reports
Jul 30, 2020
Breast milk is probably the closest thing we have to a magic potion. It not only contains the perfect blend of nutrients for babies in the first 6 months of life, but it can also kill pathogens, boost a baby’s immunity, and regulate a baby’s sleep-
Blog
Jul 27, 2020
Over 500,000 children die due to diarrheal diseases each year despite the fact that diarrhea is a preventable and treatable disease.
One way to prevent diarrheal deaths is through treatment with oral rehydration solution (ORS), a simple therapy
Blog
Jul 20, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on a simple, yet often neglected solution: proper hand hygiene. Hand hygiene, through handwashing with soap or the use of alcohol-based handrub, is a cost-effective way to not only combat COVID-19, but also
Blog
Jul 10, 2020
Three billion people – 40% of the world’s population – do not have a place in their homes to wash their hands with water and soap. Three quarters of those who lack access to water and soap live in the world’s poorest countries and are among the most
Reports
Jul 10, 2020
Poor access to water, sanitation, and hygiene is the root cause of many persistent global health challenges. Even as we respond to the global COVID-19 emergency, we can use this opportunity to thoughtfully lay a foundation for long-term success
Blog
Jun 27, 2020
In this series, the Center for Global Development provides an overview of modeling data to help policymakers understand the many indirect impacts of the COVID-19 response, both on other disease areas and on health systems.
The key takeaway: "The
Published research
Jun 16, 2020
COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020. To date, COVID-19 has infected nearly 8 million people and killed more than 430,000 worldwide. In the
Blog
Jun 10, 2020
A boy in a clinic in Kenya sips oral rehydration solution to recover from dehydrating diarrhea. Photo: PATH/Tony Karumba.
Simon Berry, ColaLife and Robert Choy, PATH submitted this blog on behalf of the Diarrhea Innovations Group. This post
Blog
Jun 03, 2020
Photo: PATH/Doune Porter.
This post also appears on the Take On Typhoid website.
It is hard to escape news about vaccines right now. Locally and globally, we are inundated with updates about vaccines against COVID-19 and how a return to life
Blog
May 28, 2020
Janie Hayes soldiers forward on a long stretch of road near the Colorado-Wyoming border in the 2016 Trans America Bike Race. Photo credit: Anthony Dryer.
“I’m hungry.”
It’s a phrase you probably say often – I know I do. As an endurance
Blog
May 06, 2020
In The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, the Virtual Collaborative Network of Human Milk Banks and Associations called on global policy leaders and funding agencies to prioritize four high-impact areas:
(1) ensure neonatal nutrition is an
Special Features
May 05, 2020
Diarrhea treatment can be expensive for both families and governments. While many studies have reported on the cost of illness for diarrhea (encompassing both direct medical costs and indirect costs, such as travel and lost income), empirical data
Published research
May 01, 2020
There is strong evidence linking safe WASH to health and nutrition, though nutrition is only one of many development outcomes from investment in WASH services. USAID has identified four recommendations for WASH programming that are likely to have
Factsheets
Apr 23, 2020
A happy family awaits their child’s receipt of rotavirus vaccine at Rwanda’s launch in 2012.
In public health, we often say that prevention is better than cure. As the whole world pines for the swift arrival of an effective vaccine against
Blog
Apr 21, 2020
In 2019, the World Health Organization added co-packaged ORS and zinc to its Essential List of Medicines. This will improve availability, uptake, and affordability of these lifesaving diarrhea treatments.
UPDATE: The DefeatDD is heartened that
Blog
Apr 16, 2020
In 1985, a man named Jim Grant, the relatively new director of UNICEF, traveled to the Dominican Republic to meet with President Salvador Jorge Blanco. Blanco was apparently taken by Grant’s charisma and hosted a state dinner in which he asked Grant
Blog
Apr 02, 2020
Preliminary findings from a new study by Food for the Hungry provide insight into the connection between maternal depression and the impact on the uptake of commonly promoted household-level health and nutrition behaviors in children. Photo: Jeff
Blog
Mar 26, 2020
As the world tries to adapt to the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, one reaction of US citizens has been – at first glance – bizarre. Why are people frantic about stocking up on toilet paper? I confess I have not been immune to this frenzy and as
Blog
Mar 20, 2020
Sunday is World Water Day, a day that we’ve celebrated at DefeatDD annually for over ten years. It’s always been one of our favorite ways to focus attention to our world’s growing need for clean water – and the actions we must take to attain it
Blog
Feb 25, 2020
Early Childhood Development Coordinater, Gino Regina (left), and Matthew Frey (center) spend time with community members in Nampula, Mozambique.
When I started my career in child-focused health and development in Nepal more than 25 years ago,
Blog
Feb 20, 2020
“As climate and commercial threats intensify, WHO-UNICEF-Lancet Commission presses for radical rethink on child health,” opens the press release for the launch of the new report, A Future for the World’s Children?
The question mark is an unsettling
Blog
Feb 11, 2020
This June, leaders from around the world will gather at Gavi’s 3rd donor pledging conference. One of the big questions they will be asked:
Will you approve $7.4 billion in financing for another five years of vaccines delivered to children
Blog
Jan 28, 2020
Note: This blog originally appeared on the Take on Typhoid website.
Today marks the first day of the 15th Asian Conference on Diarrhoeal Disease and Nutrition (ASCODD) taking place in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Ahead of the conference, I sat with Dr.
Blog
Jan 16, 2020
Water-related health issues like diarrhea and typhoid sit at the intersection of two interventions: vaccination and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH).
Vaccines and WASH are both essential components of primary health care necessary for
Blog
Jan 16, 2020
Vaccines and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) are both necessary to provide communities with comprehensive protection from disease. When both are present, they work even better. Learn more.
Access different formats (.gif, .mp4) of the graphic
Graphics
Jan 09, 2020
Diarrhea is rarely just diarrhea. While the acute infection can be relatively short-term, lingering long-term consequences like stunting, malnutrition, and financial implications often follow. This is especially true for bacterial diarrhea
Blog
Dec 23, 2019
A follow-on analysis of the Global Enteric Multicenter Study (GEMS), published in The Lancet Global Health, finds that the risk of death is increased following moderate-to-severe diarrhea and, to a lesser extent, less-severe diarrhea. Considering
Published research
Dec 20, 2019
A worker at Serum Institute of India inspects vaccine vials at the company’s vaccine manufacturing division where PNEUMOSIL® and other conjugate vaccines are made. Photo: PATH/Satvir Malhotra.
Editor's note: The World Health Organization and
Blog
Dec 18, 2019
Photo source: BCN Confidential.
If I didn’t know better, I’d think it was an elaborate prank played by my colleagues. What are the chances that my work on diarrheal disease would follow me on vacation in the Christmas markets of beautiful
Blog
Dec 11, 2019
I’m delighted to share that last week we announced the dates and location for the third international Vaccines Against Shigella and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) Conference (otherwise known as the VASE Conference) – September 29 to October
Blog
Dec 04, 2019
In 2017, a child born in the Central African Republic (CAR) had nearly a 1 in 100 chance of dying from diarrhea before their fifth birthday, the highest risk in the world. This risk was over 7000 times greater than the country with the lowest
Blog
Dec 04, 2019
This toolkit from the WASH in Health Care Facilities initiative, led by the World Health Organization and UNICEF, walks through the steps to develop an advocacy strategy for improving water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in health care facilities.
Toolkits
Nov 21, 2019
It may not be as significant as the moon landing, but we are feeling a bit like Neil Armstrong during those first steps. This week, exciting results from a clinical trial of an oral vaccine candidate designed to protect against one of the most
Blog
Nov 18, 2019
Poop is disgusting. That’s a universal fact that we can all appreciate. But if you have ever rolled your eyes at the insistent refrain from health experts to wash your hands, realize their persistence is fueled by knowledge that can’t be un-known.
Blog
Nov 16, 2019
We’re calling on sanitation and UHC advocates to join forces at the global, national, and local level. Our message is that health for all is impossible without sanitation for all. We need a universal health revo-LOO-tion.
Special Features
Nov 13, 2019
Pneumonia and diarrhea are responsible for nearly one in every four deaths among children under 5, accounting for more than 1.2 million young lives lost in 2017 alone. The 2019 Pneumonia & Diarrhea Progress Report Card by the International
Reports
Nov 13, 2019
Children in poor regions will be most affected by climate change-induced diarrheal diseases, via mechanisms such as flooding and the subsequent waterborne illnesses it causes; drought, which reduces availability of nutritious food and can affect
Published research
Nov 06, 2019
Vaccines are the best way to prevent rotavirus, the leading cause of moderate-to-severe diarrhea in children under five years of age worldwide. The rotavirus vaccine landscape is changing, but despite this change, a new analysis confirms that
Blog
Oct 30, 2019
This paper in The Lancet takes a deep dive to quantify trends and effects of risk factors, interventions, and broader socio-demographic development on diarrhea mortality changes in 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2017.
Read the full
Published research
Oct 16, 2019
A father stands with his recently vaccinated child in West Bengal, India. In settings where sanitation and medical care can be difficult to access, vaccination is the best form of protection against illnesses like diarrhea. Photo: PATH/Julie
Blog
Oct 14, 2019
A nurse in Zambia washes her hands before she demonstrates how to prepare oral rehydration solution. Photo: PATH/Gareth Bentley.
See this post on the Global Handwashing Day website.
Take a moment to picture the last time you went to the doctor’s
Blog
Sep 19, 2019
Last week, PATH sponsored a webinar: Increasing access to lifesaving commodities one list at a time: approaches to advocating for the evolution of Essential Medicines Lists.
WHO’s addition of co-packaged ORS and zinc to the global list of
Blog
Aug 01, 2019
Kelli breastfeeds her son, Olivier. Photo: Kelli Cappelier.
The village traditional midwife and my work counterpart, Sané, and I walked to the hut where a mother was holding her malnourished child. The child is crying without tears, and the skin
Blog
Jul 19, 2019
Photo: PATH/Tony Karumba.
After decades of mediocre uptake of ORS and zinc, the Diarrhea Innovations Group (DIG) – an international network of child health stakeholders co-chaired by and housed within PATH – petitioned the World Health Organization
Blog
Jul 17, 2019
Just the facts: these high-level talking points on diarrheal disease tell you what you need to know about the global crisis and the solutions. Each bullet includes a link to more information. View and share the message map or the plain text below
Message maps
Jun 27, 2019
Photo: PATH.
Editor's note: Noni Mungai is DefeatDD's summer intern (ICYMI, we introduced her on Facebook last week), and this is her first blog with us! Congratulations, Noni!
I believe that we cannot address WASH (water, sanitation, and
Blog
Jun 25, 2019
A new study in The Lancet Global Health, published alongside this commentary, summarizes a 12-month case-control study conducted as a follow-on to the Global Enteric Multicenter Study (GEMS). Unlike the original GEMS study, which included patients
Published research
Jun 19, 2019
This post was originally published on the Take on Typhoid blog.
Every year—from South Sudan to Uganda, Myanmar to Bangladesh, Syria to Jordan—millions of people endure long, dangerous and difficult journeys to find safety and refuge. Safety from
Blog
Jun 12, 2019
Models can help us thread the needle of health trends among diverse data collection methods, or, in some cases, incomplete data. Photo: PATH/Doune Porter.
Authored by: Chris Troeger, Julia Gall, Sean McKee, and Sofia Redford // IHME
In our
Blog
Jun 01, 2019
The World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund (WHO/UNICEF) Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (JMP) produces internationally comparable estimates of progress on drinking water, sanitation and
Reports
May 30, 2019
Photo: PATH/Patrick McKern.
May 08, 2019
Data sources for the Global Burden of Diarrhea
Blog
May 22, 2019
Walking up to the front gates of Kilembe Mines Hospital in Western Uganda, one of the first things that catches your attention are the lush, mountainous terrain surrounding the health facility. Patients and family members line the airy, shaded
Blog
May 16, 2019
Can non-living biological replicas help protect children from severe diarrheal disease? Sounds eerie, but it’s a key question for Dr. Khuzwayo Jere, a Malawi-based Medical Virologist and Wellcome Trust Research Fellow, whose work on creating
Blog
May 08, 2019
Photo: PATH/Gabe Bienczycki.
Estimates are only as strong as the evidence on which they are built. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, covered on our previous DefeatDD blog post, produces thousands of estimates of morbidity and mortality
Blog
May 03, 2019
In Zambia, a nurse washes her hands before showing a mother how to prepare oral rehydration solution. Photo: PATH/Gareth Bentley.
While the Global Handwashing Partnership is best known for Global Handwashing Day, there are so many occasions to
Blog
Apr 23, 2019
Mothers go above and beyond to care for their children. When a child falls ill with diarrhea, mothers are usually the first line of treatment—hopefully aided by oral rehydration solution, zinc, and the ability to access healthcare facilities if
Blog
Apr 18, 2019
Photo: WFP.
Zinc is an essential nutrient for our immune system, both for keeping infections out and for fighting infections once they invade. At least 17% of the world’s population is at risk of inadequate zinc intake, making zinc deficiency
Blog
Apr 16, 2019
A mother in Bangladesh holds her infant child, who is receiving an oral dose of rotavirus vaccine. Vaccines against Shigella would help prevent even more cases of severe diarrhea in infants and young children, saving more lives and avoiding longer-
Blog
Apr 11, 2019
A full-circle moment in Lusaka, Zambia: all the charts and figures and advocacy campaigns for rotavirus vaccines had been on behalf of children like Vusi. Photo: PATH/Gareth Bentley.
When I hear people in the United States express skepticism
Blog
Apr 09, 2019
At four-to-five years old, a child is developing creativity, independence, and self-control, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). They may be able to tell simple stories and count more than 10 objects.
But many
Blog
Apr 01, 2019
Household Costs of Diarrhea by Etiology in 7 Countries, The Global Enterics Mulitcenter Study (GEMS)
Childhood diarrhea can be caused by many different pathogens, and while there are many overlapping characteristics, infections can vary in severity, duration, clinical manifestations, and long-term consequences according to the causal pathogen.
Published research
Apr 01, 2019
This report from the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (JMP) presents the first baseline data for WASH in healthcare facilities.
Read the full report and the companion guidance document
Reports
Mar 22, 2019
Water Under Fire aims to generate popular public support to improve children’s access to water in crises and to galvanize action for UNICEF’s Change Agenda, which calls on governments, partners, and parties to conflict to:
Stop attacks on water and
Reports
Mar 20, 2019
Where there is conflict or unrest, children and families bear the brunt of the burden and fallout from infectious disease outbreaks like cholera and typhoid.
Conflicts simply amplify the ongoing diarrheal disease crisis that affects children every
Blog
Mar 06, 2019
Feb 05, 2019
Policy spotlight: improved access to ORS and zinc
We'
Blog
Feb 27, 2019
What’s better than one rotavirus vaccine? Four rotavirus vaccines.
Having a robust and diverse global market of options for vaccines is beneficial in several ways – it lowers prices, stabilizes supply, gives countries more choices, and, ultimately
Blog
Feb 19, 2019
Everyone deserves to live a long life in full health. That may not seem like such a radical thing to say, but in many ways, it is helping to spark a global health revolution.
Inspired and fueled by this idea, the Global Burden of Disease study, or
Blog
Feb 05, 2019
This message map provides key talking points about oral rehydration solution (ORS) and zinc, the treatment for diarrhea recommended by the World Health Organization.
Read the full message map, available in English and French.
Message maps
Feb 05, 2019
Our motto at DefeatDD is that every child gets diarrhea, but no child should die from it. This aspiration is not a pipe dream. We have prevention and treatment tools and the evidence that proves they can save and improve lives and livelihoods – but
Blog
Feb 01, 2019
In July 2019, the World Health Organization set the global norm to deploy a simple, powerful game-changer: the ORS + zinc co-pack.
Now, we need to encourage more countries to follow suit with their own essential medicine lists. Read on
Special Features
Jan 09, 2019
An amino acid–based oral rehydration solution is among the potential solutions to heal gut damage. Photo: PATH/Amy Gottlieb.
Adapted from an article that originally appeared on PATH.org.
The global diarrheal disease burden comes with
Blog
Dec 28, 2018
Globally, pneumonia and diarrhea together led to nearly one of every four deaths that occurred in children under five years of age in 2016. The 2018 Pneumonia & Diarrhea Progress Report by the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) at the
Reports
Dec 20, 2018
Colleagues at our Take the Plunge event demonstrate WASH and vaccine integration… we think.
Personally and professionally, December is my favorite time of year to be reflective, and this year that feels especially the case. I’m not sure if that’
Blog
Nov 29, 2018
The 2018 Global Nutrition Report shares insights into the current state of global nutrition and echoes many messages that are critical to addressing diarrheal disease, such as more equitable access to solutions on a subnational level and the need
Reports
Nov 28, 2018
Medical staff prepping for surgery with limited resources in Kilembe, Uganda. Photo: PATH/Tom de Blasis.
Mar 21, 2018
Blog
Nov 19, 2018
In the game of cricket and in most sports, the all-star players are the ones who are best at teamwork. I was the captain of the cricket team at my high school, and I played cricket all the way through medical school. I was the wicket keeper who
Blog
Nov 15, 2018
A summary of the work led by the Diarrhea Innovations Group, housed at PATH, to submit an application to the World Health Organization's Model List of Essential Medicines for Children for the addition of co-packaged oral rehydration solution (ORS)
Factsheets
Oct 10, 2018
Blog originally posted on Crowd 360.
If you’re reading this post, chances are you have grown up with the familiar injunction to wash our hands, especially before eating. But here’s something you may not know: clean hands are a recipe for health
Blog
Sep 12, 2018
Diarrhea: The good, the bad, and what you can do to help address this global crisis. Read the full message map, available in English and French.
Message maps
Sep 10, 2018
Between 2005-2015, child deaths from diarrhea plummeted by 30%. But we now know that the long-term consequences of multiple diarrhea episodes are severe. It isn’t fair that children be saved, just to lose out on a happy, healthy life.
We’ll
Video
Sep 10, 2018
In 2008 I started a job at PATH to promote a childhood vaccine against a nasty infection called “rotavirus.” I had never heard of rotavirus but immediately learned that it’s a major killer – responsible for more child deaths around the world than
Blog
Sep 07, 2018
Vaccines against rotavirus, the leading cause of severe and fatal diarrhea in young children worldwide, are a stunning global public health success story. Their development, evaluation, and introduction and scale-up in many low-income countries
Blog
Aug 22, 2018
Diarrhea. It is often the stuff of comedy, a dreaded first date woe, or an uncomfortable inconvenience after indulging in too much guac.
Beyond the silly and the squeamish, though, there’s a more important story to be told: diarrheal disease is a
Blog
Aug 01, 2018
Help us break the poo taboo. Each of these myths comes with a corresponding fact and we suggest posting them together.
Download the graphics here.
For background on the myth versus facts, read our blog: Diarrhea Myths, Debunked.
Graphics
Jul 25, 2018
When a child has diarrhea, parents and other caregivers find themselves asking a lot of questions. Should I take care of my child
Feb 01, 2019
Blog
Jul 12, 2018
“Cryptosporidium is a leading cause of severe diarrheal disease in children under the age of five.”
Sep 16, 2016
DefeatDD
Blog
Jun 29, 2018
Rotavirus is the leading cause of severe and fatal childhood diarrhea around the world. ROTAVAC®, a new low-cost rotavirus vaccine, was developed through an innovative and multisectoral global partnership.
Video
Jun 20, 2018
From left to right: Laura Kallen, PATH; Roma Chilengi, CIDRZ; Hope Randall, PATH. See more photo booth images here.
Is advocacy my job?
That question was asked by presenter Dr. Roma Chilengi from the Centre for Infectious Disease Research,
Blog
Jun 06, 2018
The inaugural 2016 VASE Conference saw the debut of the vaccine superhero; a new DefeatDD photo booth will make an appearance next week.
Jun 01
Blog
May 30, 2018
If you have blood type A, you may be more at risk of diarrhea from enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC). This finding was just published in a human challenge model study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation—and it has potentially widespread
Blog
May 25, 2018
Launched at the 71st World Health Assembly, the Nurturing Care Framework provides an evidence-based roadmap for action and outlines how early childhood development (ECD) policies and services can support parents, families, other caregivers and
Reports
May 23, 2018
Do you know who enjoys a good conversation about poop? Preschoolers. As they learn to use the toilet, flush, and wash their hands, talking about poop seems to become a topic for any time of day. It may just be my preschooler, but he’s obsessed. He
Blog
May 16, 2018
This report from UNICEF shares new analysis on breastfeeding practices around the world and sets out key recommendations for governments, the private sector, civil society and communities in low-, middle- and high-income countries to increase
Reports
May 04, 2018
Our event partner, NJI Media, filled the technicolor toilet-shaped void in our hearts that we didn’t know we had.
Silliness and substance: these are our twin priorities at DefeatDD. Breaking the poo taboo requires some creative
Blog
May 02, 2018
We've made tremendous progress against diarrheal disease, a leading killer of children around the world, but far too many children struggle with the long-term health consequences of repeated infections. So what can you do? Join the movement to raise
Video
Apr 17, 2018
“An infant was brought in to me with signs of severe pneumonia. The baby was admitted and fortunately recovered. However, later we discovered that the baby had not had any pneumococcal vaccinations. Pneumococcal vaccines are key to pneumonia
Blog
Apr 12, 2018
Australian virologist Professor Ruth Bishop, left, discovered rotavirus in 1973. Photo source: Murdoch Children's Research Institute website.
Sep 06
Blog
Apr 10, 2018
Here, we debunk the common myths that allow diarrheal disease to continue wreak havoc in poor communities, under the radar.
Photo gallery
Mar 21, 2018
As part of Save the Children's integrated Stop Diarrhoea Initiative in New Delhi, India, mothers learn about important diarrhea prevention and treatment methods to keep children healthy, including the importance of safe, water, sanitation, and
Blog
Mar 01, 2018
The Cryptosporidium parasite is one of the leading causes of diarrheal disease among young children. This report shares highlights from PATH’s 2nd Symposium on Innovative Therapeutics for Cryptosporidium, where experts presented about the state of
Reports
Feb 28, 2018
Handwashing with soap is an amazing tool to defeat diarrheal diseases, reduce newborn and child mortality, and much more. Hygiene advocacy helps to build the right enabling environment to make this life-saving behavior accessible to all. To support
Blog
Feb 12, 2018
Diarrhea is a time thief. Even after recovery, diarrhea's resulting malnutrition can have a last impact. Let's give children the healthy lives they deserve.
Read the study commentary and the blog for more information about the data in this
Graphics
Feb 12, 2018
A new study in The Lancet Global Health, published alongside this commentary that puts the data into broader context, is the first to quantify diarrhea morbidity, illuminating the underappreciated long-term consequences children face even after
Published research
Feb 07, 2018
Dr. Mark Manary, one of the world’s foremost experts in childhood malnutrition, screens children in Chikweo, Malawi. Photo: Carol Lin.
With 155 million stunted children in the world, progress against the complex condition is not coming fast
Blog
Jan 09, 2018
Nearly two years ago, I announced PATH’s first international Vaccines Against Shigella and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) Conference (more commonly known as the VASE Conference), and I blogged about our high hopes and exciting plans for the
Blog
Dec 20, 2017
You know what makes for a really memorable holiday?
Viral diarrhea.
This year, a few days before my family was due to arrive at my parents’ house for Thanksgiving, my mom came down with a very mild case of stomach flu. She recovered within a
Blog
Nov 22, 2017
Did you know? Diarrheal disease is one type of enteric illness—the name for any disease caused by an intestinal infection. All enteric pathogens enter the body through the mouth, usually via contaminated food, water, or hands. Diarrheal diseases
Article
Nov 19, 2017
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Graphics
Nov 19, 2017
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Graphics
Nov 19, 2017
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Graphics
Nov 19, 2017
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Graphics
Nov 19, 2017
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Graphics
Nov 19, 2017
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Graphics
Nov 16, 2017
Our team has made so many good friends this year at Sesame Workshop India, both of the human and Muppet variety. We celebrated World Water Day with Chamki and Googly, and now we’re gearing up for World Toilet Day with Raya, who is just as passionate
Blog
Nov 15, 2017
We need your help to make a stink about diarrheal disease and the solutions to defeat it: Create and share a Toilet Talk! It's like a one-minute TED Talk in a bathroom, and you can share it on social media using the hashtag #DefeatDD. Check our our
Video
Nov 10, 2017
If pneumonia and diarrhea—the two biggest infectious killers of children worldwide—were personified as serial killers, I imagine that they would look very different. Pneumonia might be tall and spindly, with long, wispy fingers. Diarrhea, on the
Blog
Nov 09, 2017
Childhood diarrhea deaths have decreased, but children are still getting sick and infections are a major problem. Children who survive an episode but are faced with repeated infections are more likely to suffer from lifelong cognitive and physical
Reports
Nov 01, 2017
In April 2009 (can’t believe it was eight years ago!), my first task as a newly minted member of PATH’s Poo Crew was to help finalize and launch our team’s first-ever state of the field report on diarrhea: Diarrheal Disease: Solutions to Defeat a
Blog
Oct 22, 2017
Campaign overview
We need your help to make a stink about diarrheal disease and the importance of safe sanitation and other solutions to defeat it.
For most of us, diarrhea comes and goes in the comfort of a bathroom with a reliable toilet.
Toolkits
Oct 12, 2017
This post also appears on the Global Handwashing Day website.
I’m always impressed by the tireless dedication of community health volunteers, but I have to admit that Babli is my favorite I’ve met so far. She was just so… cool. I imagined myself
Blog
Oct 10, 2017
We know how to prevent deaths and long-term suffering from diarrheal disease.
Video
Oct 10, 2017
Handwashing can prevent nearly half of diarrhea cases. Educating mothers on the six steps of handwashing can have enormous impact.
Video
Oct 10, 2017
Did you know that repeated gut infections like diarrhea can lead to malnutrition? We need integrated approaches to defeat diarrheal disease. Learn more by exploring our infographic.
Video
Oct 10, 2017
Diarrhea is dangerous because of dehydration. ORS and zinc are recommended as the cornerstone diarrhea treatment by the World Health Organization.
Video
Oct 09, 2017
Nicole Maier, clinical trial coordinator for PATH’s enteric vaccine portfolio, said she got choked up while watching our latest video for the first time. Why? I sat down with her to hear more about her personal take on the video.
Talk to
Blog
Oct 09, 2017
Rotavirus vaccines are saving lives and reducing hospital costs, showing us what's possible. Now PATH, icddr,b, and other partners have set their sights on vaccines against other leading diarrheal pathogens like ETEC and Shigella.
Video
Oct 04, 2017
As many of you know, here at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we are passionate about child health. We have been encouraged by progress that has been achieved in recent decades: since 1990, the percentage of children who die before age five
Blog
Oct 03, 2017
By implementing this multisectoral strategy, the Global Task Force on Cholera Control (GTFCC) partners will support countries to reduce cholera deaths by 90 percent by 2030.
The Global Roadmap is based on three strategic axes:
Early detection and
Reports
Sep 22, 2017
Hurricanes in the United States and the Caribbean. Floods in South Asia and Yemen. Mudslides in Sierra Leone. The natural disasters have held many captive: literal captives of flooded houses, cars, roads, and airports. Others have been simply
Blog
Sep 05, 2017
Diarrheal disease isn’t just a medical problem—it’s an economic one, too. We’ve heard from families around the world how the costs of diarrhea treatment can significantly interrupt parents’ livelihoods as well as education, food, and shelter for the
Graphics
Aug 30, 2017
Originally posted on the 1000 Days website.
In the leadup to World Water Week, WaterAid, SHARE (Sanitation and Hygiene Applied Research for Equity) and Action Against Hunger launched a new report, “The recipe for success,” in which they discuss
Blog
Aug 24, 2017
This report from Action Against Hunger, SHARE, and WaterAid highlights why WASH is essential for nutrition, and how this integration could be strengthened, through an analysis of nutrition and WASH plans and policies in ten countries. It also
Reports
Jul 27, 2017
It's Boombah's birthday, but he has fallen sick with diarrhea. What's a muppet to do? ORS to the rescue!
Special thanks to Sesame Workshop and Gall Galli Sim Sim! http://www.galligallisimsim.com/
Video
Jun 29, 2017
Six years ago, I traveled through rural Western Kenya to gather stories about Alfred Ochola’s one-man mission to restore oral rehydration therapy (ORT) corners in local hospitals. Though I was there to listen and observe, Alfred handed me a hot
Blog
Jun 23, 2017
PATH developed these messages for use by anyone interested in communicating the impact of diarrhea on the health and development of children and families around the world. This is also a guide to communicating the value of rotavirus vaccines within
Message maps
Jun 08, 2017
The Global Burden of Disease, a study from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) and published in the The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, shows that while deaths due to diarrhea have reduced substantially, the incidence of the
Published research
Jun 07, 2017
This post originally appeared on the PATH Drug Development blog.
The problem: One-time illness or lifelong impairment?
When a child experiences a single episode of diarrhea, they typically feel uncomfortable for a short period of time, but
Blog
May 01, 2017
The US Government's Call to Action for Child Survival, launched in 2012, initiated an annual Acting on the Call report that documented the US government contributions to child health around the world. The 2017 report outlines what is possible if we
Reports
Apr 23, 2017
Vaccines against rotavirus, the leading cause of severe diarrhea in children, are dramatically reducing diarrhea hospitalizations in countries where they’ve been introduced. Image: PATH.
Vaccines are one of the most cost-effective, lifesaving
Blog
Apr 01, 2017
This brief outlines the key barriers to breastfeeding, as well as a summary of global guidelines and country actions.
Read the full brief
Factsheets
Mar 22, 2017
We at DefeatDD stand in awe of the power of water. Without water, there would be no life. We drink it, we grow and cook our food with it, we wash our hands, bodies, and clothes with it, we flush our waste away with it, we use it for recreation and
Blog
Mar 20, 2017
This post originally appeared on the PATH Drug Development blog.
Cryptosporidium harms children—we need research and development to stop it.
A lot of ugly things in nature are relatively harmless (Exhibit A: the star-nosed mole)—but
Blog
Mar 02, 2017
Welcome to the brand spanking new DefeatDD.org! It’s the same crew, same priorities, and (mostly) the same content – just with an updated look, feel, and organization.
As the DefeatDD team took on this website redesign, friends and colleagues
Blog
Jan 12, 2017
Just prior to starting at PATH, Fred went kayak camping for several days on the New River (one of the nation’s oldest rivers, which flows north), starting in western North Carolina and ending up in Virginia.
I’ll admit that I was predisposed to
Blog
Dec 12, 2016
For non-technical viewers, data often lacks accessibility. But when data is broken down and refined through visualization, it can become a compelling storyteller and tool in evidence-based decision-making.
DefeatDD recently launched a data
Blog
Dec 07, 2016
"The sun never sets on the Enterobax Empire." Illustration by Ishir Sharma, age 13.
It was quite a productive week for me at last month's ASTMH Annual Meeting. I met several interesting researchers, attended symposia about the promise of ETEC
Blog
Nov 01, 2016
In this report, IVAC identifies the 15 countries with the greatest number of deaths from pneumonia and diarrhea among children under the age of five in a given year. IVAC then uses a scoring method based on the Global Action Plan for the Prevention
Reports
Oct 05, 2016
Do you remember that episode of the Magic School Bus where the class shrinks into a bite-sized morsel to take a journey through the digestive system? It’s one of my favorites! Since a shrink ray is out of scope for our budget (maybe next year),
Blog
Oct 04, 2016
The 2016 Lancet Early Childhood Development Series highlights the importance of multisectoral approaches, especially within the first few years of a child's life, to ensure that she reaches her full developmental potential. Topics include the
Published research
Oct 01, 2016
Poo Haiku has a special legacy as DefeatDD’s first social media campaign and is undoubtedly a fan favorite. Whimsical, informative, and an open forum for all sectors to raise their voice, it is the epitome of what our team considers a successful
Article
Oct 01, 2016
This infographic walks you through the biology behind a key question: Why is diarrhea so dangerous, anyway?
The danger is in the dehydration caused by a diarrhea pathogen (in our example, ETEC).
Children are especially vulnerable to dehydration
Graphics
Sep 29, 2016
Our team interviewed Deborah Atherly to learn more about health economics and vaccines!
Video
Sep 28, 2016
In our latest video, our intervention superheroes win a village battle against four of the six top diarrhea pathogens.
Together.
It's a word you hear from us fairly often: Together, our voices raise the volume of a global conversation to defeat
Blog
Sep 06, 2016
Rotavirus is one of the diarrhea villains in our animated superhero epic, and if we were to follow in the footsteps of other action movie franchises to produce a prequel, Ruth Bishop would be our star.
A steadfast scientist with a deep desire
Blog
Sep 01, 2016
Three cheers for women in science! Get to know a few superwomen of rotavirus research and their special talents and inspirations, from fellow scientists to Mary Poppins to Thor.
Photo gallery
Aug 29, 2016
Say sayonara to Star Trek because this summer's biggest blockbuster isn't playing at your local theater. The most compelling drama comes to you right here, as superheroes and villains face off in the fight to defeat diarrheal disease!
That sight
Blog
Aug 17, 2016
Sweltering summer heat is in full swing here in Washington, DC, and many of us are seeking relief at the neighborhood pool. This year, with a baby to introduce to the pool, it's been a whole new experience. No longer can I throw a towel into the bag
Blog
Aug 01, 2016
It's a baby's first vaccine and best source of nutrition, but it's not always easy! Moms need support from other moms, families, and governments. Here are some words of wisdom from a few new moms.
Photo gallery
Jul 06, 2016
Last month, PATH bid a fond farewell to an irreplaceable colleague—one who just so happened to be the architect of the integrated approach that DefeatDD champions today. Evan Simpson is an optimistic advocate, a consummate collaborator—and an
Blog
Jun 21, 2016
This graphic appears in USAID's 2016 Acting on the Call Report.
“This is the story of my life, and it begins the same as everyone else's,” says the narrator of “To Keep a Promise.” It's sweeping and intimate all at once, because it tells the human
Blog
Jun 13, 2016
A first photo of my hours-old niece, who joined the world in April 2013.
“Aunt Hopey, stand UP!” commands my three-year-old niece from atop her parents' bed, pulling me up into her imaginary kingdom (with surprising force, I might add!) and
Blog
Jun 05, 2016
The U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID's) 2014 Acting on the Call Report formulated country-specific plans for working with partners in 24 priority countries to save the lives of mothers and children. The follow-up 2015 Acting on the
Reports
May 24, 2016
A proud new mother in India cradles her newborn. Photo credit: Richard Franco.
Baby Whitney arrived fourteen weeks early in 1980. Her mother Lisa Kidd traded visions of first snuggles in a newly minted home nursery to long days and nights at the
Blog
May 09, 2016
Childhood diarrhea is far too common in developing countries. When children do survive, families often face repeated illnesses and a heavy financial burden.
Video
May 05, 2016
Emily and Samyuktha at their last Broken Toilets face-to-face meeting in Hong Kong, 2015.
As development practitioners we constantly ask ourselves if we're sharing the “right” stories about the work we've seen and done. Global development projects
Blog
Apr 20, 2016
Here at DefeatDD, we love our home planet. We love its mountains, oceans, and rivers, and the beautiful diversity of animals and humans that inhabit it. But on Earth Day and every day, we're thinking about poop.
Everyone poops, and humans have
Blog
Apr 15, 2016
RotaFlash, April 2016Data from a new journal supplement reveal the widespread impact of rotavirus vaccines in preventing death and disease from rotavirus diarrhea in low-income countries around the world, while also highlighting the need for
Latest news
Mar 18, 2016
World Water Day revelers all over the globe are going #Blue4Water to bring attention to the many stresses on the world's water resources and to underscore how greater investments in water and sanitation will help achieve nearly all of the
Blog
Mar 15, 2016
An infant being immunized at a child welfare clinic at the Elmina Urban Health Center in the Central Region of Ghana. Photo by: UNICEF.
This post originally appeared on Devex.
This month, hundreds of thousands of children will get access to
Blog
Mar 08, 2016
Children need a nutritious diet to grow healthy and strong. If children don't get key nutrients during these critical early years, the impact can be far-reaching.
Malnutrition and diarrheal disease feed off each other in a relentless loop to
Blog
Feb 03, 2016
Let's be honest. As someone who has worked in child health for many years, I have a particular passion for diarrhea. One of the leading killers of children, but so very preventable and treatable, diarrhea is often on the top of my mind. It doesn'
Blog
Jan 07, 2016
I know of at least two toilet museums (a toilet shaped one in South Korea and Sulabh International Museum of Toilets in India). It would be great if, like many museums, they were just documenting the history of a problem that was solved long ago.
Blog
Jan 01, 2016
DefeatDD and our partners sent Traveling Poo on a journey of self-discovery to find his proper place in the world. Flip through this album to see what lessons he learned along the way. Design credit: Tony Frye Design. These photos are part of a
Photo gallery
Dec 21, 2015
EurekAlert!, December 2015New research by the University of Virginia and icddr,b suggests that food alone is not a solution to malnutrition: new approaches must target gut damage due to infectious disease.Read the full article
Latest news
Dec 09, 2015
How are we going to save the 550,000 children who still die of diarrhea each year? It's a daunting question. While vaccines against the leading cause of severe childhood diarrhea are key to prevention, treatment should also remain an important focus
Blog
Dec 07, 2015
Project Syndicate, December 2015A new report from the International Vaccine Access Center shows that nearly three-quarters of the deaths from pneumonia and diarrhea occur in just 15 countries and in the poorest communities. While we've made progress
Latest news
Nov 19, 2015
Oh, the places he goes! At DefeatDD, we know that poo can be perilous. But when safe sanitation is assured, clean water is accessible, and handwashing is routine, poo is a healthy fact of life.
DefeatDD and our partners sent our very own
Graphics
Nov 17, 2015
This photo is the November feature for DefeatDD's 2015 toilet calendar. See how we "go" around the world. Photo credit: Marco Betti/WaterAid.
Sandwiched between World Pneumonia Day (November 12) and World Toilet Day (November 19) is this funny week
Blog
Nov 12, 2015
Together, pneumonia and diarrhea kill more children under the age of five each year than any other infectious disease. Luckily, a number of prevention and treatment solutions (like vaccine delivery systems, handwashing/sanitation, antibiotics, and
Blog
Nov 04, 2015
Originally posted on Global Health TV.
I'm grateful to Chelsea Clinton for her admission that she is “obsessed with diarrhea,” and her total lack of embarrassment in bringing it up repeatedly. In an interview with Fast Company, it was the first
Blog
Oct 23, 2015
The New York Times, October 2015"What if there were a remedy that could save more children's lives in the developing world than are claimed by malaria and AIDS combined? . . . The miracle substance already exists. It's breast milk."Read the full
Latest news
Oct 12, 2015
Official movie poster (copyright 20th Century Fox), with a few creative tweaks by Laura Edison.
With the recent NASA discovery of water on Mars, combined with the release of my new favorite movie, The Martian, Mars has been on my mind a lot
Blog
Oct 01, 2015
We believe the best social media campaigns are resourceful and creative with content, using it to stimulate discussion beyond the interwebs. After two successful Poo Haiku campaigns, we asked ourselves how DefeatDD could make this leap from digital
Article
Sep 01, 2015
In June 2012, the Governments of Ethiopia, India and the United States of America convened the Child Survival Call to Action in Washington, D.C. This high-level forum brought together over 700 representatives from government, civil society and the
Reports
Aug 27, 2015
USAID, August 2015The 2015 Acting on the Call: ending preventable child and maternal deaths report reveals that USAID's maternal and child survival efforts have resulted in nearly 2.5 million more children surviving and 200,000 maternal deaths
Latest news
Aug 12, 2015
Suited up and ready to run.
Shortly after the Mile 2 marker, doubt started to creep in. Mile 2 might sound easy enough, but let's clarify one important detail straight off: I am not a runner. Given the choice, I will gladly walk, thank you very
Blog
Aug 10, 2015
The New York Times, August 2015The Global Enteric Multicenter Study revealed that bacterial forms of diarrhea are more common than we realized. But updating the World Health Organization's diarrhea guidelines may not make sense, because of a current
Latest news
Aug 07, 2015
Knowing all of the health benefits of breastfeeding, there was no question that I wanted to breastfeed my son. I was lucky. He was born healthy and full term; and while we had our challenges initiating breastfeeding, we had all of the advantages of
Blog
Jul 28, 2015
Since 1990, nearly 100 million children around the world have been saved due to global efforts to reduce child mortality, and maternal deaths have been cut nearly in half. The US government has played a large role in this great success story.
Yet
Blog
Jul 22, 2015
Photo credit: FreeImages.com/monique72
Hey, book lovers! As a follow up to our summer movie list, I thought I would develop my own list for the bookworms among us—an alternative summer reading list of books ranging from whimsical, to informative,
Blog
Jul 15, 2015
It started with more than 500 global health innovations submitted by people in more than 50 countries.
Filtered through more than 60 independent health experts and a rating scale measuring factors like affordability, accessibility, and
Blog
Jul 07, 2015
Pop your poop-corn! It's summer blockbuster season. Getting into the spirit, here's my list of five must-see films that drive home the importance of diarrheal disease (DD) control. Whether funny or tragic, these flicks make our job at DefeatDD a
Blog
Jul 01, 2015
The New York Times, July 2015A new report from WHO/UNICEF warns that while access to clean drinking water has shown considerable improvement, and that the number of children dying from diarrhea have decreased, global progress on sanitation lags
Latest news
Jun 18, 2015
Update: This story has a happy ending. On Tuesday, June 23rd, the author did go back, and her son got his last dose of the rotavirus vaccine.
Today is my son's six-month birthday, and my husband and I took him in for his six-month pediatric
Blog
Jun 10, 2015
Forbes, June 2015"Within six years of the introduction of the rotavirus vaccine, hospitalizations for the diarrheal illness had dropped by 94% and hospitalizations for the overall gastrointestinal illnesses were cut in half. Those are the findings
Latest news
Jun 09, 2015
This is a step-by-step guide for those who are working to improve immunisation systems and access to vaccines, particularly in resource-poor settings. It aims to help you to find ideas, resources and guidance to advocate for strengthened commitment
Toolkits
May 27, 2015
For the purpose of our DefeatDD Initiative - which is, of course, to defeat diarrheal disease - we focus interventions that support child health through the age of five. As such, we don't talk about menstrual hygiene a lot, but that doesn't mean we'
Blog
May 14, 2015
It's definitely not the most popular meal-time topic, but guests of PATH's annual Breakfast for Global Health graciously heard me out last week as I discussed diarrhea—the burden, gaps, interventions, and PATH's part in defeating it. Some nodded
Blog
Apr 20, 2015
The Huffington Post, April 2015As part of the blog series "WASH and the MDGs: The Ripple Effect," the DefeatDD team weighs in on why WASH is foundational to child health.Read the full article
Latest news
Apr 16, 2015
Me in December 1991, just a few weeks before getting sick.
This post is part of the #ProtectingKids blog series. Read the whole series here.
There was once a healthy little girl who, just a few months before her second birthday, started to feel
Blog
Apr 08, 2015
The Huffington Post, April 2015Comedian Ron James is lending his voice to the movement to achieve universal access to water, sanitation, and hygiene by 2030 because "toilets and poop are funny, while open defecation and diarrheal diseases are not."
Latest news
Mar 19, 2015
In March 2014, advocates raised their glasses in a virtual toast to celebrate the lifesaving impact of safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). Then in December 2015, members of Congress clinked their glasses in return through the
Blog
Mar 17, 2015
The Guardian, March 2015 Drawing on data from 54 countries, nearly 40% of health clinics lack access to water, according to a new report by UNICEF and WHO.Read the full article
Latest news
Feb 27, 2015
DefeatDD is a team of movie buffs. So you can imagine our excitement when we saw this photo of our pal Thorsten Kiefer of WASH United with Patricia Arquette… holding our Places We Go toilet calendar! We think the diarrhea crisis is big news, but it'
Blog
Feb 19, 2015
Jordan hanging out with her newest source of inspiration for her work in WASH: her third niece.
Over the last few years with my four nieces and nephews, I have become intimately familiar with breastfeeding, poopy diapers, introductions to solid
Blog
Feb 09, 2015
RotaFlash, February 2015New data from Malawi, one of the first Gavi-eligible countries in Africa to introduce rotavirus vaccines, show significant reductions in rotavirus-related hospitalizations. Additionally, Tajikistan and Argentina have added
Latest news
Feb 03, 2015
A full circle moment: My son receives his rotavirus vaccine.
With the measles outbreak dominating the US vaccine-related news (and jeopardizing a trip my two-month old baby and I planned to take to visit family in southern California), I wanted
Blog
Jan 30, 2015
For most people, the new year means a bit of champagne, a reason to celebrate, and resolutions about personal changes. For Bill and Melinda Gates, the new year brings their annual letter and thoughts about global issues, world progress, and changes
Blog
Jan 09, 2015
Wired, January 2015From sewer sludge to clean water to Bill Gates himself, all within five minutes, the innovative Omniprocessor could revolutionize sanitation in low income countries.Read the full article
Latest news
Dec 19, 2014
The Washington Post, December 2014"In the category of stunning, heartening, woefully underreported good news: In 2000, an estimated 9.9 million children around the world died before age 5. In 2013, the figure was 6.3 million. That is 3.6 million
Latest news
Dec 19, 2014
Gates Notes, December 20142014 was a turbulent year, but a lot of good things happened, too. When Bill Gates reflects on the best stories of the past year, progress in child survival is a strong theme. Rotavirus vaccines also get special attention.
Latest news
Dec 17, 2014
This is one of my favorite photos: the joy and playfulness of these children is a great reminder of why we do what we do! Photo credit: PATH.
In our last post, Deb talked about the exciting yet intimidating early days of the DefeatDD initiative
Blog
Dec 15, 2014
The author's own newborn. “Umm… now what do we do?”
Someone in my family is brand new. As this blog posts, I'm freshly arrived in Atlanta to lend an extra set of hands to my sister, her husband, and their newborn daughter.
As I prepared to
Blog
Dec 11, 2014
I joined the poo crew five short months ago, and I should have known immediately that these ladies love to talk about poop! My first clue should have been the picture of urinals on the calendar that hung in my cube. Instead, I thought to myself, “
Blog
Dec 04, 2014
I wish I could remember what the five-year old me told my parents I wanted to be when I grew up. I am pretty sure I didn't say I wanted a job about diarrhea. And yet…
I've heard many celebrities say they have the greatest job in the world - acting
Blog
Nov 12, 2014
As we mark the sixth annual World Pneumonia Day this month, you might be wondering why you should continue to care. You may have heard that pneumonia vaccines have been rolling out all over the world, even to many of the world's poorest countries.
Blog
Nov 11, 2014
Devex, November 2014This article explains why, in the words of UNICEF's Hayalnesh Tarekegn, "integrated initiatives are the way forward in public health." It will not only save lives from pneumonia and diarrhea, but from chronic diseases as well.
Latest news
Nov 11, 2014
Making human milk banking a priority in South Africa (2015)
306 KB PDF
Strengthening Human Milk Banking: A Global Implementation Framework (2013)
1.3 MB PDF
Foneastra Milk Pasteurization Monitor: Building Capacity of Small-Scale Human Milk Banks (
Other
Nov 06, 2014
UN News Centre, November 2014According to the UN Deputy Secretary-General, speaking at the World Water Summit, conflict, climate change, and urbanization all pose threats to already-scarce water resources worldwide. Water management, improved
Latest news
Oct 15, 2014
“Shh” is a very important sound in my toddler's ever-expanding lexicon. The dominant - or, at the very least, the most fun - sound in many of her attempts at communication, “shh” can mean fish, shoe, brush. It can tell Mommy to please stop reading
Blog
Oct 10, 2014
The Huffington Post, October 2014It is an exciting time for groups who have spent years trying to break the taboo around poo, says WaterAid CEO Sarina Prabasi: "If we've seen anything over the course of the last months, it's that world leaders,
Latest news
Oct 01, 2014
“Hello? Are we together?” That's the first sentence of our new story series, “Together against diarrhea.” We borrowed it from our colleague, Alfred.
Whenever Alfred breaks from a moving story or a passionate argument with this affable refrain, it's
Blog
Oct 01, 2014
Pneumonia and diarrhea are the leading infectious killers of children around the world. Tackling them simultaneously, as outlined in the Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarroea (GAPPD), achieves the greatest
Graphics
Aug 27, 2014
Each year, on October 15, over two hundred million people gather together in countries around the world and celebrate Global Handwashing Day. This international day of advocacy and action shines a spotlight on the state of handwashing in each
Blog
Aug 06, 2014
RotaFlash, August 2014PATH convened a group of experts in Washington, DC, for the “Rotavirus Vaccination & Intussusception Workshop: Science, Surveillance & Safety.” A report detailing outcomes from the workshop will provide an overview of
Latest news
Aug 06, 2014
BBC Health, August 2014Oral rehydration solution (ORS) is potentially the most important medical advance of the 20th century. This article tells the story of Dr. Hirschhorn, the man behind its beginnings.Read the full article
Latest news
Aug 01, 2014
Step-step, pause… step-step… plop (down on her bum)! And just like that, my little one is walking. Completely unaware of the monumental shift she's created in our lives, my daughter happily crawls toward the kitchen to play with Tupperware lids. I
Blog
Jul 16, 2014
Why is it that many children in the developed world don't get sick from drinking water? Is there something in the water? Or is it actually what's not in the water?
In the poorest regions of the world, children don't have access to safe drinking
Blog
Jun 30, 2014
In two short weeks, my daughter will turn one year old. Looking back at her newborn photos, I wonder how this year went by so quickly. How could that wrinkly creature who could scarcely open her eyes or control her little limbs now be this
Blog
Jun 26, 2014
Voice of America, June 2014At the second anniversary of USAID's Child Survival Call to Action, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah announced a repositioning of investments and partnerships to save an additional 500,000 child lives between now and the end
Latest news
Jun 18, 2014
A few months ago, PATH's Drug Development blog provided an overview of the drug discovery and development process. What is very clear is that, while drug discovery is a very difficult and risky business, the potential benefit for millions of
Blog
Jun 02, 2014
If there was a way to save half a million children's lives every year, wouldn't you join that movement?
Get looped in to the global movement to defeat diarrheal disease.
Video
May 28, 2014
May 28th is Menstrual Hygiene Day! Though my excitement has occasionally been met with raised eyebrows and puzzled expressions, I couldn't be more thrilled for the global attention to this crucial yet neglected issue.
You see, like diarrhea,
Blog
May 21, 2014
If you move in global health circles, you may have had the good fortune to meet soccer star (and ONE Campaign Global Health Policy Director) Erin Hohlfelder. In her recent blog, she reflects on how access to lifesaving immunizations gave her the
Blog
May 15, 2014
You might think that coming home from abroad after attending a conference on the leading cause of bacterial pneumonia only to find your grandmother severely ill with bacterial pneumonia sounds too ironic to be true. But that's what precisely
Blog
May 01, 2014
This policy outlines the US government approach to address the direct and indirect drivers of mlanutrition, including water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). Read the full report.
Reports
Apr 02, 2014
In February, the Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing hosted a Handwashing Behavior Change Think Tank. This event gathered handwashing experts from the public and private sectors to take stock of the best, identify the gaps, and
Blog
Mar 26, 2014
One of my brothers recently asked me, “What was the happiest day of your life?” My response: “The days your sons were born!” My happiness was directly linked to boys' safe delivery and arrival in this world. I adore my nephews - now one and
Blog
Mar 19, 2014
Think about all the ways you used water in your daily routine this morning. You probably showered, brushed your teeth, used the toilet, washed your hands, all before making a cup of coffee with water whose safety you assumed without question. It
Blog
Feb 12, 2014
Sadly, this disco throne from WaterAid in America's 2010 World Toilet Day festivities was not available at the bathroom emporium.
You've heard of shopping, of course. Clothes shopping, grocery shopping, even furniture shopping. But how many of
Blog
Jan 30, 2014
The State of the Union (otherwise known as the “SOTU” to political wonks like myself) is a big deal inside the Beltway, where people either flock to bars like it's Super Bowl Sunday or hold watch parties with bingo cards filled with policy
Blog
Jan 29, 2014
Last year, I had somewhere in the ballpark of fifteen colds (and that's a conservative estimate). Just to plan ahead, I'm penciling into my 2014 calendar several colds over the next few months. You see, my son is in daycare. Need I say more?
Blog
Jan 24, 2014
RotaFlash, January 2014Special supplement to the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal describes the critical role of monitoring disease burden and vaccine impact in Africa and worldwide.Read the full article
Latest news
Jan 22, 2014
USAID released a comprehensive Nutrition Strategy on their website for public comment on December 20, 2013. The design of a USAID nutrition strategy recognizes the essential role that nutrition plays in individuals' and countries' development and is
Blog
Jan 08, 2014
Vaccination is a public health heavyweight—and essential in any successful strategy to knock out deadly childhood diseases. Today we present some of the prize-fighters in that effort: our very own Vaccine Development colleagues.
When the team
Blog
Jan 02, 2014
The Integrated Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea (GAPPD), a 2013 global plan from UNICEF and WHO, represents the first-ever simultaneous effort to protect children from pneumonia and diarrhoea, the two
Other
Jan 02, 2014
Insufficient supply and high prices are major factors that can delay the availability of lifesaving vaccines in low-income countries—sometimes for decades following their adoption by wealthy countries. Shortening these timelines and improving
Blog
Dec 16, 2013
Hazel loved the taste of her rotavirus vaccine
As a founding member of the Poo Crew, I've always been pretty confident that I know my sh-t. For eight years now, I've been helping to craft messages about the threat of diarrheal disease, and
Blog
Dec 12, 2013
Dr. Lou Bourgeois, scientific officer for enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) at PATH's Enteric Vaccine Initiative, recently attended the biennial Vaccines for Enteric Diseases (VED) conference (held November 6-8, 2013 in Bangkok, Thailand).
Blog
Dec 04, 2013
As Co-Chair of the All Party Group for Child Health and Vaccine Preventable Diseases, I have been extremely fortunate to visit a number public health programmes in the developing world. With each visit I have been privileged to meet with some of
Blog
Nov 18, 2013
Celebrate the toilet every day of the year! Download and print your own copy of “Oh, the places we go: Public health’s humble hero,” hang it proudly in your cube (or bathroom), and share with friends!We recommend printing the calendar on 11x17 paper
Other
Nov 18, 2013
Today, November 19, is World Toilet Day. But unless you only plan on using the toilet once a year, we think it makes sense to celebrate this unsung hero every day.
That's why today, without further a-doo, we launch our long-awaited 2014
Blog
Nov 12, 2013
Global Coalition Against Child Pneumonia, November 2013The Global Coalition Against Child Pneumonia calls for continued investment in innovations, proven tools, and an integrated approach to simultaneously tackle diarrhea, as outlined in the Global
Latest news
Nov 11, 2013
Ask your average American about the biggest health challenges for children in poor countries, and you may hear a range of things. Two words you are not likely to hear are “pneumonia” and “diarrhea.” That is because many don't know that pneumonia
Blog
Nov 07, 2013
I took my son to the doctor recently. In one office, during one visit, he had a physical check-up, vision and hearing exams, and he received counseling on nutrition, and several vaccines. While to many parents around this world, this is unremarkable
Blog
Oct 10, 2013
There's a story that haunts me in child health. It's the story of the child who successfully fights an episode of malaria one year because she got the right medicine at the right time but the following year, after a severe episode of pneumonia,
Blog
Sep 25, 2013
An early submission from World Bank/Water and Sanitation Program: Toni Sittoni.
I won't lie to you. When I told our graphic designer about our idea, he was skeptical (maybe even a little freaked out). A calendar of toilets?! I'll admit, it's
Blog
Sep 13, 2013
UNICEF, September 2013UNICEF has released the second report in the A Promise Renewed series, which tracks global progress on preventing child mortality. Some of the poorest countries have made the most progress, but there is still more to be done if
Latest news
Sep 11, 2013
One of the job perks at PATH is working with lots of smart people all relentlessly tackling a health and scientific challenge. Our vaccine development program is one such team of scientists, doctors, and other experts focused on accelerating
Blog
Sep 05, 2013
Recently, my husband and I did a rare thing and attended a major league baseball game. We made ourselves comfortable in the outfield bleachers just fair of the foul pole, ready for a few lazy hours in the sun rooting on the Seattle Mariners.
Blog
Sep 05, 2013
Huffington Post, September 2013As World Water Week 2013 is underway in Stockholm, Jan Eliasson, UN deputy secretary-general, calls for more conversation about overlooked, taboo topics like open defecation.Read the full article
Latest news
Aug 30, 2013
GlobalPost, August 2013In the largest study of diarrheal disease to date, researchers found that four pathogens are responsible for the majority of life-threatening diarrhea cases in developing countries. The second most common? The largely ignored
Latest news
Aug 28, 2013
Reuters Health, August 2013In an illustration of "herd immunity" at work, a new study shows that fewer older children and adults were hospitalized for severe diarrhea once the U.S. started vaccinating babies against rotavirus in 2006.Read the full
Latest news
Jul 31, 2013
Originally posted on Impatient Optimists.
Over the course of my career I've spent over thirty years working in various developing countries trying to better understand and fight infectious diseases. One of the things that alarmed me most was that
Blog
Jul 26, 2013
United Nations News Centre, July 2013The United Nations has adopted a Sanitation for All resolution and officially recognized November 19th as World Toilet Day.Read the full press release
Latest news
Jul 24, 2013
You are a new parent. Your infant daughter is nine weeks old today. She has just begun to coo, and she smiles in recognition when you greet her each morning.
Your little one is a healthy eater, hungry and eager. The antibodies in her mother's
Blog
Jul 10, 2013
Because unsafe water supplies and sanitation account for most life-threatening diseases among children in developing countries, the provision of safe water and improved hygiene is a central focus of global health projects. And in addition to
Blog
Jun 26, 2013
Few initiatives in public health have changed the lives of children and families around the world as much as immunization programs. These simple interventions prevented as many as 3 million deaths in 2011 alone. And the successes continue. Each
Blog
Jun 19, 2013
Reposted from USAID's Impact Blog
It's been a year since the United States joined UNICEF and the governments of Ethiopia and India in a bold pledge to end preventable child deaths within a generation. Last week marked the first anniversary of the
Blog
Jun 14, 2013
RotaFlash, June 2013Three recent scientific studies from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention demonstrate the powerful and real-world effectiveness of rotavirus vaccination in the US, the benefits of which extend beyond the health of
Latest news
Jun 12, 2013
On June 8, Prime Minister David Cameron hosted a Hunger Summit, Nutrition for Growth: Beating Hunger through Business and Science, to highlight the issue of hunger and undernutrition ahead of the G8 Summit in Belfast. The summit brought together
Blog
Jun 03, 2013
From Mukuyu Basic Middle School in Mazabuka, Zambia, to Boston University in Massachusetts, United States, all teachers want to see their students thrive -- and use their knowledge to make the world a better place.
Every year, at this time
Blog
May 29, 2013
There are a number of seemingly insurmountable development challenges, but child survival — particularly combating diarrheal diseases — is not one of them.
The Global Enteric Multicenter Study (GEMS), published in The Lancet last week,
Blog
May 14, 2013
Washington Post, May 2013A three-year, multi-country study designed to give researchers and public health officials a clearer picture of diarrheal disease burden found rotavirus to be the most common cause, followed by Cryptosporidium, Escherichia
Latest news
May 02, 2013
Huffington Post, April 2013David Winder, Chief Executive of WaterAid, notes that problems like unsafe drinking water, lack of sanitation, and poor hygiene are exacerbated by a lack of education about their health impact. He cites the new Global
Latest news
Apr 26, 2013
Dr. Mark Alderson is the director of the pneumococcal vaccine project at PATH. Since 2006, his team has been advancing the development of vaccines tailor-made to protect the world's poorest children from pneumonia—a disease that, together with
Blog
Apr 24, 2013
We can prevent 95% of deaths from diarrhea and 65% of deaths from pneumonia by scaling up cost-effective interventions. How cool is that? That was the bottom line from US AID's briefing about the Integrated Global Action Plan for the Prevention and
Blog
Apr 15, 2013
The Guardian, April 2013In highlighting the Integrated Global Action Plan for Pneumonia and Diarrhoea and accompanying scientific articles in the Lancet, the Guardian notes the coordinated effort required to apply a variety of interventions, from
Latest news
Apr 11, 2013
This week, we celebrate integration. Though it is intrinsically at the heart of what we and our partners do in addressing myriad global health challenges through thoughtful, efficient strategies, today integration is particularly at the fore. For
Blog
Apr 11, 2013
UNICEF, April 2013The newly launched Integrated Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea (GAPPD) calls for closer integration of efforts to prevent and treat these two diseases and sets ambitious targets to reduce
Latest news
Apr 10, 2013
Share these photos on Facebook and Twitter to help spread the word about the GAPPD: the first global plan to simultaneously tackle pneumonia and diarrhoea, two leading child killers.
Suggested Facebook status:
With a global plan to tackle
Graphics
Apr 05, 2013
This advocacy toolkit is designed to assist civil society organisations (CSOs), nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), and other advocacy groups or individuals to advocate for the successful implementation of the recommendations of the Integrated
Toolkits
Apr 05, 2013
Dr. Koki Agarwal, Director, Maternal & Child Health Integrated Program (MCHIP)
Dr. Greg Allgood, Director and Founder, Proctor & Gamble Children’s Safe Drinking Water Programme
Dr. Seth Berkley, CEO of the GAVI Alliance
Dr. Thomas Brewer
Other
Apr 05, 2013
Leaders of global and national NGOs, scientists, pediatricians, academics, and policymakers have issued statements to support the implementation of the GAPPD framework. To read through leader statements categorized by region, click the links below
Other
Apr 05, 2013
Diverse Array of NGOs and CSOs Call on Governments and Partners to
Make Global Action Plan a Reality
Statement of Support for the Integrated Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea
Click here to view the
Other
Apr 05, 2013
EMBARGOED for Release:
01:01 Geneva local time
00:01 London local time
Friday, April 12, 2013
Other
Apr 05, 2013
Full report: Integrated Global Action Plan for Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea (GAPPD) (PDF, 763 KB)
Authors: UNICEF and WHO
Published: April 2013
GAPPD report resources:
Executive summary: in English and French
Summary:
Reports
Mar 25, 2013
This past Friday was World Water Day and an opportunity to celebrate the excellent work being doing to promote water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in the developing world. The UK has played a leading role in making WASH a priority for
Blog
Mar 21, 2013
A young girl in Haiti carries water.
What if we lost 32 school buses full of children today? That's 2,195 children—the number who die daily of diarrhea around the world. That's more than die from AIDS, malaria, and measles combined.
As World
Blog
Mar 13, 2013
Reposted from makingmalariahistory.org.
Last week, the Washington Global Health Alliance held its “Experience Global Health” exhibit on Capitol Hill. The unique, multi-sensory event presented stories of global health struggles (like malaria
Blog
Mar 07, 2013
The brilliant scientists of PATH's Enteric Vaccine Initiative (EVI) conduct clinical trials for vaccine candidates against bacterial forms of diarrheal disease. Next month, they will launch a trial for a Shigella vaccine in Bangladesh.
EVI
Blog
Feb 27, 2013
Budgets and deficits. Fiscal cliffs and recessions. It's hard to find a good-news story about the economy right about now. Most of us feel like putting our money in our mattress and calling it a day. But here at DefeatDD, we have just the
Blog
Feb 20, 2013
On March 15, the UK will celebrate Comic Relief, one of the landmark dates in the calendar for raising public awareness of the effects of poverty, disease and instability in the developing world. From now until then, children and adults up and
Blog
Feb 04, 2013
RotaFlash, February 2012The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a new rotavirus vaccine position paper that reaffirms its global recommendation and clarifies the relaxation of age restrictions.Read the full article
Latest news
Jan 16, 2013
RotaFlash, January 2013In an effort to address inequitable access to new vaccines, UNICEF has announced a tender to establish affordable and sustainable supplies of rotavirus, pneumococcal conjugate, and human papillomavirus vaccines for middle
Latest news
Jan 09, 2013
I still remember when the project was put in front of me: "Non-profit needs website support for their Drupal website." Great! We're a Drupal shop, so that's right up our alley. My next question: What's the non-profit's issue? "Diarrhea. Poop." At
Blog
Jan 08, 2013
Forbes, January 2013In a recent in-depth interview conducted by the Skoll World Forum‘s Rahim Kanani, Executive Director of UNICEF Anthony Lake discussed the urgent need to create a commodities market of life-saving medicines in the developing world
Latest news
Nov 29, 2012
As I was writing my new book, my granddaughter of 6 asked me what I was up to. I am writing my book, I said. What is it on? She asked. On what grandpa thinks is most important. Do you know what grandpa thinks is most important? That the children
Blog
Nov 21, 2012
Originally published on Politics Home.
I would like to take this opportunity to welcome World Toilet Day, an annual event which takes place on the 19th of November to highlight the fact that many people in the developing world lack access to a
Blog
Nov 20, 2012
Did you see the blog posts yesterday (World Toilet Day) from elected officials in the United States reminding us of the importance of safe toilets for the health and safety of children and communities? Oh, that's right, there weren't any.
But
Blog
Nov 19, 2012
The sanitation problem is huge - if you're reading this blog you're probably well aware that 2.5 billion people, or one in three people in the entire world, don't have access to a clean toilet. That leads to a hell of a lot of diarrhea-related
Blog
Nov 15, 2012
PATH’s Drug Development program announces positive phase 1 results for its anti-diarrheal medication
Herald Online, November 2012PATH’s Drug Development program announced today the completion of two phase 1 clinical studies for iOWH032—its investigational new drug to treat acute diarrhea caused by diseases such as cholera. Based on positive
Latest news
Nov 12, 2012
On a recent visit to a local children's ward in the northern part of Ethiopia over 70% of the children were suffering from pneumonia. When a child in this region goes to the hospital, most often the parents move in as well, sleeping in the same
Blog
Nov 06, 2012
Hurricane Sandy brushed lightly by Chapel Hill as the annual UNC Water and Health conference unfolded. I was sucked into the conference right from the start, even missing the wild Halloween scene on Franklin Street! As in previous years, I was
Blog
Oct 24, 2012
PATH RotaFlash, October 2012Existing age restrictions prevent rotavirus vaccination of many children who are most vulnerable, particularly in poor settings where children often present late for routine immunizations. According to the World Health
Latest news
Oct 19, 2012
AlertNet, October 2012The London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and SHARE, a sanitation and hygiene research initiative funded by the UK's Department of International Development, have co-organized a month-long exhibition on sanitation that
Latest news
Oct 15, 2012
We've all heard it: There is no “I” in team. There is no “me” in “we.” Whatever the phrase, we all learned about sharing, the benefits of collective action, and the idea of everyone working toward a common, unified goal. But the more I think
Blog
Oct 11, 2012
Update: The contest is closed, but the conversation shouldn't be! Keep on sharing with the hashtag #poohaiku. For inspiration, see the winning haikus here.
What inspired us to create the Poo Haiku Contest? We couldn't have said it better than @
Blog
Sep 26, 2012
Every Woman, Every Child, September 2012At the UN General Assembly, members of the United Nations Commission on Life-Saving Commodities for Women and Children submitted a new plan and set of recommendations to improve access to simple, lifesaving
Latest news
Sep 24, 2012
Sabin Vaccine Institute, September 2012The world's greatest minds focused on defeating rotavirus gathered in Bangkok to share experiences, data, and motivation at overcoming the leading cause of severe childhood diarrhea.Read the full article
Latest news
Sep 13, 2012
UNICEF, September 2012Data released by UNICEF show that the number of children under the age of 5 dying globally has dropped from nearly 12 million in 1990 to an estimated 6.9 million in 2011. Though the progress is remarkable and worth celebrating
Latest news
Aug 27, 2012
Where else but a Toilet Fair could one encounter an evening of stimulating conversation… about poop? The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation proudly presented the chance to mingle with some of the most innovative, creative minds applying their
Blog
Aug 22, 2012
As doctors and researchers, we have spent our lives treating sick children and consoling families rocked by illnesses and deaths that could have been prevented. Too many times, we have lost patients to preventable causes like diarrhea.
But
Blog
Aug 21, 2012
PLOS, August 2012If the solutions to treat diarrhea and save lives are simple and cost-effective, why the lack of attention or investment? In the second article of a two-part series, Oliver Sabot of the Clinton Health Access Initiative outlines and
Latest news
Aug 16, 2012
The Economist, August 2012The Gates Foundation announces the winners of the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge, which aims to bring safe, affordable and sustainable toilets to the 40% of the world’s population who lack access to basic sanitation.Read the
Latest news
Jul 27, 2012
GlobalPolicy.tv, July 2012On the occasion of the 19th International AIDS Conference, Lisa Schechtman of WaterAid in America covers two taboo topics -- sex and poop -- to show that politeness can be perilous when it comes to important global health
Latest news
Jul 03, 2012
Countdown to 2015, June 2012The 2012 Countdown to 2015 Report, Building a Future for Women and Children, highlights country progress—and obstacles to progress—towards achieving Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 to reduce child mortality and
Latest news
Jun 14, 2012
As health leaders from around the globe gather for the Child Survival Call to Action, it is heartening to see India take a leadership role as co-convener of the Summit. Ghulam Nabi Azad, Minister of Health and Family Welfare for India, will help
Blog
Jun 12, 2012
The Great, the Good and the Glamorous are gathering in Washington DC this week to talk about some really big issues affecting the world's poorest and most vulnerable children and adults.
Anyone who is anyone in Global Health and Development
Blog
Jun 08, 2012
UNICEF, June 2012A new report from UNICEF focuses on the huge potential to narrow the child survival gap between the richest and the poorest by focusing on pneumonia and diarrhoea – the two primary killers of children under the age of five. The new
Latest news
Jun 07, 2012
Dick Walker with children in Cambodia. Promising vaccine technologies can help expand and improve the arsenal of tools to use in the fight against diarrhea among children.
The leading bacterial causes of diarrhea are enterotoxigenic Escherichia
Blog
May 30, 2012
Decade of Vaccines Collaboration, May 2012The Sixty-fifth World Health Assembly endorsed a landmark Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP), a roadmap to prevent millions of deaths by 2020 through more equitable access to existing vaccines for people in
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May 23, 2012
Diarrhea is a scourge that has affected humanity throughout history. Battles have been lost by armies because of epidemics of diarrhea. Until recently there were no treatments available for diarrhea except intravenous fluids to correct
Blog
May 11, 2012
PATH welcomes the encouraging news published in the Lancet today that global child deaths continue to decrease, while also recognizing that the fight is far from over. Childhood diarrhea and pneumonia claim a combined 2 million lives annually and
Latest news
May 02, 2012
At USAID's "Every Child Deserves a 5th Birthday" briefing, USAID Administrator Raj Shah proudly displays a photo of one of his little ones, who had just graduated from her play group.
I've always had a soft spot for revolutionary people and ideas,
Blog
Apr 23, 2012
“A mother and child wait for you to return home” and put your commitments into action was the challenge from Liberian President Ellen Sirleaf Johnson to delegates at the Ministerial meeting of "Sanitation and Water for All" (SWA) on Friday. She
Blog
Mar 19, 2012
As Vice President of Field Programs at PATH, I appreciate efforts like World Water Day that call for universal access to the solutions that are the foundation to the health and well-being of communities. I appreciate these efforts both as a
Blog
Mar 12, 2012
The Guardian, March 2012The MDG target to halve the number of people who lack access to safe drinking water has been met years ahead of schedule, but the good news is tempered with a warning that the sanitation MDG target is lagging behind.Read the
Latest news
Mar 09, 2012
Reposted with permission from The DigDeep Right to Water Project.
This blog post is about girls - one in particular - and her name is Nombinqo.
It's not fair to say Nombinqo grew up in rural South Africa. Growing up implies so many things - a
Blog
Mar 02, 2012
Do you remember how your mom took care of you when you got sick?
Moms everywhere want to take care of their kids. Diarrhea can be deadly, but mothers have hope when they have access to simple solutions. Proven, affordable tools should be at-hand for
Video
Feb 13, 2012
British Medical Journal, February 2012With the deadline to achieving MDG 4 on the horizon, the British Medical Journal touts zinc and ORS to be among the best investments we can make to achieve the rapid progress needed to improve child mortality.
Latest news
Feb 08, 2012
The 1,000 days between a woman's pregnancy and her child's 2nd birthday represent a critical but short window of time to ensure a child's future health and prosperity. Children who are well-nourished during this critical window reap a lifetime of
Blog
Jan 25, 2012
A child at a new water point in Rwanda.
Last month, I joined the international development community in celebrating the bipartisan introduction of the Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act of 2012 in the House of Representatives. It is needed
Blog
Jan 18, 2012
One of the tools that will help us defeat diarrheal disease is vaccines - both the rotavirus vaccines that are licensed and the vaccines against bacteria that cause diarrhea that are still in development.
So it was heartening in 2010, when
Blog
Jan 04, 2012
Reposted with permission of PATH
In 2003, vaccines against rotavirus were poised to reach the global market, but surprisingly few people knew the virus' name, let alone that it was the leading cause of severe diarrheal disease. “We've never heard
Blog
Dec 02, 2011
At defeatDD, we love to talk *bleep*, so we made a video about it. After all, if we can't talk *bleep,* we can't defeat death by *bleep.* Spread the word!
Video
Nov 11, 2011
Do you remember when the kids in your neighborhood were dying from pneumonia? I can't say that I do, but I am reading a great novel right now that reminded me it wasn't that long ago that here in the US, mothers like me lived in fear of their
Blog
Oct 27, 2011
LiveScience, October 2011On October 31, 2011, the 7 billionth person will join the world. Population growth makes worldwide access to adequate sanitation more important than ever, but we still have a long way to go.Read the full article
Latest news
Oct 25, 2011
Rotaflash, October 2011Findings from a study published in the Lancet show that child mortality from rotavirus remains high. Tragically, approximately 95% of rotavirus deaths occurred in countries that are eligible to receive GAVI-support to
Latest news
Oct 18, 2011
allAfrica, October 2011On October 15, countries all around the world celebrated Global Handwashing Day. In Kenya, the public health and sanitation minister highlighted diarrheal disease while participating at a PATH-sponsored Global Handwashing Day
Latest news
Sep 23, 2011
This week, the leaders of the world descended upon New York City for the 66th Session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, and many related high-level meetings and events. The hustle and bustle in New York is always energizing to me, but
Blog
Sep 16, 2011
Each year new challenges surface across the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sector, yet with proven solutions these challenges are solvable. The problem is sometimes the proven solutions need a technological leg-up. Let's be clear,
Blog
Sep 14, 2011
Call it what you will: joining up or combining interventions, integration or disaggregation. Whatever you call it, it is essential to achieving the Millennium Development Goals and to alleviating poverty and disease. We can't agree more with
Blog
Aug 31, 2011
CBC News, August 2011Vaccinating infants against rotavirus can also prevent serious diseases in unvaccinated older children and adults, a new study in The Journal of Infectious Diseases says.Read the full article
Latest news
Aug 25, 2011
Reposted with permission from End the Neglect
In my work to raise awareness about the global burden of diarrheal disease, I read a lot about the many benefits of safe water and sanitation, including the promise it holds for girls and women. But
Blog
Aug 16, 2011
Data & Reports: Diarrheal Disease, General (resources are listed chronologically)
Infographic: Why is diarrhea dangerous?
PATH, October 2016
Pneumonia and Diarrhea Progress Report: Sustainable Progress in the Post-2015 EraInternational Vaccine
Other
Aug 16, 2011
Data & Reports: Water & Sanitation (resources are listed chronologically)
Sanitation Message Map
PATH, 2015
(33 KB PDF)
Improving nutrition outcomes through better water, sanitation, and hygieneWHO, UNICEF, and USAID, 2015
Progress on
Other
Aug 16, 2011
Infant & Young Child Nutrition (resources are listed chronologically)
INFOGRAPHIC: Diarrheal disease and malnutrition are inextricably linkedPATH, 2016
(3257 KB PDF)
Malnutrition and diarrheal disease message map
PATH, 2016
(560 KB PDF)
Other
Aug 16, 2011
Data & Reports: Oral Rehydration Therapy (resources are listed chronologically)
Progress over a Decade of Zinc and ORS Scale-up: Best Practices and Lessons Learned
UNICEF and CHAI, 2016
Blueprint for Action: A Decade of Saving Children's Lives
Other
Aug 16, 2011
Data & Reports: Zinc & Other Micronutrients (resources are listed chronologically)
Progress over a Decade of Zinc and ORS Scale-up: Best Practices and Lessons LearnedUNICEF and CHAI, 2016
Blueprint for Action: A Decade of Saving Children's
Other
Aug 03, 2011
Overwhelming evidence points to undeniable benefits of breastmilk in curbing diarrhea illness and death, yet breastfeeding rates in some of the world's poorest countries remain staggeringly low. Only a third of mothers in the developing world
Blog
Jul 28, 2011
The Economist, July 2011Many low-resource countries suffer routine outbreaks of cholera and other diarrheal diseases that could be overcome by increased access to clean water and sanitation -- but only innovation will spur a solution.Read the full
Latest news
Jul 21, 2011
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, July 2011At the AfricaSan3 Conference in Kigali, Rwanda, the Gates Foundation announced their new sanitation strategy. With a focus on new and innovative approaches to "reinvent the toilet," the foundation seeks to
Latest news
Jun 14, 2011
Today marks the second day of the Global Health Council's 38th annual International Conference in Washington, DC and events are in full swing. Spanning the entire week, global health professionals and organizations from all over the world gather
Blog
Jun 07, 2011
These children are holding their immunization cards. One day, vaccines against ETEC could appear on this list.
I was looking at the group of people around me, our “market assessment team,” and wondering how such a diverse collection of people would
Blog
May 16, 2011
WaterAid, May 2011"For the first time in 20 years the World Health Assembly, WHO’s highest policy-making body, will consider a Resolution on drinking-water, sanitation and health at its 64th Assembly which opens on Monday 16 May. The Government of
Latest news
May 16, 2011
Yael Velleman, WaterAid, is on hand at the World Health Assembly to make certain that safe water and sanitation gets the attention it deserves.
Summer is almost here - and with it come the holidays, and necessarily the flights to far and exotic
Blog
May 16, 2011
WaterAid, May 2011This year at the World Health Assembly, WaterAid is is calling for urgent action on two debilitating water-borne diseases: guinea worm and cholera, both of which have devastating effects in poor countries. "Half of the developing
Latest news
May 09, 2011
End Water Poverty campaigners take message from 350,000 World Walks for Water participants to the UN
It's an exciting moment for water and sanitation campaigners at End Water Poverty, as we're about to take the footsteps and voices of the 350,000 people who joined the World Walks for Water in March to world leaders at the United Nations
Blog
Apr 28, 2011
Voice of America, April 2011"The U.S. State Department says roughly 900 million people in the developing world walk an average of six kilometers to get water for their families. So on Wednesday, the department sponsored a six-kilometer walk to
Latest news
Apr 27, 2011
Gates Foundation Blog, April 2011"Dexiang Chen was born in Linshu, a rural town in the Shangdong province of China. During the height of the Cultural Revolution, his career was chosen for him: he would become a farmer. Now? Dexiang leads vaccine
Latest news
Apr 19, 2011
It's been a year since defeatDD was born. Back then, I blogged about how diarrhea was often a joke at the party, but less often a serious contender for action in the world of global health. Over the past year, I've started to think maybe I was
Blog
Apr 06, 2011
In this photo, Shawn Shafner, founder of The POOP Project, meditates about cultural healing on a Zurn toilet at the 2010 American Society of Plumbing Engineers Conference in Philadelphia, PA.
My sister Shannon was an expert. By the time I started
Blog
Apr 04, 2011
On World Water Day, a day on which people around the world joined together to recognize the importance of safe drinking water, adequate sanitation and hygiene education (WASH), I spent the morning thinking about the number of children who do not
Blog
Mar 28, 2011
On World Water Day, March 22 2011, people around the world celebrated clean water and explored solutions for the world's biggest environmental health crisis - the lack of safe water and sanitation.
Killing more children each year than AIDS,
Blog
Mar 25, 2011
Voice of America, March 2011More than a million young children die each year from diarrhea, even though there's no secret about how to prevent or treat it. Now, public health experts have developed a new report showing that the vast majority of
Latest news
Mar 16, 2011
ONE Campaign, March 2011Dr. Mathuram Santosham, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and Dr. Ciro A. de Quardos, Sabin Vaccine Institute, have teamed up to form ROTA: the Rotavirus Organization of Technical Allies. This group of experts "will
Latest news
Mar 14, 2011
Next Tuesday, March 22, is World Water Day. As the leader of an organization committed to improving the health of communities in developing countries, I am thrilled to see that momentum is growing - across the US and globally - for reaching the
Blog
Mar 08, 2011
Women in Uttar Pradesh, India, receiving pump maintenance training from WaterAid's local partner Gramonati Sansthan. Photo credit: WaterAid / Marco Betti
While I've been working on international women's rights for years, I am new to looking
Blog
Mar 02, 2011
It is perhaps no small irony that the topic of conversation least likely to be the center of a case of verbal diarrhea is diarrhea itself.Despite the scandalous statistics associated with diarrheal diseases and its impact in developing countries
Blog
Feb 28, 2011
“Sanitation and drinking-water… is the key to development, human progress and dignity. Water defines our health, and for the World Health Organisation, there is no health without sanitation and drinking water,” states Dr. Maria Neira, Director of
Blog
Feb 23, 2011
Overcoming taboo can be pretty tricky with teenage girls.
But given the facts—like frightening stats that convey the fear and harassment girls confront every day in schools without appropriate facilities, or the availability of simple solutions
Blog
Feb 22, 2011
The Huffington Post, February 2011Dr. Orin Levine, Executive Director of the International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins University, highlights an "uncommon reward" in a field that requires patience and persistence. "So what's different
Latest news
Feb 21, 2011
Norman Bates doesn't make an appearance in this clip, but another killer does. This awareness-raising video was made for World Water Day 2009.
Video
Feb 21, 2011
Reuters, February 2011A new report shows that research and development (R &D) funding for neglected diseases has increased, including funding for diarrhea, which is up to more than 5%. The report urges the continuation of more and better
Latest news
Feb 18, 2011
End Water Poverty knows about the water and sanitation crisis that's killing 4000 children a day.
We know that it's a crisis affecting 2.6 billion people and threatening the development of many countries across Africa and South Asia. We also know
Blog
Feb 15, 2011
GOOD, February 2011"We are calling for ideas and projects that will raise awareness about this issue. We want you to submit your best idea for convincing people in your life—your friends, neighbors, family members—that vaccines matter and for
Latest news
Feb 02, 2011
I typically wouldn't consider having to “go” a cause for celebration.
But having a place to “go”—whenever, wherever—now there's a reason to rejoice. Last November, I was on hand as WaterAid and the King County Library system brought this message to
Blog
Jan 31, 2011
Gates Foundation Blog, January 2011Remarkable news was recently announced, proving the real-world impact of vaccination in preventing rotavirus diarrhea, a common childhood disease that each year takes the lives of more than half a million children—
Latest news
Jan 24, 2011
Al Jazeera English, January 2011Save the Children has launched a campaign to mobilize funding for vaccines for the leading global killers of children: pneumonia and diarrhea.Read the full article
Latest news
Jan 10, 2011
There is no single intervention that will improve global health faster than providing access to clean water, improved sanitation and hygiene education to literally 1/3 of the world's population.
The statistics are staggering. Nearly one billion
Blog
Jan 01, 2011
This report presents successful models of integration that respond to community-level and national needs through a focus on primary healthcare, clean water and sanitation, and nutrition. These initiatives are generating important lessons and
Reports
Nov 05, 2010
CNN, November 2010"Humanity is facing a war right now with an enemy that appears to be winning. Although this war is not fought with guns, more people die from this enemy than all the guns and all the other wars in the world combined. What's really
Latest news
Nov 03, 2010
The Guardian, November 2010Rose George, author of The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters, calls attention to the resilient scourge of diarrhoeal disease. Cholera outbreaks in disaster settings garner the most
Latest news
Oct 13, 2010
What will you do to mark the occasion?Last year, Global Handwashing Day was celebrated by over 200 million school children around the world. Find out how you can join by celebrating at your school, organization or community this Friday, October 15.
Blog
Sep 08, 2010
Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, September 2010A group of over 2,500 leading water experts from 130 countries gathered in Stockholm on Sunday, September 4, to kick off World Water Week, where they will focus on "increasing water pollution
Latest news
Aug 11, 2010
BMC Public Health, August 2010A recent study conducted in Spain found that the introduction of a rotavirus vaccine into routine immunization programs would reduce significantly the important medical and economic burden due to rotavirus infections in
Latest news
Aug 11, 2010
To the parents of a child who just received a potentially lifesaving vaccination against rotavirus, the molecular biology behind that vaccine may not get much consideration.
Even the medical teams administering vaccinations might not be tuned in to
Blog
Aug 06, 2010
Check out new blogs posted today by our partners at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the ONE Campaign.
New blogs posted today by our partners at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the ONE Campaign offer insight on the dramatic
Blog
Aug 02, 2010
Guerrant, RL, et al.
Published: April 2008
Data
Jul 15, 2010
NOTE: As of November 2020, the Health/WASH Network is now the WASH and Health Interest Group. To join, please subscribe on the CORE Group website.
What is the Health/WASH Network?
The Health/WASH Network is a consortium of development, health,
Other
Jul 14, 2010
One of the biggest challenges in global health is matching resources to the areas where the most lives can be saved.
It is a very serious problem, because resources are always scarce, and when they are not targeted to those areas where the most
Blog
Jun 08, 2010
At the highest levels, the US Government is taking a close look at what brings the greatest return on its investment in foreign aid.
We agree with the Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) that the best investment is a health investment.
Blog
May 18, 2010
Reuters, May 2010A new government study shows that the number of children hospitalized for rotavirus infection dropped sharply after the U.S. introduced rotavirus vaccines in 2006.Read the full article.
Latest news
May 14, 2010
EmaxHealth, May 2010Scientists have long known about the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding for infants, but new research has taken our understanding one step further: “For the first time, we can see that breast milk induces genetic pathways that
Latest news
May 10, 2010
ONE, May 2010Tachi Yamada, President of the Gates Foundation's Global Health Program, outlines how the Foundation will focus its resources on providing vaccines that will prevent children like Emon from dying of major childhood killers like
Latest news
Mar 31, 2010
No one wants talk about it, but diarrheal disease is the second leading killer of children around the world. Watch this video to find out why and learn how you can add your voice to the growing conversation.
Video
Apr 01, 2009
Several countries and organizations are successfully scaling up use of interventions to overcome childhood diarrhea, including safe water, improved sanitation and hygiene, breastfeeding and optimal complementary feeding, rotavirus vaccines, zinc
Reports
In April 2013, UNICEF and WHO launched the Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea (GAPPD), the first-ever plan to tackle the two diseases together and a watershed moment for champions of child health and
Article
While this list is by no means exhaustive, these global health observance days enjoy a guaranteed recurring reservation on our annual DefeatDD work plan as opportunities to generate greater attention to one or more solutions to defeat diarrheal
Article