Policy
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
Mar 08, 2023
The climate crisis is a health crisis, and one of its manifestations is its disruptive impact on safe drinking water and sanitation. Weather extremes like flooding stress sanitation systems and create increased opportunity for waterborne diseases
Blog
Dec 12, 2022
Pauline, an advocacy and policy lead at PATH, discusses the benefits of primary care in Kenya...
Video
Dec 01, 2022
Dr. Olago from the Ministry of Health shares the advantages of primary care in Kenya...
Video
Dec 01, 2022
Meshack shares the advantages of primary health care in Kakamega, Kenya.
Video
Aug 04, 2022
A pitcher, cups, and co-packaged ORS and zinc awaits patients at an Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) corner at Elwesero Model Health Clinic in Kakamega, Kenya. Photo: PATH/Tony Karumba.
According to World Health Organization (WHO), diarrhea is one
Blog
Jul 20, 2022
Rose Kanali, a helth practitoner at Kilingili Health Centre in Kakamega, Kenya, displays co-packaged oral rehydration solution and zinc, the WHO/UNICEF-recommended treatment for childhood diarrhea. Photo: PATH/Anthony Karumba.
Are you parched for
Blog
Apr 27, 2022
From left: Anthony Gitau, Director, Johnson & Johnson Global Community Impact for Sub-Saharan Africa; Dr. Simon Kibias, Ag. Head Directorate of Health Standards, Quality Assurance and Regulation, Kenya Ministry of Health; Dr. Andrew Mulwa, Ag.
Blog
Dec 09, 2021
Primary health care (PHC) is the most basic package of essential health services and products needed to prevent disease, promote health, and manage illness. In the case of preventing and treating diarrheal disease, PHC includes basic child health
Blog
Apr 07, 2021
A few years ago in Lusaka, Zambia, when Catherine brought her son Immanuel to the clinic with a fever and diarrhea, she probably wasn’t thinking about health systems – but she may have been thinking about soccer. Namely, the fact that she had named
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
May 01, 2019
The Stop Diarrhoea Initiative (SDI), a project by Save the Children, India, aimed to showcase the WHO/UNICEF Seven-Point Plan as the most effective strategy to comprehensively prevent and treat childhood diarrhoea. The project contributes to Save
Blog
Mar 13, 2019
Mothers in Kenya feed oral rehydration solution (ORS) to children dehydrated from diarrhea. Photo: PATH/Tony Karumba.
ORS + zinc is the globally recommended treatment for diarrhea. Thanks to the effort of PATH and other partners of the Diarrhea
Blog
Mar 06, 2019
Feb 05, 2019
Policy spotlight: improved access to ORS and zinc
We'
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
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
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
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
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 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
Jul 27, 2017
Zari sandwich! PATH team members Cassie Kobrin on the left, Elana Banin on the right.
Nothing was going to keep this DefeatDD team member away from the Hill event, “Ensuring All Children Thrive: A Global Challenge,” which delivered on its
Blog
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
Jul 19, 2016
Children join the procession during the launch of the MNCH Advocacy Alliance in Kakamega, Kenya.
After a while, the preventable deaths became too much to bear.
For many years I worked as a midwife at different hospitals, and most days on the
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 22, 2015
“The results communicate a clear message: We can choose a better future for the world's children.”
I love that sentence from UNICEF's most recent A Promise Renewed progress report. The fact that we have a choice makes two essential points: (1)
Blog
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
May 05, 2014
To the average passerby, Dar es Salaam is a busy, bustling city. With a lovely coastline, welcoming people, and so much culture, it seems Tanzania is humming. And undoubtedly, it is. However, for all of Tanzania's development and progress—like
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
Jul 01, 2013
This brief provides an overview of policies and initiatives driving global action to reduce the impacts of childhood pneumonia and diarrheal disease—two dire but often under-resourced global health issues—in the context of broader priorities for
Factsheets
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 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 01, 2013
This PowerPoint presentation gives an overview about the Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea (GAPPD). View the full presentation.
Presentations
Apr 01, 2013
The Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea (GAPPD), a global plan published in 2013 by UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO), represents the first-ever simultaneous effort to protect children from
Reports
Jan 01, 2013
PATH, in collaboration with the Cambodia Ministry of Health (MOH), the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), implemented the Enhanced Diarrheal Disease (EDD)
Factsheets
Sep 01, 2012
In 2010, the UN Secretary-General’s Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health highlighted the suffering of women and children around the world caused by lack of access to life-saving commodities. The Strategy called on the global community
Reports
Mar 14, 2012
Summer 2006, rural China: My colleagues and I take a bathroom break at a rest stop on the side of the road on our way to a health clinic. Unlike many female restrooms around the world, there isn't a long line of patrons waiting to use the holes in
Blog
Nov 01, 2011
Diarrheal disease is one of the top two causes of child death in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and Malawi is no exception. Diarrhea causes approximately 11 percent of deaths in children under five years of age in the country, with
Factsheets
Nov 01, 2011
This fact sheet summarizes PATH's projects in Vietnam that aimed to reduce childhood illness and death from diarrhea. Efforts included collaborations to update guidelines for health workers, clinical trials of rotavirus vaccines, and household water
Factsheets
Nov 01, 2011
This briefing paper details PATH's partnership with officials and health leaders in Vietnam that bridged policy with community health delivery to reduce hospitalization and death from childhood diarrhea. A multi-faceted effort brought the national
Factsheets
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
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