The INFO Project Blog

Len Cornish sent out this event announcement on the HIFA2015 network.

The 5th IET International Seminar on “Appropriate Healthcare Technologies for Developing Countries” is to be held on 21-22 May 2008 at the Institution of Engineering and Technology, Savoy Place, London WC2R 0BL.

The deadline for the submission of abstracts is Friday 4 January 2008.

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 Today, while cleaning through my personal e-mails I came across an article sent to me from Rice University.  I graduated from Rice a few years back.  At the time, I don’t recall much buzz being made about global health on the campus, however at the end of September they launched a new $100 million global health campaign entitled “Rice 360: Technological Solutions for Global Health“.

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On this week’s BBC World Service Health Check, Nivedita Pathak reports on a new method to promote breast feeding:

The milk bank at JJ Hospital in Mumbai opened for business in April this year and has already collected 175 litres of milk. Every day, about ten women donate milk once or twice, using an electronic breast pump. Then it’s checked in the lab for infection, pasteurised and given to the babies who need it.

Also in this broadcast, Cambodian soap operas, billboards and interpersonal health worker training boosts breastfeeding.

For more resources on breastfeeding see the INFO Reports issue on the topic here.

STD Prevention Online is new interactive web site that aims to enhance communication between people who work in STD/HIV prevention  research, policy, and programs. Its ultimate goal to encourage the  implementation of state-of-the art interventions in STD/HIV  prevention practice and help stop the transmission of sexually  transmitted infections, including HIV.  It is funded by CDC and managed by the Denver Department of Public Health.  You can skim the site but to really see all that is available, you should create an account.  You can upload a photo and CV, have your own blog and customize your home page. It has a calendar of events, online discussion forums and job listings. 

For additional information on HIV/AIDS and other STDs, please check out what’s been added to INFO’s One Source database on these topics in the last 3o days.

Here at the Center for Communication Programs, we are looking at how health communication can alleviate the incidence of chronic disease in the developing world. Senior Program Officers Peter Roberts recently sent around a new study in The Lancet on “The burden and costs of chronic disease in low-income and middle-income countries.” According to the authors, for the estimated death rates for chronic diseases within 15 selected countries in 2005 were 54% higher for men and 86% higher for women than in high income countries. The authors conclude,

If nothing is done to reduce the risk of chronic disease, an estimated US $84 billion of economic production will be lost from heart disease, stroke and diabetes alone in… 23 countries between 2006 and 2015.

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