Global Health Blog

This post originally appeared on Forbes India's blog.

by Laura Herman and Melissa Scott

Annually, over 200K Indian children die needlessly from diarrhea despite the availability of simple, highly effective and affordable treatments: zinc and oral rehydration salts (ORS). Zinc and ORS are recommended by the World Health Organization for the treatment of simple diarrhea in children, and they can prevent over 90% of diarrhea-related deaths. They also cost less than $0.50 to administer, yet under 5% of children globally use this treatment. The issue of childhood diarrhea presents both a challenge and an opportunity: if a simple, cost effective solution exists why are so many children still dying from diarrhea?

According to the 2012 UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) report, while rates of maternal mortality have been nearly cut in half since 1990, rates are still well below the MDG 2015 targets. For example, Maternal Mortality Rates (MMR) in developing countries is 15 times higher than MMR in developed nations and is at its highest in sub-Saharan African nations. There has been much discussion and effort by leading multilaterals, governments and even companies recently to come up with new solutions or additional resources to help improve women and children’s health.

A health worker trained through the Uganda Immunization Training Program vaccinates a child.

Although it has long been known that prevention of disease through immunization is one of the most successful and cost-effective public health interventions in history, immunization rates remain low in many parts of the world, particularly sub-Saharan Africa.  One major reason for this is limited immunization management capacity in many African countries. In response to this challenge, Merck launched the Merck Vaccine Network-Africa (MVN-A), a ten-year philanthropic initiative that provided customized, hands-on training to immunization managers in Kenya, Mali, Uganda, and Zambia. Between 2003 and 2012, the program trained more than 1,600 vaccine delivery workers.

In June, FSG and GBCHealth hosted a webinar, on how pharmaceutical and medical device companies can create shared value in global health, building on our paper, Competing by Saving Lives, which we launched earlier this year. This post is the third in a series where the panelists answer some of the great questions we received from members of the audience, but did not have time to address. Today, we’ll hear from Ole Kjerkegaard Nielsen, Programme Director for Corporate Sustainability at Novo Nordisk.

In June, FSG and GBCHealth hosted a webinar, on how pharmaceutical and medical device companies can create shared value in global health, building on our paper, Competing by Saving Lives, which we launched earlier this year. This post is the second in a series where the panelists answer some of the great questions we received from members of the audience, but did not have time to address. Today, we’ll hear from Karl Hoffman, President and CEO of the international nonprofit, Population Services International.