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  • African Science Academy Development Initiative (ASADI) Meeting in Ghana The fifth annual international conference of the African Science Academy Development Initiative (ASADI) will be held Nov. 9-11 in Accra, Ghana, in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. The theme of this year's conference will be improving maternal, newborn, and child health in Africa, which will be discussed by top experts from around the world. ASADI V will kick off with the release of Science in Action: Saving the Lives of Africa's Mothers, Newborns, and Children, a new report by several African science academies, assessing the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing maternal and childhood mortality -- the focus of U.N. Millennium Development Goals Four and Five -- in sub-Saharan Africa. The report will include estimates of lives that could be saved if proven scientific methods reached more parts of Africa. 11/9
  • Meeting HIV/AIDS Cost Demands: Is The Global Response Working? The November/December 2009 edition of Health Affairs focuses on key global health challenges – including the economic, political, scientific and ethical ones – facing world policymakers in their response to HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. Over the next several years, the world could face a funding shortfall that would prevent millions more with HIV/AIDS from gaining access to antiretroviral drugs. Yet over the long-term, the world could also take critical steps to slash the global burden of HIV-AIDS – and the costs of battling the pandemic – by half. 11/10
  • Meeting HIV/AIDS Cost Demands: Is The Global Response Working? The November/December 2009 edition of Health Affairs focuses on key global health challenges – including the economic, political, scientific and ethical ones – facing world policymakers in their response to HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. Over the next several years, the world could face a funding shortfall that would prevent millions more with HIV/AIDS from gaining access to antiretroviral drugs. Yet over the long-term, the world could also take critical steps to slash the global burden of HIV-AIDS – and the costs of battling the pandemic – by half. 11/10

Vitamin A Supplements Can Reduce Malaria Cases In Children By One-Third, Study Finds

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Friday, June 26, 2009

In malaria-endemic areas, vitamin A supplements – which cost about 2 U.S. cents each – can help reduce infections in children by one-third, according to a study published in the Malaria Journal, IRIN reports. The study analyzed results from previous studies conducted in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Papua New Guinea since 1995. It found that vitamin A supplements decreased malaria cases by one-third in Papua New Guinea and Burkina Faso.

Peter Olumese of the WHO's Global Malaria Programme said although the relationship between vitamin A deficiency and malaria requires more research, it is clear that vitamin A supplements help to prevent a range of infectious diseases in children. "We do not need to wait for all the answers," Olumese said. "While waiting on results [of further studies into the link], vitamin A supplements can be used to decrease morbidity and mortality in children, including those at risk of malaria."

According to the WHO, children younger than age five in Africa and Southeast Asia had the highest levels of vitamin A deficiency between 1995 and 2005. UNICEF estimates it reaches 70 percent of children worldwide at risk of vitamin A deficiency with supplements twice a year. But that means that one-third of children might not receive the minimum amount, Olumese said.

"Vitamin A supplement programming is often run as a donor-funded project and is not tied in with national child health programmes. When donors leave, so do the vitamin A supplements," he said.

In addition, government health budgets rarely allocate sufficient funds for nutrients, said Banda Ndiaye of the non-profit Micronutrient Initiative, which helps governments carry out twice-yearly micronutrient campaigns. "Resource allocation is very competitive and the basis of allocation may have as much to do with which constituency has more influence [rather] than what is needed most."

"At a 2008 malnutrition conference hosted by the Copenhagen Consensus Center, economists calculated that an annual $60-million investment in micronutrients, especially vitamin A and zinc, would yield annual benefits of more than $1 billion, including health care cost savings," IRIN writes (IRIN 6/25). 

The Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report is published by the Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2009 Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.