global health weekly update
February 1 2016
Good day,
This newsletter is in the New York Times style, where everything blue/underlined is a hyperlink to a related article on that sentence/idea. The clovers at the end of stories are links to all source articles.
As far as other mosquito-borne diseases go, and on a happier note, African countries have been congratulated for driving down malaria deaths on the continent. The African Leaders Malaria Alliance (Alma) has presented awards of excellence to 14 African countries, including Liberia, Rwanda and Senegal for their performance in controlling malaria over the past four years, and Comoros, Guinea and Mali for showing the biggest improvements. A further eight awards were given to countries that achieved the millennium development goal (MDG) target of halting and reversing the incidence of malaria. They were Botswana, Cape Verde, Eritrea, Namibia, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, South Africa and Swaziland. Since 2000, deaths from the virus in Africa have fallen by 66% among all age groups and by 71% among children under five. Alma’s executive secretary, Joy Phumaphi, says the WHO have demonstrated that prevention efforts have saved an estimated $900m in case management costs between 2001 and 2004 in direct costs. Some economists have shown we can save up to $34bn a year in direct and indirect costs by eradicating malaria. ♧
- In Zambia, Sheila Mbilishi, a 67-year-old widow and mother of six, buys small solar lights for $5 and sells them at a 50% profit margin. According to her, they "sell like cupcakes." After three years, she raised enough to open a shop and build a two bedroom house. With solar lights, people like herself can continue working through the constant power outages. Mbilishi says she has "built a house out of lights."
- In Kenya, Mohamed Abdikadir has a new life as a solar panel installer. He was born in a refugee camp in Dadaab, where the average family spends $17.20 per month – 24% of their income – on energy. His parents came to the camp after fleeing the civil war in Somalia over 20 years ago. They have since passed away, and Mohamed now looks after his ten younger siblings. He was trained in a six-month program about a year ago to install solar panels as part of a programme in Kenya and Ethiopia organised by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). Before he started the program, Abdikadir only made enough to provide one meal a day for his family. Now, with the extra income from solar installations – $10 on an average day – his siblings are eating three meals daily, have new clothing and are able to attend a fee-paying school.
Burundi Special
Brief Overview of the Conflict
December / January
In December, the African Union announced a plan to deploy 5,000 peacekeepers to quell the country's unrest. However, Nkurunziza has been firm in his opinion that sending peacekeepers into his country would constitute "an invading force," and he would attack them as such. According to Alice Nakuto, a member of Imbonerakure (the ruling party's militia), "the majority of Burundians don’t want them and they should not impose themselves on the people of Burundi." According to The Washington Post, on December 26th, thousands of Burundi citizens protested against the AU's plan. However, others report the weekend's protests and burst of social media were a ploy by the government, giving a false impression of the general opinion. In the first week of January, Tanzania became the first and only East African Community member to openly support the deployment. So far they have taken in over 175,000 refugees. Tanzania, a member of the EAC just like Burundi, was to host peace talks in Arusha in early January. The talks were postponed indefinitely when Burundi Government representatives failed to turn up.
Ten days ago, the U.N. security council traveled to Burundi for the second time in less than a year. The day before the U.N. meeting, a group of soldiers and police declared themselves an official rebel movement, with General Godefroid Niyombare as their leader (the former intelligence chief who led the failed coup in May), which deepened concerns that Burundi is sliding back into ethnic conflict. The rebels welcome international mediation but have also called for Burundians to support their fight against Nkurunziza. The Burundi government asserts there is no risk of return to an ethnic war.
During the U.N. meeting, The African Union sought U.N. Security Council backing for the deployment of peacekeeping troops. Members of the African Union Peace and Security Council expected leaders to endorse its proposal to protect civilians, despite Burundi's rejection of the idea in mid-December. There was debate among the U.N. on the best course of action. Russia's U.N. Ambassador, Iliichev, criticizes foreign intervention, arguing that Burundi does not need peacekeepers and instead needs help increasing its own police capacity. He admits, however, that "it will be very difficult to oppose any resolution from the African Union because we always say that there should be African solutions to African problems." Russia is a council veto power. In the meantime, ambassadors urged the African leaders to be planning in advance for the African Annual Summit, in order to work on convincing Burundi to accept a deployment of international troops. A confidential report from the U.N. peacekeeping department said peacekeeping troops should be deployed to Burundi only as a last resort if violence worsens. It states the best option in the event of escalating violence would be intervention by a single country or a coalition of nations, but the focus now should be on trying to promote political dialogue.
This week
On Friday, France suspended its security and defense cooperation activities in Burundi. They support mediation by the African Union and others in efforts to calm the unrest.
Africa's annual summit took place this weekend in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told African leaders on Saturday they should not use legal loopholes or undemocratic constitutional changes to "cling to power", and that they should respect term limits. U.N. assistant secretary general for human rights, Ivan Simonovic says that the African Union, if it did not send peacekeepers, should at least boost the number of human rights monitors it has there or send some police.
As of today, the AU will not be forcing any peacekeepers on Burundi, given their reluctance to worsen the conflict. They will, however, send a mission to press the government to accept the peacekeeping force.
Fun Tidbit
On a fun renewable energy note, Microsoft has taken to the sea. They have tested a prototype of a self-contained data center that can operate hundreds of feet below the surface of the ocean. Today’s data centers, which power everything from streaming video to social networking and email, contain thousands of computer servers generating lots of heat. When there is too much heat, the servers crash. Putting the gear under cold ocean water could fix the problem. Microsoft is also considering pairing the system either with a turbine or a tidal energy system to generate electricity. The underwater server containers could also help make web services work faster.
Microsoft researchers said they studied the impact their computing containers might have on fragile underwater environments. They used acoustic sensors to determine if the spinning drives and fans inside the steel container could be heard in the surrounding water. What they found is that the clicking of the shrimp that swam next to the system drowned out any noise created by the container. One aspect with obvious potential is the harvest of electricity from the movement of seawater. This could mean that no new energy is added to the ocean and, as a result, there is no overall heating. ♧
Cheers,
Sonja