November 2015

This week, conference organizers announced that the anticipated 2015 International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) in Nusa Dua, Indonesia would be postponed due to a volcanic ash cloud limiting air travel and presenting health concerns. We stand in solidarity with all those in the region. Although the conference is postponed, the family planning conversation must go on.

Earlier this fall, the 193 member states at the 70^th United Nations General Assembly ratified and launched the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Now, stakeholders are determining together how to achieve the 17 goals and 169 targets.  Management Sciences for Health (MSH) works primarily toward Goal 3: to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages and related targets by 2030.

Join us online for the global launch of the No More Epidemics campaign, November 12, 2015, 11:00 am - 1:30 pm SAST (4:00 am – 6:30 am ET) from the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Visit NoMoreEpidemics.org to watch the Live Stream

Follow on Twitter at #NoMoreEpidemics.

No More Epidemics® is an international campaign to prevent future epidemics of emerging infectious disease. No single player can solve this problem alone. The campaign addresses this urgent challenge by bringing together nongovernmental organizations, top experts in health systems and humanitarian relief, community organizations, academic institutions, epidemiologists, scientists, and the most innovative companies and philanthropies in collaboration with national governments and international agencies, to influence governments and multilateral institutions to increase their epidemic prevention and preparedness capabilities.

Picture a scenario where infections become totally untreatable because none of the available antimicrobial agents work. This is not imaginary, but is likely to happen very soon if we don’t act urgently, intensely, and consistently to tackle the rising tide of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

This week, the global health and development community is commemorating the first World Antibiotic Awareness Week. Spearheaded by the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise global awareness on the magnitude, reach, and severity of antibiotic resistance; the event comes at a time when resistance to many antimicrobials, not just antibiotics, has now escalated to pandemic proportions and is a serious global health risk that requires urgent attention. In fact, the WHO has labeled AMR one of the biggest global public health threats.