Press releases

New program announced to lower high blood pressure in unreached communities across Nigeria

New York, USA - November 30, 2020 | Permalink

More than one-third of all Nigerians have high blood pressure, increasing risk for heart disease

30 November, 2020 (Lagos, Nigeria) – In Nigeria, heart disease is responsible for one in ten deaths. earlier this month, the Federal Ministry of Health’s Non-communicable Disease Division announced the Nigeria Hypertension Control Initiative (NHCI), a new program to control high blood pressure (also known as hypertension) and improve heart health. NHCI, which integrates hypertension care and treatment in primary health care facilities, launched in 12 facilities in Ogun and Kano states and will scale up to 600 in both states.

“The number of people with high blood pressure is growing in Nigeria and is a major risk factor for heart disease,” says Dr. Emmanuel Agogo, Nigeria Country Representative of Resolve to Save Lives “If left unchecked, high blood pressure endangers the physical health and well-being of our citizens. With this new program, we are providing critical diagnosis, care, and treatment needed to reduce high blood pressure and save lives.”

High blood pressure is one of the main risk factors of cardiovascular disease, which claims nearly 234,000 lives in Nigeria every year. In the last two decades the prevalence of high blood pressure in Nigeria has tripled; today, it is estimated that 38% of Nigerian adults are hypertensive, yet only one out of three of those with hypertension are receiving treatment. Because hypertension has no symptoms, many people with hypertension are not aware that they have it.

NHCI will use evidence-based strategies to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and control of high blood pressure, including comprehensive hypertension education, care, and treatment led by local health care workers. NHCI will also implement simple treatment protocols, which help to standardize treatment and allow nurses and health care workers to support blood pressure management. This is part of a long-term goal to implement models of team-based, patient-centered care.

Pictured: Unboxing of Blood Pressure Monitors and Devices at NHCI Launch in Kano State

This program is a joint initiative by the Federal Ministry of Health along with the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA), Ogun and Kano state governments, the World Health Organization, and Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies.

“If we want to significantly reduce heart disease, strokes, andheart attacks we must tackle major risk factors, starting with hypertension,” says Dr. Kufor Osi, Technical Officer, Cardiovascular Health of Resolve to Save Lives. “Addressing high blood pressure begins where most people get their care, which is at the primary health care level.”

Nigeria has prioritized addressing the causes of cardiovascular disease and other non-communicable diseases and has set targets of reducing both the prevalence of raised blood pressure and premature mortality from non-communicable diseases by one quarter by 2025. The recently-launched NHCI will contribute significantly to these national targets as well as accelerate progress towards achieving the sustainable development goals and universal health coverage. This will be done through increasing and scaling up access to affordable, comprehensive high-quality hypertension prevention and treatment services at the primary health care and community levels thereby bringing these critical services to the doorsteps of everyday Nigerians.

Pictured: Blood Pressure Measurement training in Kano state

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives is an initiative of the global health organization Vital Strategies focused on preventing 100 million deaths from heart disease and making the world safer from epidemics. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To find out more visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. We work with governments and civil society in 73 countries to design and implement evidence-based strategies that tackle their most pressing public health problems. Our goal is to see governments adopt promising interventions at scale as rapidly as possible.

To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.

Despite Improvement, Most Essential COVID-19 Data Still Not Available for U.S. States

New York, USA - November 16, 2020 | Permalink

​Dr. Tom Frieden and Resolve to Save Lives provide an update on the reporting of essential indicators to track COVID-19 in the U.S.

November 16, 2020 (New York) – Eight months into the pandemic, the United States is facing a record surge of COVID-19 cases with more cases in more places than ever, more hospitalizations, and increasing deaths, and continues to lag in controlling the virus with a coordinated national response. Today, Dr. Tom Frieden, former CDC Director and President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies, and his team have released their second comprehensive review of COVID-19 information available to the public at the state level, mapping states’ progress toward reporting key COVID-19 indicators and providing actionable steps for improvement.

The report shows important gains in the availability of information necessary to track and control COVID-19 in the United States: 54% of essential data points are now being monitored and reported publicly (up from 40% in an initial review conducted by Resolve to Save Lives in July of this year). But troubling gaps persist, particularly for important indicators on contact tracing, health care worker infections, and the use of masks.

“Many state and county-level health departments have put enormous time and effort to increase the quality, timeliness and relevance of the COVID-19 data they share,” said Dr. Tom Frieden. “But the improvements are not uniform, and most states still fall short. What we see is a patchwork of solutions, brought about by the absence of national coordination and support. ”

“Tracking COVID-19 in the United States: Progress and Pitfalls” evaluates state-level dashboards for all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico on their reporting of essential indicators that would dramatically improve the ability of people in the United States to understand both their own risk and how well each state and county is doing to reduce that risk. Better reporting would help provide more services and prevention to the communities most affected by COVID-19, including Black, Latinx, Native American/American Indian, and other groups that have been disproportionately affected. As a companion to the review, Resolve to Save Lives developed an interactive, digital map to showcase changes in indicator availability at the state level.

Dashboards from Minnesota, Oregon, Utah and Washington, D.C. received the highest scores. Nine states (Arkansas, New Mexico, Washington, D.C., Washington, Hawaii, Minnesota, Oregon, and South Carolina) improved by 20 or more percentage points since the July assessment. Of note, the report focuses on public availability of data rather than the overall effectiveness of the state response; several states, including New York and Maine, have excellent overall responses, but gaps in public availability of data.

The report also highlights data availability on emerging hot topics: rapid testing with antigen-based technologies, risk-alert systems, travel-related measures, schools, and vaccines.

The researchers at Resolve conducted a thorough search of state-level government information on COVID-19, including data dashboards from Departments of Health and Education, Governors’ offices, and reopening plans. Data points that could not be located in this process were not considered accessible to the public, and thus not considered in the assessment.

To control COVID-19 effectively, it is important that everyone have clear access to relevant, uniform data across jurisdictions. Adoption of the essential indicators would also increase the information available on disparities in COVID-19 cases, deaths, and the quality of the governmental response for different ages, races, ethnicities, and locations.

Key findings:

Limited but encouraging improvements show that the U.S. can do better. The average COVID-19 data dashboard scored 31% (up from 21% in July). For the first time, for each of the 15 essential indicators, there is at least one state whose reporting meets the gold standard. Reporting on outbreaks in congregate facilities (including long-term care facilities, correctional facilities and homeless shelters) test positivity, and occupancy proportions of ICU beds showed the greatest improvement.

Failure to break down numbers by age and race/ethnicity over time hides important trends. Essential indicators, such as cases, tests, hospitalizations and deaths are not stratified by subgroup or over time in many states. This means there is critical information missing on how different communities and demographics are being disproportionately impacted, limiting public awareness, accountability, and progress.

Reporting on case investigation and contact tracing remains unacceptably poor. There are two crucially important indicators: How long it takes to get infectious people isolated, and what proportion of cases arise from among quarantined contacts. No state fully meets criteria for reporting on the time from when a test is performed (specimen collection) to when people confirmed to be infected are isolated. Only two dashboards (Oklahoma and Washington, D.C.) fully meet criteria for reporting on the crucially important indicator of the percentage of their new cases that come from quarantined contacts. These gaps hamstring the public’s ability to understand the performance of local contact tracing efforts, limit sharing of best practices between states, and delay life-saving improvements. Although contact tracing may need to be scaled back in the context of explosive spread of the virus, case investigation and contact tracing services need continuous improvement to enable more of society to open sooner and safer.

In many places, data critical to decisions on opening and closing schools for in-person learning is missing. Nearly half of states do not publicly report any data on school-associated COVID-19 cases. Some states provide comprehensive data on cases among students and staff. As examples of best practices, New York and Ohio both provide searchable databases of school-specific data.

With the emergence of rapid antigen testing, tracking tests performed and their results has become increasingly complex, and reporting has not kept up. Most (58%) state dashboards do not differentiate between faster, less accurate antigen tests, and molecular (PCR) tests. Failure to report the results of antigen testing may leave communities unaware to local transmission and outbreaks that have not been confirmed by molecular testing.

The report emphasizes basic best practices for data sharing including:

1. Reporting data the same day it is collected to inform timely risk assessment and action
2. Linking to county data dashboards so the public can easily see what is happening in their county and neighboring counties, ideally with zip-code look-up
3. Enabling download of data.

Resolve to Save Lives plans to repeat the assessment in January, and add an assessment of the ease of use of dashboards at that time. In addition, in the coming weeks, Resolve will provide tools and examples of well-designed dashboards, in addition to the examples provided in the report.

Read the full report here: https://preventepidemics.org/covid19/resources/indicators/

Consult the interactive map here: https://preventepidemics.org/covid19/indicators/map

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Media Contacts:

Steven Chlapecka, Resolve to Save Lives, schlapecka@resolvetosavelives.org, +1.917.623.0246

Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies: choneysett@vitalstrategies.org; +1.914.424.3356

Erin Sykes, Resolve to Save Lives: esykes@resolvetosavelives.org; +1.646.612.0001

About Dr. Tom Frieden

Dr. Tom Frieden is former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and former commissioner of the New York City Health Department. He is currently president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, a global health initiative. Resolve is part of Vital Strategies, and works with countries to prevent 100 million deaths from heart disease and to make the world safer from epidemics. Follow Dr. Frieden on Twitter @DrTomFrieden.

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies, aims to prevent at least 100 million deaths from cardiovascular disease and epidemics. Through its Prevent Epidemics program, Resolve to Save Lives has rapidly leveraged existing networks to partner with countries throughout Africa and beyond to combat COVID-19. Resolve is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and is part of the global health organization Vital Strategies. To find out more visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL.

Resolve to Save Lives created a website called PreventEpidemics.org that shows how prepared each country is for an epidemic, including COVID-19. This site is also a resource for current coronavirus statistics and resources.

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. We work with governments and civil society in 73 countries to design and implement evidence-based strategies that tackle their most pressing public health problems. Our goal is to see governments adopt promising interventions at scale as rapidly as possible. To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.

Stay in the know: Follow #KnowCOVID or subscribe to Vital Strategies’ Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram account.

Statement from Dr. Tom Frieden, President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies, on President Trump’s COVID-19 Diagnosis

New York, USA - October 2, 2020 | Permalink

“My thoughts are with the President, First Lady, their family and all those infected with and affected by this virus. This is a reminder that COVID-19 is an ongoing threat to our country and can happen to anyone. This event demonstrates that we need a comprehensive approach to COVID-19. Testing does not replace safety measures including consistent mask use, physical distancing, and hand washing. Learning more about when President Trump and others with whom he had contact last tested negative and first tested positive will help understand this outbreak and limit the risk of further spread.”

New Report on COVID-19 In Africa Highlights Need for Increased Access to Health Care Services and Protections for Health Care Workers

New York, USA - September 24, 2020 | Permalink

More than 24,000 adults in 18 AU Member States provide insight into indirect impacts of virus

September 24, 2020 (New York) – Most African Union (AU) Member States swiftly implemented public health and social measures (PHSMs) to contain COVID-19; these measures likely slowed the spread of the virus, and caseloads in Africa have remained lower than projected. Though many governments have since loosened restrictions, allowing some economic activity to resume, new research from the Partnership for Evidence-Based COVID-19 Response (PERC) highlights substantial indirect burdens of the virus across Africa and offers recommendations to governments as countries scale up or scale down PHSMs to control the pandemic.

Almost half of people surveyed reported to have skipped routine care during the pandemic, according to PERC’s latest report —the second in its “Using Data to Find a Balance” series—which draws from a survey of more than 24,000 adults in 18 AU Member States, as well as social, economic and epidemiological data from a range of sources. Up to 70% respondents reported problems accessing food in the past week, and just as many survey respondents reported earning less money compared to the same time last year. Still, support for PHSMs remained strong, and 85% of respondents reported wearing a face mask in the previous seven days.

“African Union Member States have responded decisively to COVID-19,” said Dr. John Nkengasong, Director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. “The data presented in PERC’s new report will allow decision makers to go beyond COVID-19 caseloads alone and instead consider a fuller picture of health and wellbeing, and tailor response measures accordingly.”

Governments and international aid organizations need to act quickly to restore access to health services for care unrelated to COVID-19 and to build back public demand for services.

Of survey participants who have needed health care during the pandemic, almost half reported skipping or delaying care; among those who needed medications, almost half reported increased difficulty in obtaining them. The most commonly delayed or skipped health care services were routine checkups, followed by care for malaria, diabetes, cardiovascular issues, antenatal care, and care for children under 5 years old.

“As in past outbreaks, we are seeing a high cost from missed and delayed health care,” said Dr Zabulon Yoti, Acting Regional Director, Emergency Preparedness and Response Cluster, World Health Organization. “Even routine check-ups are critical for screening and treating people for both communicable and noncommunicable diseases. We must protect access to health care by making sure that facilities are equipped to handle COVID-19 infections, and that health workers are protected.”

Most respondents supported reopening their national economies, but reported anxiety about resuming normal activities was also high. The data suggest that COVID-19 is seen as a serious threat, but for many, economic needs outweigh concern about catching the virus.

Still, adherence to the “3 W’s”—wearing a mask, washing hands, and watching distance from others—remained high, pointing to a way forward for policymakers. Effective government support for these behavioral measures could mitigate the need for more restrictive measures in the future.

“COVID-19 has threatened progress toward all Sustainable Development Goals, and PERC’s data clearly show the importance of targeted relief measures,” said Dr. Elsie S. Kanza, Head of the Regional Agenda, Africa; Member of the Executive Committee, World Economic Forum. “These are needed to help our economic recovery, to protect health and to prevent inequality from widening.”

The report also highlights gaps in reporting key data, including data on community transmission and adherence to preventive measures, which limits the speed and impact of efforts made to manage local outbreaks, and makes it difficult to calibrate PHSMs.

“Data is essential to our defense against COVID-19, and the more governments in AU Member States can rely on it to support their decisions, the more effective their response will be,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies.

Key findings in the report include:

• 44% respondents in need of health care said they or someone in their household had skipped or delayed needed services, and 45% respondents in need of medicine reported the same for accessing medication.
• 70% of people reported problems accessing food, mainly due to lost income or higher food prices
• 70% of survey respondents reported earning less money compared to the same time last year
• Lower income families were more likely to experience a decline in income. About 80% of households with less than US$100 in monthly income saw their income fall, compared to 60% of households with at least US$500 in monthly income
• Six in 10 respondents agreed that the economy needs to be reopened, and that the health risks of COVID-19 are minimal if social distancing rules are followed
• 85% of respondents reported wearing a face mask in public in the previous seven days, but as expected given recent relaxing of some PHSMs, a lower share (60%) said they avoided religious gatherings and only half reported staying home instead of going to work, school or other regular activities
• While more than two-thirds of respondents agreed that many people in their country would be affected by COVID-19, less than one-third (29%) believed their own personal risk of infection was high
• While most respondents indicated basic knowledge of COVID-19, misinformation about the virus is common, particularly those positing foreign interference in treatments and vaccines. About one in three survey respondents agreed with the assertion that foreigners were discrediting African medicines and testing vaccines on Africans

Recommendations include that governments:

• Prioritize “boxing in” the virus, by ensuring an adequate supply of testing kits and reagents to identify positive cases, tracing their close contacts, and isolating cases, rather than relying on wide-scale lockdowns
• Make it as easy as possible for communities to adhere to low-cost personal protective measures, “the 3 W’s”—wearing a mask, washing hands, and watching distance.
• Protect health care workers by establishing COVID-19 protocols, increasing availability of personal protective equipment and training on infection prevention and control; then encourage people to seek care for health services unrelated to COVID-19 by engaging community leaders
• Prioritize evidence-based measures to increase food security and economic recovery, including cash transfers and direct food support, with a focus on the lowest income households and vulnerable populations
• Address misinformation by sharing consistent, evidence-based messages with trusted community members as messages messengers
• Invest in data collection, analysis and reporting, including core indicators about cases and the public health response, rapid mortality surveillance, data about COVID-19 infections among health workers, and data on utilization of health services

To read the full report, please visit: https://preventepidemics.org/covid19/perc/

About the Partnership for Evidence-Based COVID-19 Response (PERC)

The Partnership for Evidence-based Response to COVID-19, a consortium of global public health organizations and private sector firms. PERC member organizations are Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies, the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team and the World Economic Forum. Ipsos and Novetta Mission Analytics bring market research expertise and years of data analytic support to the partnership PERC was created in March 2020 with the objective of providing AU Member States with real-time information and guidance to reduce the impact of COVID-19 on the continent. PERC’s first regional report, Responding to COVID-19 in Africa: Using Data to Find the Balance, was published in May of 2020.

About Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention

Africa CDC is a specialized technical institution of the African Union that strengthens the capacity and capability of Africa’s public health institutions as well as partnerships to detect and respond quickly and effectively to disease threats and outbreaks, based on data-driven interventions and programmes. Learn more at: http://www.africacdc.org

About the World Health Organization

The World Health Organization contributes to a better future for people everywhere. Good health lays the foundation for vibrant and productive communities, stronger economies, safer nations and a better world. As the lead health authority within the United Nations system, our work touches people’s lives around the world every day. In Africa, WHO serves Member States and works with development partners to improve the health and well-being of all people living here. The WHO Regional Office for Africa is located in Brazzaville, Congo. Learn more at www.afro.who.int and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of the global health organization Vital Strategies, focuses on preventing deaths from cardiovascular disease and by preventing epidemics. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To find out more, visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL and @DrTomFrieden

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. We work with governments and civil society in 73 countries to design and implement evidence-based strategies that tackle their most pressing public health problems. Our goal is to see governments adopt promising interventions at scale as rapidly as possible. To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.

About the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team

The UK-PHRST is funded by UK aid from the Department of Health and Social Care and is a partnership between the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Public Health England (PHE). University of Oxford and King’s College London (KCL) are academic partners. Through the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team (UK-PHRST), the UK has the capacity to respond rapidly to disease outbreaks in low- and middle-income countries around the world and conduct operational research into epidemic preparedness, playing an important role in global health security. The team also works to help countries to build their own capacity for an improved and rapid national response to outbreaks.

About Ipsos

Ipsos is the third largest market research company in the world, present in 90 markets and employing more than 18,000 people. Our passionately curious research professionals, analysts and scientists have built unique multi-specialist capabilities that provide true understanding and powerful insights into the actions, opinions and motivations of citizens, consumers, patients, customers or employees. Our 75 business solutions are based on primary data coming from our surveys, social media monitoring, and qualitative or observational techniques. “Game Changers”—our tagline—summarises our ambition to help our 5,000 clients navigate with confidence our world of rapid change. Founded in France in 1975, Ipsos is listed on the Euronext Paris since 1 July 1999. The company is part of the SBF 120 and the Mid-60 index and is eligible for the Deferred Settlement Service (SRD). ISIN code FR0000073298, Reuters ISOS.PA, Bloomberg IPS:FP https://www.ipsos.com/en/news-and-polls/overview.

About Novetta

Novetta delivers scalable advanced analytic and technical solutions to address challenges of national and global significance. Focused on mission success, Novetta pioneers disruptive technologies in machine learning, data analytics, full-spectrum cyber, open source analytics, cloud engineering, DevSecOps, and multi-INT analytics for Defense, Intelligence Community, and Federal Law Enforcement customers. Novetta is headquartered in McLean, VA with over 1,300 employees across the U.S.

About the World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. In response to the COVID-19 emergency, the World Economic Forum, acting as partner to the World Health Organization (WHO), launched the COVID Action Platform. The platform is intended to catalyse private-sector support for the global public health response to COVID-19, and to do so at the scale and speed required to protect lives and livelihoods, aiming to find ways to help end the global emergency as soon as possible. For more information, visit: https://www.weforum.org/

Media Contacts:

• James Ayodele, Principal Communication Officer, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). Email: Ayodelej@africa-union.org; Tel: +251 11 551 7700
• Collins Boakye-Agyemang, Communications Officer, WHO Regional Office for Africa. Email: boakyeagyemangc@who.int; Tel: +4724139420 or +242065206565
• Erin Sykes, Director of Communications, Resolve to Save Lives: esykes@resolvetosavelives.org; +1.646.612.0001Christina Honeysett, Director of PR, Vital Strategies. Email: CHoneysett@vitalstrategies.org; Tel: +1 914 424 3356
• Natalie Lacey, Chief Operating Officer, Global Affairs, Ipsos. Email: Natalie.Lacey@ipsos.com; Tel: +13126086746
• Amanda Russo, Head of Media Content, World Economic Forum. Email: Amanda.Russo@weforum.org; Tel: +1 415 734 0589

Statement from Dr. Tom Frieden, President and CEO, Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies, on the death of 200,000 Americans from COVID-19

New York, USA - September 22, 2020 | Permalink

“Every one of the 200,000 Americans killed by COVID-19 is a tragedy, and most of these deaths did not have to happen. The future is in our hands. We can save lives and accelerate economic recovery by putting science and public health at the center of our response. As the global death toll passes one million, this also means collaborating to improve public health systems worldwide.

“There is no fairy tale ending to this pandemic—not even a vaccine. By chipping away at it with fewer crowded indoor spaces, the 3W’s of Wear a mask, Watch your distance, and Wash your hands, the Box-It-In approach of strategic testing, rapid isolation, complete contact tracing, and supportive quarantine, we can save lives and restore livelihoods. If there is a silver lining to this pandemic, it is the possibility that we will recognize that we’re all in this together. By working together, we can overcome the virus.”

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About Tom Frieden

Dr. Tom Frieden, an infectious disease physician, was director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2009 to 2017 during the H1N1, Ebola, and Zika emergencies. He is President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives (an initiative of Vital Strategies) and Senior Fellow for Global Health at the Council on Foreign Relations. Twitter: @DrTomFrieden, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. We work with governments and civil society in 73 countries to design and implement evidence-based strategies that tackle their most pressing public health problems. Our goal is to see governments adopt promising interventions at scale as rapidly as possible. To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of the global health organization Vital Strategies, focuses on preventing deaths from cardiovascular disease and preventing epidemics. Resolve to Save Lives is funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gates Philanthropy Partners, which is funded with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation. Resolve received additional funding for the COVID-19 response from these donors and Start Small Foundation, CDC Foundation and Stavros Niarchos Foundation. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To find out more, visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL and @DrTomFrieden.

Media Contact:

Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies: choneysett@vitalstrategies.org; +1.914.424.3356

Erin Sykes, Resolve to Save Lives: esykes@resolvetosavelives.org; +1.646.612.0001

New Study Reviews Cost-Effectiveness of Hypertension Management in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

New York, USA - September 21, 2020 | Permalink

Comprehensive review from Resolve to Save Lives and partners finds most hypertension interventions are cost-effective

21 September 2020 – New York: Controlling high blood pressure is an effective way to prevent heart disease and save lives, but in many low- and middle-income countries, cost is a barrier to hypertension treatment programs. In a new study published in BMJ Global Health, experts from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies, RTI International and Johns Hopkins University reviewed economic evaluations of hypertension treatment strategies, concluding that significant evidence proves hypertension control interventions are a cost-effective way to prevent premature cardiovascular disease in low- and middle-income countries.

“Too many people in the world are living with hypertension that remains undiagnosed, untreated, and uncontrolled,” said Dr. Andrew Moran, Director of Global Hypertension Programs at Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies. “This review found that hypertension control is generally a high value investment in better health in the low- and middle-income countries where most people with hypertension live.”

The review found that most interventions which avoided costs associated with disability-adjusted life years (DALY, or years of life that would be lost to illness or disability) were cost-effective, relative to national income thresholds.The review also identified specific programs that are likely not cost-effective, including screening for hypertension at younger ages (age 35 vs age 55), addressing prehypertension, and treating patients at lower cardiovascular disease risk.

Cost-effectiveness analysis specific to low-resource settings can help inform decisions to implement hypertension control programs in low- and middle-income countries. Current gaps in evidence that may further inform cost-effectiveness research were also identified: more research is needed on program elements such as task-sharing, risk-based treatment and establishing standardized treatment protocols.

“Innovative and cost-effective models of care are the way forward to increase access to hypertension treatment for the most vulnerable” said Dr. Jennifer Cohn, Senior Vice President of Cardio Vascular Health, “recommendations from this review show us a path towards scaling up programs and reaching control for hypertension in low- and middle-income countries.”

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Link to Report:

https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/9/e002213

Media Contact:

Erin Sykes, Resolve to Save Lives: esykes@resolvetosavelives.org; +1.646.612.0001

Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies: choneysett@vitalstrategies.org; +1.914.424.3356

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of the global health organization, Vital Strategies, focuses on preventing deaths from cardiovascular disease and by preventing epidemics. Resolve to Save Lives is funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gates Philanthropy Partners, which is funded with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To find out more, visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL and @DrTomFrieden

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. We work with governments and civil society in 73 countries to design and implement evidence-based strategies that tackle their most pressing public health problems. Our goal is to see governments adopt promising interventions at scale as rapidly as possible. To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.

More than 3 billion people protected from harmful trans fat in their food

New York, USA - September 9, 2020 | Permalink

But, 11 out of 15 countries with the most coronary heart disease deaths due to trans fats have yet to take actions to eliminate the substances

9 September 2020 | GENEVA - Two years into the World Health Organization’s (WHO) ambitious effort to eliminate industrially produced trans fats from the global food supply, the Organization reports that 58 countries so far have introduced laws that will protect 3.2 billion people from the harmful substance by the end of 2021. But more than 100 countries still need to take actions to remove these harmful substances from their food supplies.

Consumption of industrially produced trans fats are estimated to cause around 500,000 deaths per year due to coronary heart disease.

“In a time when the whole world is fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, we must make every effort to protect people’s health. That must include taking all steps possible to prevent noncommunicable diseases that can make them more susceptible to the coronavirus, and cause premature death,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Our goal of eliminating trans fats by 2023 must not be delayed.”

Fifteen countries account for approximately two thirds of the worldwide deaths linked to trans fat intake. Of these, four (Canada, Latvia, Slovenia, United States of America) have implemented WHO-recommended best-practice policies since 2017, either by setting mandatory limits for industrially produced trans fats to 2% of oils and fats in all foods or banning partially hydrogenated oils (PHO).

But the remaining 11 countries (Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Iran, Mexico, Nepal, Pakistan, Republic of Korea) still need to take urgent action.

The report highlights two encouraging trends. First, when countries do act, they overwhelmingly adopt best-practice policies rather than less restrictive ones. New policy measures passed and/or introduced in the past year in Brazil, Turkey and Nigeria all meet WHO’s criteria for best-practice policies. Countries, such as India, that have previously implemented less restrictive measures, are now updating policies to align with best practice.

Second, regional regulations that set standards for multiple countries are becoming increasingly popular, emerging as a promising strategy for accelerating progress towards global elimination by 2023. In 2019, the European Union passed a best-practice policy, and all 35 countries that are part of the WHO American Region/Pan American Health Organization unanimously approved a regional plan of action to eliminate industrially produced trans fats by 2025. Together, these two regional initiatives have the potential to protect an additional 1 billion people in more than 50 countries who were not previously protected by trans fat regulations.

“With the global economic downturn, more than ever, countries are looking for best buys in public health,” said Dr Tom Frieden, President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives. “Making food trans fat-free, saves lives and saves money, and, by preventing heart attacks, reduces the burden on health care facilities.”

Despite the encouraging progress, important disparities persist in policy coverage by region and country income level. Most policy actions to date, including those passed in 2019 and 2020, have been in higher-income countries and in the WHO Regions of the Americas and Europe. Best-practice policies have been adopted by seven upper-middle-income countries and 33 high-income countries; no low-income or lower-middle-income countries have yet done so.

Note to editors:

Industrially produced trans fats are contained in hardened vegetable fats, such as margarine and ghee, and are often present in snack food, baked foods, and fried foods. Manufacturers often use them as they have a longer shelf life and are cheaper than other fats. But healthier alternatives can be used that do not affect taste or cost of food.

WHO recommends that trans fat intake be limited to less than 1% of total energy intake, which translates to less than 2.2 g/day with a 2,000-calorie diet. To achieve a world free of industrially produced trans fats by 2023, WHO recommends that countries:

• develop and implement best-practice policies to set mandatory limits for industrially produced trans fats to 2% of oils and fats in all foods or to ban partially hydrogenated oils (PHO);
• invest in monitoring mechanisms, e.g. lab capacity to measure and monitor trans fats in foods; and
• advocate for regional or sub-regional regulations to expand the benefits of trans fat policies.

This report launches during 2020 Global Week for Action on Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) from 7 to 13 September. This year's theme is accountability to ensure that commitments made by governments, policy makers, industries, academia, and civil society become a reality.

Link to Report:

https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/334170/9789240010178-eng.pdf

Media Contact:

Kimberly Chriscaden, Communications Officer, World Health Organization: chriscadenk@who.int

Erin Sykes, Resolve to Save Lives: esykes@resolvetosavelives.org; +1.646.612.0001

Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies: choneysett@vitalstrategies.org; +1.914.424.3356

About WHO

The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing.

For updates on COVID-19 and public health advice to protect yourself from coronavirus, visit www.who.int and follow WHO on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat, YouTube

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of the global health organization Vital Strategies, focuses on preventing deaths from cardiovascular disease and by preventing epidemics. Resolve to Save Lives is funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gates Philanthropy Partners, which is funded with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To find out more, visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL and @DrTomFrieden

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. We work with governments and civil society in 73 countries to design and implement evidence-based strategies that tackle their most pressing public health problems. Our goal is to see governments adopt promising interventions at scale as rapidly as possible. To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.

New Report Provides Policy Guidance to Promote Widespread Mask-Wearing to Help Contain COVID-19

New York, USA - August 27, 2020 | Permalink

​Dr. Tom Frieden, former CDC Director and Resolve to Save Lives President and CEO, joins public health leaders in recommending best practices to mask up and keep deaths down

27 August 2020 (New York) – As scientific understanding of COVID-19 has evolved, the importance of mask-wearing has become clear. Studies now show that people without symptoms and people early in the course of their illness can spread COVID-19, making masks a critical tool in prevention. Today Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies, released a new report, “Promoting mask-wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic: a policymaker’s guide,” to help communities design and implement evidence-based strategies to promote widespread and correct use of masks.

“When we all wear masks, we are all safer. Masks are among the cheapest, simplest, most effective ways for countries to fight this virus and get the economy running again,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, former CDC Director and President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies. “Masks matter. Except in a few places, mask-wearing is the ‘new normal’ for the foreseeable future.”

In addition to synthesizing evidence on how masks reduce the risk of transmission, the new report identifies best practices for mask design and use. Not all masks protect equally. Surgical masks are highly effective, but three-layered cotton and cotton blend masks can also provide protection.

The report also explains the importance of measuring and monitoring community-wide use of masks and conducting research to understand differing rates of adherence. The results let officials know when and where to focus their community engagement and education activities. In Philadelphia, for example, weekly monitoring of mask use has been associated with a steady increase in the proportion of people wearing masks correctly.

The report also reviews best practices to promote mask wearing, including mandates, focused and rigorously designed and evaluated media campaigns, and community engagement.It also lists reasons why people might not wear masks, including lack of understanding of risk, perceived social stigma, unsupportive social norms, distrust in government, lack of access and lack of reinforcement.

“We want to empower government officials and community leaders with a practical guide to support widespread mask adoption from people in their communities,” said Sandra Mullin, Senior Vice President for Policy, Advocacy and Communication at Vital Strategies. “We know that mask-wearing is widespread and, in most communities, has grown in response to the threat of COVID-19. To improve masking rates, governments need data to identify why and where some populations aren’t masking consistently. With evidence and empathy in hand, governments can design effective programs that leverage media campaigns, regulatory powers, and working with community leaders to bring mask usage as close to 100 percent as possible. When communities mask up, we bring deaths and harm down.”

The report, which will be kept updated with the latest research on PreventEpidemics.com, cautions that widespread use of masks must be part of a package of measures that also includes closure of indoor spaces when appropriate, protecting health care workers and health care facilities, physical distancing, hand-washing, ventilation, strategic testing, rapid isolation, complete contact tracing, and supportive quarantine.

“We welcome this guidance on adoption of masks at a community level,” said Dr Da Costa Aboagye, Director of Health Promotion, the Ghana Health Service. “As we saw in Ghana, effective observational studies on mask use improved our ability to identify gaps in our policies and messaging, strengthening our response to the virus.”

Read the complete report here.

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Media Contacts:

Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies: choneysett@vitalstrategies.org; +1.914.424.3356

Erin Sykes, Resolve to Save Lives: esykes@resolvetosavelives.org; +1.646.612.0001

About Dr. Tom Frieden

Dr. Tom Frieden is former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and former commissioner of the New York City Health Department. He is currently president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, a global health initiative. Resolve is part of Vital Strategies, and works with countries to prevent 100 million deaths and to make the world safer from epidemics. Follow Dr. Frieden on Twitter @DrTomFrieden and LinkedIn.

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of the global health organization Vital Strategies, focuses on preventing deaths from cardiovascular disease and preventing epidemics. Resolve to Save Lives is funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gates Philanthropy Partners, which is funded with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation. Resolve received additional funding for the COVID-19 response from these donors and Start Small Foundation, CDC Foundation and Stavros Niarchos Foundation. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To find out more, visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL.

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. We work with governments and civil society in 73 countries to design and implement evidence-based strategies that tackle their most pressing public health problems. Our goal is to see governments adopt promising interventions at scale as rapidly as possible. To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.

Stay in the know:  Follow #KnowCOVID or subscribe to Vital Strategies’Twitter,Facebook or Instagram accounts.

New Special Section in Journal of Clinical Hypertension Authored by Investigators from Low- and Middle-Income Countries Fills Gap in Cardiovascular Health Research

New York, USA - August 27, 2020 | Permalink

August 27, 2020: Most deaths from cardiovascular disease occur in low- and middle-income countries, but relatively few published studies have focused on cardiovascular disease in these countries, and publications in international scientific journals by researchers from these settings remain rare. A special section published today in the Journal of Clinical Hypertension features six new studies by investigators from Latin America, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Eurasia that assess implementation of hypertension control and dietary artificial trans fat elimination strategies to reduce preventable deaths from cardiovascular disease in their countries and worldwide.

The cardiovascular disease prevention initiatives evaluated in the supplement are supported by Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of the global health organization Vital Strategies. Resolve aims to save 100 million lives globally by improving cardiovascular health. Authors from eight low- and middle-income countries who led these studies participated in a mentorship program with experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Lancet Commission on Hypertension Group, Resolve to Save Lives, and the World Hypertension League.

”Planning a research study, collecting data, assessing data analysis, and writing a scientific paper for the first time is extraordinarily difficult,” said Dr. Andrew Moran, Director of Global Hypertension Programs at Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies. ”The CDC-Lancet Commission on Hypertension Group-Resolve to Save Lives program, and more specifically, the program’s mentors, helped new authors through this difficult process, and it is exciting to see the quality of the finished papers and their potential to improve cardiovascular health in the authors’ countries.”

Expanding the evidence base on hypertension treatment, sodium reduction, and trans-fat elimination strategies is a critical pathway to prevent and manage cardiovascular diseases. An important strategy for achieving this goal is to increase opportunities for investigators in low- and middle-income countries to publish their studies.

“Rigorous evaluation allows health programs to learn and improve,” said Dr. Michael Hecht Olsen of the Lancet Commission on Hypertension Group. “These studies contribute to our understanding of cardiovascular health strategies in low- and middle-income countries and will be valuable not only for the programs themselves, but for future interventions as well.”

In 2019, CDC began a mentorship collaboration with the Lancet Commission on Hypertension Group, Resolve to Save Lives, and World Hypertension League, inviting 35 public health trainees and practitioners working on RTSL-supported cardiovascular health initiatives in low- and middle-income countries to propose manuscripts that could enhance the evidence base and inform future work. Potential authors were paired with mentors from the Lancet Commission on Hypertension Group to define a clear study aim, describe methods, and present and discuss the results. Authors strengthened their scientific communication and dissemination skills and shared project results with the larger scientific community, increasing the global impact of their work.

“The papers included in this supplement show the talent and dedication of these authors,” said Dr. Qaiser Mukhtar, Program Implementation and Capacity Building Team Lead of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Global Noncommunicable Diseases Branch.“It’s our hope that participation in the mentorship program will help to create a global community of cardiovascular health researchers who continue to collaborate and learn with and from each other. ”

The studies highlighted in the Journal of Clinical Hypertension’s special supplement include :

• Martinez et al. describing trends and disparities in cardiovascular disease burden in the WHO Region of the Americas from 1990-2017, revealing a slowdown in the reduction of premature mortality from cardiovascular disease that may prevent countries from attaining the UN Sustainable Development Goal of a one third reduction in premature mortality from non-communicable diseases by 2030.
• Yueayai et al. on the results of a pilot study on a method to enhance hypertension diagnosis in a hospital in Thailand, where the use of electronic pop-up messages in the electronic health record and follow-up protocol interventions significantly increased hypertension diagnosis and follow-up among hypertensive patients.
• Krishna et al. assessing the attitudes of private health care providers in Madhya Pradesh, India toward key strategies of the India Hypertension Control Initiative, and concluding that private sector engagement with the public program is feasible.

• Demin et al. exploring current trans-fat elimination policies in member states of the Eurasian Economic Union, finding that they are insufficient to achieve the WHO guideline of <2% of total fat content in all food products, and recommending the adoption of regional policy measures.
• Tarar et al. describing the complexities of trans fat prevalence and control in the food supply in Pakistan, and suggesting the development of a comprehensive national strategy for trans fat elimination.
• Chavasit et al. describing consumption of trans fat and strategies for its reduction in Thailand, using a strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threat analysis to support a regulatory approach to reduce trans fat in Thailand.

The Journal of Clinical Hypertension special section is only a beginning. A future Journal of Clinical Hypertension special section will spotlight additional studies from investigators participating in the mentorship collaboration.Participants in the CDC-Lancet Commission on Hypertension Group-Resolve to Save Lives program are well on their way to leading more research and improving cardiovascular health around the world.

Media Contact:

Erin Sykes, Resolve to Save Lives: esykes@resolvetosavelives.org; +1.646.612.0001

Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies: choneysett@vitalstrategies.org; +1.914.424.3356

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of the global health organization Vital Strategies, focuses on preventing deaths from cardiovascular disease and preventing epidemics. Resolve to Save Lives is funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gates Philanthropy Partners, which is funded with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To find out more, visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.orgor Twitter @ResolveTSL and @DrTomFrieden

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. Our programs reach 73 countries and help prevent death and illness from noncommunicable disease, reduce harm caused by environmental factors, and support cities as engines for public health progress. We consult with governments on issues including restricting junk food marketing to kids, promoting smoke-free laws, improving indoor and outdoor air quality, and strengthening road safety. These are protections that can save millions of lives. Our team combines evidence-based strategies with innovation to help develop and implement sound public health policies, manage programs efficiently, strengthen data systems, conduct research, and design strategic communication campaigns for policy and behavior change.

To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.

Viet Nam Debuts First National Salt Reduction Mass Media Campaign

New York, USA - August 19, 2020 | Permalink

More than 1 in 4 deaths in Viet Nam are linked to consuming too much salt

August 19, 2020 – (New York, NY) Today, the Vietnamese government debuted “Reduce Salt by Half,” the country’s first major mass media public service announcement to dramatically depict the dangers of the high salt diet common Viet Nam. Part of a two-month long media campaign announced July 23, the public service announcement is the cornerstone of the government’s national advocacy effort to prompt actions to curb high salt consumption, which will also be supported by community-level education efforts. The 30-second public service announcement will run on national broadcast television and radio, and be featured on a dedicated campaign social media platform, Lower salt for better health.

The campaign was developed by the Department of Preventive Medicine, Ministry of Health of Viet Nam in collaboration with Vietnam country office of the World Health Organization with support from the global health organization Vital Strategies. Key institutes such as the National Institute of Nutrition, the Center for Health Education and Communication, and the Cardiovascular Institute have also been actively involved in developing and implementing the campaign.

“Excess salt kills more than 40,000 people in Viet Nam every year,” said Dr. Laura Cobb, Director of Nutrition Policy and Surveillance at Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies. “Public education is an important step by the Vietnamese government toward preventing non-communicable diseases such as heart attack and stroke and saving lives.”

The average salt intake in Viet Nam is 9.4 grams per day, almost double the amount recommended by the World Health Organization. High-salt diets are directly linked to high blood pressure, kidney failure and stroke. One out of every five adults in Viet Nam has high blood pressure, and one in every three deaths is due to cardiovascular disease, mainly from stroke. Data shows that the primary source of sodium in Viet Nam is salt added during home cooking and from condiments including fish sauce.

The ad depicts the disabling effect of stroke on a middle-aged man— and the burden this causes for his family. It also shows popular foods that are high in salt, such as fish sauce, and features a doctor urging people to cut salt consumption in half by adding less salt to food, dipping lightly in salty sauces and condiments, and limiting salty processed food.

The campaign’s key messages will be shared by partner organizations on their websites and social media channels, and broadcast on local radio stations and via communal loudspeakers in communities. Community education events in all 63 provinces, including salt reduction counseling at health facilities, and educational seminars and local education activities by the Vietnam Women’s Union on reducing salt in home cooking, are scheduled to take place through the end of 2020.

This campaign is the second of its kind, following a similar effort in China in September 2019, and is part of a broader effort by governments to reduce sodium using evidence-based behavior change campaigns.

Media Contact:

Erin Sykes, Resolve to Save Lives: esykes@resolvetosavelives.org; +1.646.612.0001

Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies: choneysett@vitalstrategies.org; +1.914.424.3356

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives is a five-year, $225 million initiative funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gates Philanthropy Partners, which is funded with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and is part of the global health organization Vital Strategies. To find out more visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. Our programs reach 73 countries and help prevent death and illness from noncommunicable disease, reduce harm caused by environmental factors, and support cities as engines for public health progress. We consult with governments on issues including restricting junk food marketing to kids, promoting smoke-free laws, improving indoor and outdoor air quality, and strengthening road safety. These are protections that can save millions of lives. Our team combines evidence-based strategies with innovation to help develop and implement sound public health policies, manage programs efficiently, strengthen data systems, conduct research, and design strategic communication campaigns for policy and behavior change.

To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.

Resolve to Save Lives Announces Grants to Promote Healthy Food in Publicly Owned Facilities

New York, USA - July 29, 2020 | Permalink

Innovative Programs in Three Countries Will Save Lives by Improving Diets

July 29, 2020 (New York, NY)—Globally, poor diet is linked to one in five deaths, killing 11 million people each year. Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies, announced the recipients of grants to reduce preventable deaths from dietary risk factors by promoting healthy food options in public settings. Awardees in Philippines, Nepal, and Togo will develop, implement and evaluate policies requiring food sold and served in government-owned facilities, including hospitals, schools, and worksites, to meet evidence-based nutritional standards.

The year-long grants were awarded to Dhulikhel Hospital, Kathmandu University Hospital in Nepal; ImagineLaw, in the Philippines; the Division of Non Communicable Disease Surveillance at the Togo Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene and the Uganda Ministry of Health.

“Dietary risk factors are a major driver of preventable noncommunicable diseases, including heart disease,” said Dr. Laura Cobb, Director of Nutrition Policy and Surveillance atResolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies. “Governments can save lives—and money—by only buying, serving, and selling food and beverages that promote a healthy diet. Our new partners in Philippines, Nepal, Togo are protecting people’s health with smart policies that keep junk food—including sugar-sweetened beverages and salty snacks—out of schools and other public facilities, making healthy food choices easier on a large scale.”

Poor diet (including over consumption of salt and sugar, and low intake of fruits and vegetables) contributes to chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and cancer. Chronic health conditions linked to poor diet, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease. can also increase risk of severe COVID-19. Eating a nutritious and well-balanced diet can create stronger immune systems and lower risk of chronic illnesses and infectious diseases.

Around the world, millions of meals are consumed each day in government-owned settings. By setting nutritional standards through healthy public food procurement policies, which regulate the food served or sold by government-owned entities, governments can make healthy food the default option on a large scale.

The new grantees will develop and implement food procurement policies in line with best practices that have been shown to increase demand for healthier food, and can reduce health care costs and productivity losses from malnutrition and diet-related noncommunicable diseases.

Grant Recipients and Projects:

Togo Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene, Division of Non Communicable Disease Surveillance

Make healthy, local foods more accessible on public-sector grounds, such as schools and universities, by creating a cross-sector advocacy group with members of the Ministries of Health, Commerce, Education, and Trade to develop policies; developing, testing, and executing a public health communication campaign; and training vendors on public-sector grounds in healthy cooking practices.

Dhulikhel Hospital, Kathmandu University Hospital

Develop, implement, and evaluate a public food procurement policy in government-owned schools, worksites, hospitals, care homes, and food vendors in Kathmandu, Nepal.

ImagineLaw

Develop, implement and evaluate a model policy on healthy public food procurement forlocal government units in Quezon City, Philippines.

Togo Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene, Division of Non Communicable Disease Surveillance

Make healthy, local foods more accessible on public-sector grounds, such as schools and universities, by creating a cross-sector advocacy group to develop policies; running a public health communication campaign; and training vendors on public-sector grounds in healthy cooking practices.

Uganda Ministry of Health

Develop, implement and evaluate a food procurement policy, dietary guidelines, standards and regulations for healthy diets in two high-burden districts from the Central and Eastern Uganda.

Media Contact:

Erin Sykes, Resolve to Save Lives: esykes@resolvetosavelives.org; +1.646.612.0001

Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies: choneysett@vitalstrategies.org; +1.914.424.3356

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives is a five-year, $225 million campaign funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gates Philanthropy Partners, which is funded with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and housed at Vital Strategies. To find out more visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. We work with governments and civil society in 73 countries to design and implement evidence-based strategies that tackle their most pressing public health problems. Our goal is to see governments adopt promising interventions at scale as rapidly as possible. To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.

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​Most of United States Not Reporting Essential COVID-19 Data

New York, USA - July 21, 2020 | Permalink

Dr. Tom Frieden joins APHA President Dr. Georges Benjamin and other public health leaders in recommending essential information to track in order to control COVID-19

July 21, 2020 (New York) - After five months of attempting to control COVID-19, the United States has emerged as one the worst-performing countries in the world, with one in four of all global COVID deaths occurring in the US and a death rate that is among the world’s worst. Today, Dr. Tom Frieden, former CDC Director and President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of the global health organization Vital Strategies, joined public health leaders to release the first-ever comprehensive review of the status of COVID-19 information in the United States and outlined how states and communities can increase transparency about risk of COVID-19 and accountability for progress.

The report found critical gaps in the availability of information necessary to track and control COVID-19: across the 50 states, only 40% of essential data points are being monitored and reported publicly. More than half the essential information—strategic intelligence that leaders need to turn the tide against COVID-19—is not reported at all.

“Despite good work done in many states on the challenging task of collecting, analyzing, and presenting crucial information, because of the failure of national leadership, the United States is flying blind in our effort to curb the spread of COVID-19. By revamping our approach and using data to empower people to know their own risk and ensure accountability for decreasing that risk by improving our response, we can get our kids back to school, ourselves back to work, accelerate economic recovery, and save tens of thousands of lives,” Dr. Frieden said at a press briefing today. “The lack of common standards, definitions, and accountability reflects the absence of national strategy, plan, leadership, communication, or organization and results in a cacophony of confusing data. By tracking essential metrics publicly in all states, we can build the transparency and accountability essential to make progress.”

“Tracking COVID-19 in the United States: From Information Catastrophe to Empowered Communities,” reviews state-level COVID-19 data dashboards for all 50 U.S. States, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and draws on best practices to define a set of 15 essential indicators that would dramatically improve the ability of people in the United States to understand both their own risk and how well each state and county is doing to reduce that risk.

These essential indicators include: confirmed and probable cases; percentage of new cases linked to known cases; new PCR tests per capita; percentage of positive tests; influenza-like illness and COVID-like illness presenting to emergency departments; per capita COVID-19 hospitalization rates; percentage of hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients; indicators on outbreaks in congregate facilities and essential workplaces; health care worker infections; testing and contact tracing performance indicators (including test turnaround time, cases with and without a known source of exposure, timeliness of contact elicitation, and percentage of new cases which arise from among quarantined contacts); and percentage of people wearing masks correctly in public indoor settings. Of these, nine indicators should be able to be reported now by all states, and the other six should be able to be reported within several weeks.

The essential indicators would significantly increase the information available on disparities in COVID-19 cases, deaths, and the quality of the governmental response for different ages, races, ethnicities, and locations.

“Public health officials in states and communities across the country are working hard, but in a vacuum with little guidance,” said Dr. Cyrus Shahpar, the Director of Prevent Epidemics at Resolve to Save Lives. “What gets measured gets managed, and we found that media and others are paying entirely too much attention to less important data. Our recommended indicators for states and counties will help ensure that more attention is paid to the most important data and that our knowledge is turned into action. It is about knowing our risk and improving our response.”

“Controlling the COVID-19 pandemic requires a uniform science-based and data-driven approach to disease tracking and reporting that is lacking to date. These indicators provide public health and medical practitioners, policy makers and community leaders evidenced-based targets to aid decision making,” said Georges C. Benjamin, MD, Executive Director of the American Public Health Association. “Now is the time for all of us to come together in a data-driven way to collectively and uniformly control the outbreak so we can realize a shared goal to reopen our nation as safely as possible.”

“Credible, real-time data are essential to any public health response,” said Dr. Caitlin Rivers, Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “Implementing these indicators will not only give individuals the information they need to make decisions, but will improve the state and national response to COVID-19.”

Key findings:

Overall, data are inconsistent, incomplete, and inaccessible, making it impossible to understand risk and focus on important core components of the response. For 11 of the 15 essential indicators, not a single state was reporting according to best-practice criteria, and for 9 of 15 essential indicators, more than half of states were not reporting at all. No state reached even half an optimal score, and half of states scored 20% or below compared with optimal reporting.

The U.S. is missing crucial opportunities to find and stop COVID-19. Currently, only 18% of states are reporting on flu-like illnesses on their COVID-19 dashboard (despite widespread collection of this information) and only 37% of states are reporting COVID-like illnesses—both important early signals of potential COVID-19 spread.

Nursing homes and high-risk essential workplaces remain overlooked in many areas. One third of states do not report any data on outbreaks in congregate facilities (e.g., nursing homes, homeless shelters, correctional facilities) or workplaces such as meatpacking plants, known to be hotspots for spread. This leaves communities without the information necessary to protect these vulnerable populations and can skew understanding of risk in the broader community.

Incomplete demographic information obscures the extent of unequal COVID-19 burden.Most states report proportions of total cases and deaths among different racial and ethnic groups, but disparate access to testing, hospitalization rates, and other factors remain unreported, making the development of effective measures to protect those most at risk more difficult. Few states provide demographic information on recent cases and deaths, with the result that trends in race/ethnicity and other factors are not readily apparent (cumulative reporting, which many states provide, does not enable reporting of this crucial trend).

Information shared on contact tracing is abysmal. Not a single state reported on turnaround time of tests, a crucial indicator of program effectiveness. Only two states reported data on how quickly contact tracers were able to interview people testing positive to learn about their potential contacts. Just eight states reported data on source of exposure for people who test positive; cases coming from unknown exposure signal much higher risk from undetected community transmission. And not a single state reports on the percentage of cases arising among people that are under quarantine after being notified of their potential exposure by a contact tracer—the single most important indicator of the effectiveness of contact tracing.

The report from Resolve to Save Lives recommends that all states update their COVID-19 data portals to meet basic minimum standards and includes a sample best-practice dashboard.

States should also follow basic best practices for data sharing including:

1. Reporting data the same day it is collected to inform timely risk assessment and action
2. Linking to county data dashboards so the public can easily see what is happening in their county and neighboring counties, ideally with zip-code look-up
3. Enabling download of data.

The list of essential indicators were reviewed and endorsed by leading public health organizations, including The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, the American Public Health Association, Trust for America’s Health, The Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health, and the Big Cities Health Coalition.

To watch the full video from today’s media briefing, click here.

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Media Contacts:

Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies: choneysett@vitalstrategies.org; +1.914.424.3356

Erin Sykes, Resolve to Save Lives: esykes@resolvetosavelives.org; +1.646.612.0001

About Dr. Tom Frieden

Dr. Tom Frieden is former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and former commissioner of the New York City Health Department. He is currently president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, a global health initiative. Resolve is part of Vital Strategies, and works with countries to prevent 100 million deaths and to make the world safer from epidemics. Follow Dr. Frieden on Twitter @DrTomFrieden.

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies, aims to prevent at least 100 million deaths from cardiovascular disease and epidemics. Through its Prevent Epidemics program, Resolve to Save Lives has rapidly leveraged existing networks to partner with countries throughout Africa and beyond to combat COVID-19. Resolve is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and is part of the global health organization Vital Strategies. To find out more visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL.

Resolve to Save Lives created a website called PreventEpidemics.org that shows how prepared each country is for an epidemic, including COVID-19, and how many flights are coming and going from infected countries. This site is also a resource for current coronavirus statistics and resources.

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. We work with governments and civil society in 73 countries to design and implement evidence-based strategies that tackle their most pressing public health problems. Our goal is to see governments adopt promising interventions at scale as rapidly as possible. To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.

Stay in the know:Follow #KnowCOVID or subscribe to Vital Strategies’ Twitter, Facebook or Instagram accounts.

About The American Public Health Association

APHA champions the health of all people and all communities. We strengthen the public health profession. We speak out for public health issues and policies backed by science. We are the only organization that combines a nearly 150-year perspective, a broad-based member community and the ability to influence federal policy to improve the public’s health. Visit us at www.apha.org.

Health and Education Experts Weigh in on How Schools Can Maximize Health and Safety as They Look to Reopen

New York, USA - July 8, 2020 | Permalink

Dr. Tom Frieden, Former CDC Director and Resolve to Save Lives President, joined by bipartisan former U.S. Secretaries of Education Margaret Spellings and Arne Duncan and Philadelphia Schools Superintendent William R. Hite, Jr. to urge Americans to work together and support our children so schools can open more safely in the Fall

JULY 8, 2020 (New York)—Amid recent spikes in COVID-19 cases in much of the United States, school systems are grappling with whether and how to reopen for the 2020-2021 academic school year without clear public health guidance. Today, joined by some of the country’s top educational leaders, Dr. Tom Frieden, former CDC Director and President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of the global health organization Vital Strategies, released an issue brief outlining global best practices and a summary of the most important questions and key considerations for administrators, parents and educators as schools prepare to reopen.

“Schools play an essential role in the health, educational and social development of children and in functioning of the economy,” said Dr. Frieden. “It’s not a matter of whether we reopen schools, it’s how. If we work together to stop the virus and support the school community, more students will be able to return to in-person learning more safely.”

Classes typically begin in early August in many southern states such as Florida, where infections appear to be on the rise.

Joined by former U.S. Secretaries of Education Arne Duncan and Margaret Spellings and Superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia William R. Hite, Jr. at a press briefing today, Dr. Frieden urged staff and educators to review CDC guidance, and calibrate their precautions according to the severity of the local epidemic, tightening restrictions when there is community spread and only relaxing them if there are few to no cases. In addition to the prevalence of the virus in the community, staff and educators must consider how many people gather together, in what proximity, over how much time, with what level of ventilation, and with what proportion wearing masks.

“The health of our students, teachers and staff must be our top priority, and public health expertise should guide our decision-making every step of the way,” said former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan who served from 2009-2015 under President Barack Obama.

“This guidance from Resolve seeks to fill a gap in public health information as education leaders begin to make important decisions,” said Margaret Spellings, who served as Secretary of Education between 2005-2009 under President George W. Bush.

“As the start of the school year approaches, there are many important decisions that need to be made and strategies that will need to be developed in order for us to prepare a plan for returning to schools. We are relying on the input and guidance from public health experts to ensure that our plan will provide the safest and healthiest plan for instruction and learning,” said William R. Hite, Jr., Ed.D., who has served as superintendent of The School District of Philadelphia, the largest public school system in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, since 2012.

The issue brief includes practical, evidence-based answers to many of the more difficult questions that are asked, including:

• Should students who live with elderly family-members or other medically vulnerable people attend school?
  • Parents and students will have to weigh the risks carefully and consider which they can reduce. If a student can isolate from medically vulnerable household members by limiting interactions and using a different bathroom, he or she may be able to attend school without exposing family to undue risk. On the other hand, in the case of an older child who can attend school remotely, it may be preferable to forgo in-person attendance and reduce the risk of spread in the home.
• What should a school do if a student or educator tests positive for COVID-19?
  • Administrators should prepare for infections in their staff and student body with detailed and rehearsed protocols and should designate a COVID-19 isolation space separate from where routine medical care is provided. Any sick individuals should be advised to stay home until they meet CDC’s criteria to discontinue isolation, and people who had close contact with an infected individual should quarantine for 14 days after the last possible exposure. This underscores the importance of observing physical distancing measures, to forgo the disruption of many people needing to be quarantined. The CDC has prepared additional guidance for preparing when someone gets sick.
• What policies should schools adopt about wearing masks?
  • Face coverings help reduce disease transmission in cases where the wearer is unknowingly infected but does not have symptoms. The more people wear these masks, the better. Although it may be challenging to wear masks all day (particularly for younger children), school staff should wear face coverings and students should be taught to wear them and encouraged to do so, particularly when physical distancing is not possible. Schools can also offer “mask breaks” throughout the day, so long as students are physically distanced or, ideally, outside. Face coverings should not be placed on children younger than two years old, anyone who has trouble breathing, or anyone unable to remove the covering without assistance.
• Can classrooms be rearranged to reduce transmission?
  • Instead of organizing students in a circle or in small groups, they should be seated in rows, appropriately physically distanced, and all facing the same direction. Teachers should also consider assigning seats, so students are consistently in the same orientation to one another.
• Should teachers explore alternatives to holding class indoors?
  • If conditions allow, it is much safer to hold class outdoors. Doing so reduces the risk of transmitting the virus through the air and through contaminated surfaces. To spread students out further, schools may consider repurposing auditoriums, gymnasiums for additional classroom space, and reaching out to community partners about unused local spaces such as neighborhood libraries.

See more frequently asked questions and answers to them here and link to briefing recording here.

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Media Contacts:

Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies: choneysett@vitalstrategies.org; +1.914.424.3356

Erin Sykes, Resolve to Save Lives: esykes@resolvetosavelives.org; +1.646.612.0001

Monica Guerrero, Chicago Cred: monica@chicagocred.com; +1.312.626.1138

Merrill Davis, Texas 2036: merrill.davis@texas2036.org; +1.469.384.2036

Monica Lewis, The School District of Philadelphia: mlewis4@philasd.org; +1.215.400.6581

About Dr. Tom Frieden

Dr. Tom Frieden is former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and former commissioner of the New York City Health Department. He is currently president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, a global non-profit initiative which is part of the global non-profit Vital Strategies. @DrTomFrieden.

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies, aims to prevent at least 100 million deaths from cardiovascular disease and epidemics. Through its Prevent Epidemics program, Resolve to Save Lives has rapidly leveraged existing networks to partner with countries throughout Africa and beyond to combat COVID-19. Resolve is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and is part of the global health organization Vital Strategies. To find out more visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL

Resolve to Save Lives created a website called PreventEpidemics.org that shows how prepared each country is for an epidemic, including COVID-19, and how many flights are coming and going from infected countries. This site is also a resource for current coronavirus statistics and resources.

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. We work with governments and civil society in 73 countries to design and implement evidence-based strategies that tackle their most pressing public health problems. Our goal is to see governments adopt promising interventions at scale as rapidly as possible. To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.

Stay in the know:Follow #KnowCOVID or www.preventepidemics.org or subscribe to Vital Strategies’ Twitter, Facebook or Instagram accounts.

Will Rollback of Public Health Measures Affect COVID-19 Spread? New Simulator Demonstrates How

New York, USA - July 1, 2020 | Permalink

Experts from Resolve to Save Lives and Earthrise Media developed a simulator to help guide national decisions on public health and social measures, including stay-at-home orders.

July 2, 2020—As countries around the world begin to lift COVID-19 public health and social measures (PHSMs) such as stay-at-home orders, many are experiencing a concerning rise in case counts and death. Leaving those measures in place, however, has serious social and economic consequences. A new online tool, Public Health and Social Measures Simulator, demonstrates how the timing of different combinations of PHSMs could affect disease spread.

Countries are forced to find the balance between responding swiftly to disease spread while minimizing the negative impact of interventions on individuals and communities,” said Amanda McClelland, Senior Vice President, Prevent Epidemics at Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies. “Our new simulator helps decision-makers assess the timing and the type of measures to turn on and off to reduce people’s risk from COVID-19.”

The simulator, now available on PreventEpidemics.org, allows users to select their region to find results tailored by location. All results demonstrate two critical points:

• Shelter-in-place policies delay a surge in cases and buy time to implement stronger disease control tactics and policies. If that time is not used effectively to implement testing and contact tracing, and to implement other efforts to reduce infection such as wearing a mask, washing your hands and watching your distance, an increase in cases is likely.
• As public health and social measure are lifted, it is critical to scale up testing, isolation, contact tracing and quarantine to Box In the virus and effectively control transmission.

“As the pandemic accelerates in countries and cities across the world, decisions about how best to reduce transmission while also preventing social and economic disruption are more important than ever," said Christopher Lee, Senior Technical Advisor at Resolve to Save Lives. “Early action to implement public health and social measures in the COVID-19 pandemic helped curb the spread of COVID-19 in some regions, including Africa, but these measures cause substantial economic and societal strain. Policymakers need flexible tools, informed by the best available data, to allow them to make decisions that affect all of society, and the new simulator can be a useful tool for governments to rely upon.”

The simulator allows governments to anticipate the impact of implementing and releasing different measures, even in the absence of exact epidemiology data, which is often delayed. Users are able to assess the impact of common PHSMs, such as sheltering in place, closing schools, canceling mass gatherings and shielding the elderly, based on how long they are implemented. This tool also illustrates the policy options clearly. Notably, it shows that when testing, isolation, contact tracing and quarantine activities are effectively scaled up, societies can reopen safely.

Media Contacts:

Erin Sykes, Resolve to Save Lives: esykes@resolvetosavelives.org; +1.646.612.0001

Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies: choneysett@vitalstrategies.org; +1.914.424.3356

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of the global health organization Vital Strategies, is a five-year, $225 million initiative funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gates Philanthropy Partners, which is funded with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation. Resolve received additional funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the CDC Foundation and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation for the COVID-19 response. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To find out more, visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL

Resolve to Save Lives created a website called PreventEpidemics.org that shows how prepared each country is for an epidemic. This site is also a resource for current coronavirus statistics and resources.

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. We work with governments and civil society in more than 70 countries to design and implement evidence-based strategies that tackle their most pressing public health problems. Our goal is to see governments adopt promising interventions at scale as rapidly as possible. To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.

New Study Spotlights Critical Gap In Health Security: Protecting Health Care Workers

New York, USA - June 24, 2020 | Permalink

Researchers from Resolve to Save Lives and Johns Hopkins University identify practical steps countries can take to protect health workers, curb COVID-19 and prepare for future epidemics.

June 24, 2020—As health care workers of the world risk their lives on the frontlines of the COVID-19 response, their consistently elevated rates of infection suggest that countries are not doing enough to limit their risk. In “Assessing and Reducing Risk to Health Care Workers in Outbreaks,” a new paper published in the journal Health Security, a team of global health researchers and practitioners cite alarming evidence of insufficient protections for health care workers— in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, health care workers accounted for nearly one in five reported cases—and identify three practical steps countries can take now to improve health care worker safety. They include: prioritizing health care worker protection in global assessments of epidemic preparedness, developing protocols to rapidly evaluate protections in health facilities, and prioritizing access to personal protective equipment and treatment.

“Without health care workers, there is no health care,” said Amanda McClelland, registered nurse and Senior Vice President of the Prevent Epidemics program at Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies. “COVID-19 has confirmed that health care workers, who are on the front lines when it comes to stopping epidemics, are still among the most vulnerable. This jeopardizes global health security and weakens our ability to respond to future epidemics.”

Health care workers are put at elevated risk by deficiencies in health facility infrastructure (e.g. a lack of running water and electricity, or acceptable isolation wards); supplies (e.g. personal protective equipment and cleaning supplies); training; and preparedness measures.

“Governments and international organizations should treat health care workers like the scarce resource they are,” said Colby Wilkason, a Technical Advisor at Resolve to Save Lives and the paper’s lead author. “Losing health care workers should not be accepted as a tragic inevitability when investment in basic protections can save their lives as well as the people they care for.”

In studies of recent outbreaks of Ebola and Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome, a significant number of total cases were acquired in hospitals or other health care settings. Another concern is that infections among health care workers can lead to superspreading events in health facilities. One study of COVID-19 showed that up to 41% of patients in a hospital were infected due to transmission that occurred within the facility.

To better protect health care workers from infection and strengthen global capacity to respond to COVID-19 and future outbreaks, the paper’s authors recommend:

1. Grading countries on their standards for the safe delivery of health care by integrating it into the way their epidemic preparedness is evaluated
2. Developing protocols for countries to rapidly evaluate the preparedness of individual health facilities
3. Prioritizing health care workers’ access to personal protective equipment and other preventive and treatments as they become available

Health care worker risk also has a ripple effect on population health. Fewer health care workers on the job due to illness or death, especially in places where they are already scarce, also deters patients from seeking care. One study estimated that the loss of health care workers to Ebola in West Africa in 2014-15 resulted in an additional 4,022 women dying in childbirth each subsequent year in the three most affected countries.

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Media Contacts:

Erin Sykes, Resolve to Save Lives: esykes@resolvetosavelives.org; +1.646.612.0001

Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies: choneysett@vitalstrategies.org; +1.914.424.3356

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of the global health organization, Vital Strategies, is a five-year, $225 million initiative funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gates Philanthropy Partners, which is funded with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation. Resolve received additional funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the CDC Foundation and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation for the COVID-19 response. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, To find out more visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL

Resolve to Save Lives created a website called PreventEpidemics.org that shows how prepared each country is for an epidemic. This site is also a resource for current coronavirus statistics and resources.

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. We work with governments and civil society in more than 70 countries to design and implement evidence-based strategies that tackle their most pressing public health problems. Our goal is to see governments adopt promising interventions at scale as rapidly as possible. To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.

Bloomberg Philanthropies COVID-19 Global Response Initiative Supports 31 African Countries to Expand Their Pandemic Containment and Provides Training for Nearly 6,000 Healthcare Workers

New York, USA - June 17, 2020 | Permalink

As COVID-19 continues to impact Africa, Bloomberg initiative also bolsters groundwork for future epidemic preparedness systems

In the three months since Bloomberg Philanthropies launched its $40 million COVID-19 Global Response Initiative, with partner Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies, 31 countries in Africa have been able to deepen and expand their public health efforts to minimize the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Bloomberg Philanthropies COVID-19 Global Response Initiative is not only supporting these countries in their efforts to contain COVID-19 within their borders, it is also investing in building public health systems to better respond to epidemics that will likely occur in the future.

“While many of the countries that were hit earliest by COVID-19 have seen their cases peak, many countries in Africa are just beginning to see a rapid increase in infections. That’s why Bloomberg Philanthropies is supporting efforts to strengthen the response across the continent, including training health care workers, expanding lab capacity, and bolstering public health systems. This urgently important work will reduce the burden on already overwhelmed health systems and save lives, especially in the most vulnerable communities,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and former three-term mayor of New York City.

Since the Bloomberg Philanthropies COVID-19 Global Response Initiative began, nearly 6,000 healthcare workers in Africa have been trained in infection control; laboratory capacity has been strengthened to test for infections in 10 countries; personal protective equipment and locally produced alcohol-based hand-rubs have been secured in nine countries; and trained contact tracing workforces have been significantly expanded in two dozen countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

In the past three months:

• The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): Together with ALIMA, the Initiative has trained thousands of health care promoters on COVID-19 response measures. Additionally, basic sanitation and hygiene kits, along with protective gear, have been distributed to health centers.
• Ethiopia: In partnership with the Ministry of Health and the Ethiopian Medical Association, the Initiative has trained nearly 2,000 health care workers on life-saving infection prevention and control measures, and maintaining essential health services.
• Uganda: Utilized epidemic preparedness measures at points of entry to strengthen early and rapid detection of COVID-19 cases, of which over 65% are imported from other countries.
• Rapid Response Fund: The initiative deployed $2.9 million in flexible, rapid response funding to 15 countries. These funds allow for early detection of and swift response to infectious disease outbreaks, including COVID-19. In Nigeria, the fund mobilized nearly half a million dollars to support 42 deployments and training of 300 people across 14 states. In Mauritania, the response fund supported WHO country offices to train 84 field epidemiologists, who detected an over 250% increase in total country caseload.
• Rapid Mortality Surveillance: Collaborating with global partners including the WHO and Africa CDC, the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative developed a technical package so that governments can conduct rapid mortality surveillance to assess the burden of COVID-19. Rapid mortality surveillance allows governments to better understand how COVID-19 is actually affecting their populations and use these data to tighten or ease public health and social measures.

While ongoing activities in Africa have made significant progress in combatting COVID-19, many countries will continue to experience strain on their health systems, and cases may continue to rise. Sustained support and investment will help African countries manage the COVID-19 pandemic, while they simultaneously deal with other disease outbreaks and public health priorities.

“We are encouraged by the fast action and progress many countries in Africa have had, but we must stay vigilant. I am inspired by the dedication and the hard work health workers throughout Africa are doing to keep people safe, and we are committed to partnering not only for COVID-19, but also to prevent future health emergencies,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, President & CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies, and former Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Media Contacts:
Jean Weinberg, Bloomberg Philanthropies: jean@bloomberg.org; + 1.332.201.0508
Erin Sykes, Resolve to Save Lives: esykes@resolvetosavelives.org; +1.646.612.0001
Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies: choneysett@vitalstrategies.org; +1.914.424.3356

About Bloomberg Philanthropies
Bloomberg Philanthropies invests in more than 570 cities and over 160 countries around the world to ensure better, longer lives for the greatest number of people. The organization focuses on five key areas for creating lasting change: the Arts, Education, Environment, Government Innovation and Public Health. Bloomberg Philanthropies encompasses all of Michael R. Bloomberg’s giving, including his foundation and personal philanthropy as well as Bloomberg Associates, a pro bono consultancy that works in cities around the world. In 2019, Bloomberg Philanthropies distributed $3.3 billion. For more information, please visit bloomberg.org or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok.

About Resolve to Save Lives
Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of the global health organization, Vital Strategies, is a five-year, $225 million initiative funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gates Philanthropy Partners, which is funded with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation. Resolve received additional funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the CDC Foundation and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation for the COVID-19 response. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To find out more visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL

Resolve to Save Lives created a website called PreventEpidemics.org that shows how prepared each country is for an epidemic. This site is also a resource for current coronavirus statistics and resources.

About Vital Strategies
Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. We work with governments and civil society in 73 countries to design and implement evidence-based strategies that tackle their most pressing public health problems. Our goal is to see governments adopt promising interventions at scale as rapidly as possible. To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.

Stay in the know: Follow #KnowCOVID or subscribe to Vital Strategies’ Twitter, Facebook or Instagram accounts.

New Contact Tracing Playbook Provides Guidance to Public Health Officials on Nationwide Efforts to Contain COVID-19

New York, USA - June 16, 2020 | Permalink

Resolve to Save Lives initiative at Vital Strategies Shares Technical Guidance, How-To’s, Templates, Tools

16 June 2020 (New York, NY) – As the COVID-19 pandemic response in the United States moves to a new stage of containment, Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies, announced the release of a new Contact Tracing Playbook to help cities, states, and counties establish trusted and effective contact tracing programs that will reduce the spread of the virus and save lives.

Contact tracing is an essential part of the Resolve-recommended Box It In strategy which consists of strategic testing, rapid isolation, complete contact tracing, and supportive quarantine. This is essential to slow transmission of the virus, which has been diagnosed in 2 million people nationwide and likely has infected millions more. A new workforce of thousands of contact tracers is launching in the US, overseen by state and local public health departments.

“Contact tracing is intense, difficult work, but our safety and economy depend on it,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, former CDC Director and President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives. “A key to success will be using data in real time to continuously improve program performance and then sharing what we learn about what’s working and what’s not working.”

“Contact tracing is a proven public health strategy and one of our best bets to slow the pandemic and save lives,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg LP and three-term mayor of New York City. “Ramping up a contact tracing program can be challenging, but governments don’t have to reinvent the wheel. The new Resolve to Save Lives Playbook can help public health leaders act quickly to put contact tracing in place and limit the spread of COVID-19, which is why Bloomberg Philanthropies is supporting this critical effort.”

The new Contract Tracing Playbook provides technical guidance, checklists and easy-to-use templates that public health leaders can use to enhance contact tracing protocols and programs. Available through the Resolve to Save Lives website, the Playbook is aligned with contact tracing guidance released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, offering implementation tools to help jurisdictions rapidly implement contact tracing plans.

Michael Bloomberg announced that Bloomberg Philanthropies would support the development of a large-scale contact tracing program in New York State. Governor Cuomo partnered with Bloomberg Philanthropies, Johns Hopkins University, and Vital Strategies to quickly stand up a state-of-the-art contact tracing program where best practices are being developed and shared across the country including in the new Contact Tracing Playbook. Bloomberg Philanthropies committed $10.5 million, as well as organizational support and technical assistance, to help build and execute the program.

The Playbook includes sample job descriptions, sample forms and scripts, protocols for contact tracing in group settings (e.g., restaurants and events), a simple excel-based staffing calculator, template scopes of work for setting up essential supports for people while in isolation and quarantine, fact sheets and community engagement guides, as well as draft priority indicators to guide continuous program improvement. The Playbook will also help public health departments navigate privacy and human rights issues and provide risk communication guidance to guide communications with the public about the importance of contact tracing to control COVID-19 spread.

Although the COVID-19 virus is new, contact tracing is a well-established and proven public health tool that relies on trust, data, clear communication, community engagement and public support. Contact tracing is a human-to-human effort, not a computer-based or phone tracking system. The thousands of tracers’ primary responsibility is to be empathic and respect patient privacy. Tracers will identify, notify and interview cases and provide instructions for isolation. They will also locate and warn contacts and then monitor those contacts as well as provide access to needed support.

The Playbook will be regularly updated and revised as new learnings are generated. It is designed to elicit feedback and share emerging knowledge generated by public health authorities, community providers, epidemiologists, and others involved in contact tracing. As it is updated, it will also offer health departments messaging and scripts they need to help individual communities better understand and support public health efforts. The Playbook will also link to technological solutions for managing workflow and making the contact tracing process more efficient and effective.

“Contact tracing is part of a four-pillar Box-it-in strategy of COVID-19 containment and control,” explains Daliah Heller, a director with Vital Strategies supporting the US contact tracing effort. “Expand and prioritize testing; isolate infected people to prevent disease spread; identify contacts who infected people may have exposed; and quarantine contacts. Each of the four is crucial to prevent the virus from spreading explosively again. Success requires urgent expansion of our public health capacity.”

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Media Contacts:

Erin Sykes, Resolve to Save Lives: esykes@resolvetosavelives.org; +1.646.612.0001
Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies: choneysett@vitalstrategies.org; +1.914.424.3356

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of the global health organization, Vital Strategies, is a five-year, $225 million initiative funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gates Philanthropy Partners, which is funded with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation. Resolve received additional funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the CDC Foundation and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation for the COVID-19 response. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, To find out more visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL

Resolve to Save Lives created a website called PreventEpidemics.org that shows how prepared each country is for an epidemic. This site is also a resource for current coronavirus statistics and resources.

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. We work with governments and civil society in 73 countries to design and implement evidence-based strategies that tackle their most pressing public health problems. Our goal is to see governments adopt promising interventions at scale as rapidly as possible. To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat. Stay in the know: Follow #KnowCOVID or subscribe to Vital Strategies’ Twitter, Facebook or Instagram accounts.

Former CDC Director and Resolve to Save Lives President and CEO, Dr. Tom Frieden, Warns of COVID-19 Data Myths and Misuses, Outlines Metrics that Matter

New York, USA - June 11, 2020 | Permalink

“Armchair epidemiology” endangering efforts to get epidemic under control

11 June 2020 – With the exponential rise in collection of COVID-19 data, experts warn of its misuse. Today, Dr. Tom Frieden, former CDC Director and President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of the global health organization Vital Strategies, held a press briefing along with other epidemiology experts, outlining COVID-19 data misconceptions and metrics that matter to guide public health officials.

“What gets measured, matters. Lots of COVID-19 data that get attention are either inaccurate, partial, or misleading,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies. “Collected, analyzed, and disseminated correctly, data can save lives and help restore livelihoods.”

The number of data sources for COVID-19 has surged with the virus. These data are informing public health decisions as communities work to get the epidemic under control and reopen. Resolve scanned best practices from around the world and identified what metrics governments, and reporters, can prioritize and pay close attention to as we fight the virus.

At a press briefing today, Dr. Frieden outlined 11 misconceptions about COVID-19 data and ways public health officials can better interpret the data for critical decision-making.

Among the myths outlined and debunked by Dr. Frieden and colleagues are:

1. Myth: Case counts and trends are enough to monitor COVID-19 spread.
   Reality: Trends in the counts of cases, even those adjusted for population, are insufficient to fully understand the disease situation. It is critical to understand the actual intensity and distribution of viral infection, the level of testing, and the number of susceptible people over time.
2. Myth: Case incidence is always a good indicator of community risk.
   Reality: The number of new (incident) cases in a population does not always reflect the risk of transmission in a community. The main reason is that the composition or distribution of these cases may be very different, even if the overall total is the same.
3. Myth: COVID-19 deaths are an indicator of the current situation.
   Reality: Because the average lag between symptom onset and death and reporting is about a month, deaths are not a useful early indicator for monitoring whether the disease situation is worsening or improving today.
4. Myth: COVID-19 deaths are the only indicator of COVID-19-related mortality.
   Reality: COVID-19 deaths are underestimated for several reasons, including limited testing leading to underdetection of those infected and deaths occurring in the community which may not be attributed to COVID-19.
5. Myth: Mobility indicators—data from mobile phones—are a direct indicator of risk.
   Reality: Mobility data reflect trends in frequency and distance of travel but not much about high-risk behaviors, such as being in close contact with someone for an extended period of time indoors.
6. Myth: Reproductive number (R) – how many people each case infects – is all you need to know about disease transmission.
   Reality: There is no one standard way to estimate R, estimates typically have a large amount of uncertainty and wide range, and lag by 1-2 weeks or more.
7. Myth: Symptom-based screening is adequate to protect every population.
   Reality: The lack of symptoms does not imply a lack of infectiousness.
8. Myth: Hospital and ICU bed capacity are the most useful metrics for capturing health care system readiness.
   Reality: Hospital occupancy changes with seasonality, rising during influenza season and falling in other months, and changing with bed availability
9. Myth: Test positivity is all you need to know about the state of COVID-19 testing.
   Reality: This metric is useful in understanding whether or not a location is testing enough people to detect cases, regardless of the size of the outbreak. However, the positivity rate is not sufficient to understand testing for many reasons, including because it does not tell you whether high-risk people are getting tested.
10. Myth: The most significant health impacts of the pandemic are directly related to COVID-19.
    Reality: As in prior disease outbreaks, in many communities, the largest health impacts of COVID-19 may not be among those directly affected with the disease, but in the secondary disruptions of essential health services and public health programs, especially in lower-income countries. In the COVID-19 pandemic, disruptions have undermined communicable disease control programs, immunization activities, reproductive and maternal and child health activities, and non-communicable disease management.
11. Myth: Everyone is an epidemiologist.
    Reality: Anyone should be able to understand well-conducted epidemiological investigations and analyses. But doing epidemiology safely and well – like doing open heart surgery or architecture well – requires specialized skills and years of experience.

“It’s important to know the limitations and implications of data and how to use well-analyzed data to produce a more accurate picture of what’s happening,” said Cyrus Shahpar, a medical epidemiologist and Director of the Resolve to Save Lives Prevent Epidemics initiative, who joined Dr. Frieden at the press briefing.

“COVID-19 deaths are underestimated. Understanding how current death totals—from all causes—compare to historical averages can provide critical insight into the true scope of the pandemic and inform lifesaving policies,” said Dr. Philip Setel, the Vice President of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics at Vital Strategies.

In addition to outlining these common data misinterpretations, Dr. Frieden and his team listed some important metrics that matter that governments and communities should using to guide their COVID-19 response including:

1. The number of unlinked infections
2. Isolation of patients within 3 days of symptom onset
3. The proportion of cases arising among quarantined contacts
4. The number of health care worker infections
5. Trends in excess mortality
6. Where and how the virus is spreading in each community

Drs. Frieden and Shahpar also noted important findings in the Weekly Science Review by Resolve to Save Lives:

• A simple method of calculating the likely number of deaths in the coming month. Within a month, this number will pass 500,000 globally and 128,000 in the US.
• According to the latest information available, COVID-19 is as deadly as the 1918 pandemic for people over age 60 and those with underlying health conditions, but similar in severity to seasonal influenza for children.
• A comprehensive approach to safety will enable workplaces to open sooner.
• The COVID-19 pandemic, more than other events that disrupt society, may pose significant dangers to mental health through the combined direct effects of COVID-19, the effects of measures to control the epidemic such as societal or school closures, and because of the length of the disruption.
• The COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to aggravate drug and alcohol use while undermining some of the more effective service and treatment strategies. Fortunately, regulators have made it possible for providers to innovate and improve medication treatment access in the face of the twin crises of overdose and COVID-19. Some of these measures may be worth continuing indefinitely.

“Collected, analyzed and used to improve programs well, epidemiology can guide us through this public health crisis. The best public health programs use real-time data to continuously improve measures to stop the spread of infection,” added Dr. Frieden.

To watch the full video from today’s media briefing, click here.

Join Dr. Tom Frieden on Friday, June 12 at 11:15 AM EST for a LinkedIn Live conversation on what employers can do to ensure a safe and healthy work environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Visit: www.linkedin.com/in/tom-frieden/

Media Contacts:

Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies: choneysett@vitalstrategies.org; +1.914.424.3356
Erin Sykes, Resolve to Save Lives: esykes@resolvetosavelives.org ; +1.646.612.0001

About Dr. Tom Frieden

Dr. Tom Frieden is former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and former commissioner of the New York City Health Department. He is currently president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, a global non-profit initiative funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and part of the global non-profit Vital Strategies. Resolve to Save Lives works with countries to prevent 100 million deaths and to make the world safer from epidemics. @DrTomFrieden

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives is a five-year, $225 million initiative funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gates Philanthropy Partners, which is funded with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation. Resolve received additional funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the CDC Foundation and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation for the COVID-19 response. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and is part of the global organization Vital Strategies. To find out more visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL

Resolve to Save Lives created a website called PreventEpidemics.org that shows how prepared each country is for an epidemic. This site is also a resource for current coronavirus statistics and resources.

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. We work with governments and civil society in 73 countries to design and implement evidence-based strategies that tackle their most pressing public health problems. Our goal is to see governments adopt promising interventions at scale as rapidly as possible. To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.

Stay in the know: Follow #KnowCOVID or subscribe to Vital Strategies’ Twitter, Facebook or Instagram accounts.

Dr. Tom Frieden on new COVID Alert System to Protect Health, Promote Economic Growth and Reduce the Risks of Reopening During the COVID Pandemic

New York, USA - May 20, 2020 | Permalink

Summary of alert-level systems for COVID-19 based on experience from U.S. and around the world

(New York, NY May 20, 2020) – COVID-19 is a long-term threat to public health, with most experts predicting waves of infection until there is a vaccine or highly effective treatment. “Staying Alert: Navigating COVID-19 Risk Toward a New Normal” recommends that governments implement a four-tiered, color-coded level system that grades the current state of risk from red, “4-Very High Risk,” to green, “1-New Normal.” The report was released today by Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of the global health organization Vital Strategies, based on an intensive review of the best practices in countries around the world and states in the U.S.

Levels are based on publicly available, critically important data, have objective triggers, and provide practical, actionable information to guide policies and behaviors at each level. The color and numerical coding also communicates risk-level information clearly, similar to the types of warning systems used for weather and air quality. Although no single system is appropriate for every setting, if designed and implemented well, alert-level systems protect health while enabling social and economic activity to resume.

“We’re at an inflection point in the COVID-19 pandemic response. Cases are coming down and people are going out,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives. “If governments use a graded, objective, transparent alert system they can protect both health and the economy in the different phases of the pandemic. Our ‘Staying Alert: Navigating COVID-19 Risk Toward a New Normal’ report outlines a system governments use to empower people to protect themselves and their families.”

“People should expect routine, clear and data-driven guidance on the changing levels of risk and how to respond. A color-coded alert system for COVID-19 empowers the public and inspires confidence,” said Amanda McClelland, Senior Vice President for the Prevent Epidemics team at Resolve to Save Lives. “In the not-too-distant future, knowing that this is a week to wear your mask should be as easy and straightforward as bringing an umbrella to work on a rainy day.”

Based on a first-of-its-kind comparison of alert-level systems, “Staying Alert: Navigating COVID-19 Risk Toward a New Normal” provides a four-tiered framework for governments to adopt to support clear decision-making, improve accountability and transparency, and communicate with the public to ensure needed behavior change. In addition to highlighting key principles and features of effective alert-level systems, the report provides a reference for the strong datasets that must support such a system, notes that the best systems are developed with the involvement of a wide set of stakeholders, and provides a list of pitfalls and how to avoid them.

“The recommendations in ‘Staying Alert: Navigating COVID-19 Risk Toward a New Normal’ lean on decades of practice in the field of risk and crisis communication,” said Sandra Mullin, Senior Vice President for Policy, Advocacy and Communication at Vital Strategies. “Our ‘new normal’ will require governments to convey changing and complex COVID-19 information to the public. A systematic alert system is a lifesaving intervention that can break this down into easy-to-understand and easy-to-follow guidelines for the public.”

To bolster this alert system, a collaboration of expert partners supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies will soon roll out tools to help city leaders better manage their responses to these alert levels. What Works Cities, working closely with Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, Vital Strategies and other collaborators, will develop and share metrics that city leaders can use to nimbly govern their cities as the crisis evolves.

The report highlights the features of alert-level systems that several governments have adopted. South Africa’s Risk Adjusted Strategy provides details on how restrictions will be loosened and tightened in each economic sector, using epidemiologic and fiscal data to guide these changes. Other systems use economic and social indicators when determining the level, such as the system in effect in the state of Utah in the U.S.. Singapore’s Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) applies to any disease outbreak and provides messaging to the public, and New Zealand’s COVID-19 Alert System focuses specifically on COVID-19.

For more information and to download “Staying Alert: Navigating COVID-19 Risk Toward a New Normal,” visit: https://preventepidemics.org/covid19/resources/levels

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives is a five-year, $225 million initiative funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gates Philanthropy Partners, which is funded with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation. Resolve received additional funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and the CDC Foundation for the COVID-19 response. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and is part of the global organization Vital Strategies. To find out more visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL

Resolve to Save Lives created a website called PreventEpidemics.org that shows how prepared each country is for an epidemic, including COVID-19, and how many flights are coming and going from infected countries. This site is also a resource for current coronavirus statistics and resources.

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. We work with governments and civil society in 73 countries to design and implement evidence-based strategies that tackle their most pressing public health problems. Our goal is to see governments adopt promising interventions at scale as rapidly as possible. To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.orgor Twitter @VitalStrat.

Media Contacts

Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies; choneysett@vitalstrategies.org; +1-914-424-3356

Erin Sykes, Resolve to Save Lives, esykes@vitalstrategies.org; +1-646-612-0001

New Report Provides African Governments Real-Time Information and Guidance to Find the Balance in COVID-19 Response

New York, USA - May 5, 2020 | Permalink

Real-time data from 20 African countries drives prevention guidelines to save lives

5 May 2020 (New York) – Member states across Africa responded quickly to COVID-19 with public health and social measures (PHSM), including curfews and lockdowns, as well as training in laboratory diagnostics, surveillance, risk communication, infection prevention and control, and case management conducted by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO) and other partners. Implementing these early policies helped curb the rapid spread of infection across the continent, but response to the virus is a marathon, not a sprint. Member states now must find a balance between reducing transmission while preventing social and economic disruption.

“We knew that COVID-19 was a significant threat to Africa, so we started addressing it very early. We convened an emergency meeting of Africa health ministers, which endorsed the Africa Joint Continental Strategy for COVID-19. Because of the early political engagement there was a continent-wide awareness and alertness to prepare the countries,” said Dr John Nkengasong, Director of Africa CDC,”

As member states consider these complex trade-offs, a new report released today is putting real-time data about health and public sentiment into the hands of decision-makers. The Responding to COVID-19 in Africa: Using Data to Find a Balance report includes first-of-its-kind data to adapt COVID-19 pandemic response to local needs and capacities in Africa.

Using Data to Find a Balance, developed by Africa CDC, the WHO, Ipsos, Vital Strategies’ Resolve to Save Lives initiative, the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team, Novetta Mission Analytics and the World Economic Forum provides data and guidance to governments as they move toward a long-term response: use data to make informed decisions, adapt local measures as the pandemic and public perceptions evolve, and mitigate adverse effects by focusing on protecting the most vulnerable populations.

“This report highlights the large information gaps on COVID-19 which exist in Africa and threaten response efforts,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. “The findings of this report, along with COVID-19 trend data, will help countries make strategic decisions on relaxing their lockdowns. What we’ve learnt from Ebola and other outbreaks is that countries need to decentralize the response to the community level and increase their capacity to identify and diagnose cases.”

Key findings in the report include:

• One third (32%) of respondents said they do not have enough information about the coronavirus, including how it spreads and how to protect themselves;
• Across countries, large majorities believe COVID-19 will have major impact on their country (62%), but only 44% believe it is a threat to them personally;
• More than two thirds (69%) of respondents said food and water would be a problem if they were required to remain at home for 14 days – and 51% would run out of money.

Recommendations include that governments:

• Strengthen public health systems for immediate response and for a lasting recovery;
• Monitor data on how public health and social measures meet local COVID-19 conditions and needs; and
• Engage communities to adapt PHSM to the local context and effectively communicate about risks to sustain public support.

The report notes the disruptions caused by public health social measures, which are designed to stop the spread of COVID-19, and the importance of preserving wellbeing, economic livelihoods and social stability. Using Data to Find a Balance also includes recommendations for governments to prioritize rapidly enhancing public health capacity to test, trace, isolate and treat people infected with the virus, making the most of the time that early intervention with PHSM has provided.

“Governments have had to make difficult decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Shelter-in-place measures can prevent infection but may limit access to food and essential services,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies. Dr. Frieden, the former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention added, “By using data, governments can find the right balance and adapt lifesaving policies to the local context.”

“Governments cannot rely on guesswork or instinct to combat COVID-19 – they need data,” said Dr. Darrell Bricker, CEO, Ipsos Public Affairs. “Many preventive measures taken elsewhere in the world must be adapted to the local context; we are proud to be a part of this extraordinary effort to provide real-time, Africa-specific data so that decision-makers can adapt their COVID-19 response based on data that is specific to their country.”

“The most successful response to COVID-19 in Africa must consider context and adaptability, and must be data-driven. With the release of Using Data to Find a Balance report, governments throughout Africa now have access to country-specific policy recommendations, and the data to guide their response to COVID-19 in the most effective and responsible manner,” said Dr Nkengasong.

PERC conducted surveys across 28 cities in 20 African member states to assess the impact the crisis was already having on populations, and people’s attitudes toward PHSMs being implemented. The report includes a regional analysis accompanied by individual country briefs to provide the most relevant data and recommendations to local decision-makers. As the pandemic evolves, further waves of research are planned to provide real-time updates that reflect current response efforts, changes to people’s perceptions, and timely recommendations and guidance.

“Understanding the need for data to guide the pandemic response across Africa, the World Economic Forum is proud to have facilitated this private-public partnership,” said Arnaud Bernaert, Head of Health and Healthcare, World Economic Forum. “It is important for governments, businesses and civil society to have the latest data and case studies available to make the best decisions possible in this global crisis.”

This report was produced by the Partnership for Evidence-Based Response to COVID-19 (PERC), a public-private partnership that supports evidence-based measures to reduce the impact of COVID-19 on African countries. PERC member organizations are Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies, the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team and the World Economic Forum. WHO and Africa CDC are providing technical leadership and ensuring that new evidence is quickly adopted by Member States to adjust their COVID-19 response interventions. Ipsos and Novetta Mission Analytics bring market research expertise and years of data analytic support to the partnership.

To read the full report, please visit: https://preventepidemics.org/coronavirus/perc/

About Africa CDC

Africa CDC is a specialized technical institution of the African Union that strengthens the capacity and capability of Africa’s public health institutions as well as partnerships to detect and respond quickly and effectively to disease threats and outbreaks, based on data-driven interventions and programmes. Learn more at: http://www.africacdc.org

About the World Health Organization (WHO)

The World Health Organization contributes to a better future for people everywhere. Good health lays the foundation for vibrant and productive communities, stronger economies, safer nations and a better world. As the lead health authority within the United Nations system, our work touches people’s lives around the world every day. In Africa, WHO serves Member States and works with development partners to improve the health and well-being of all people living here. The WHO Regional Office for Africa is located in Brazzaville, Congo. Learn more at www.afro.who.int and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives is a five-year, $225 million initiative funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gates Philanthropy Partners, which is funded with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation. Resolve received additional funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies for the COVID-19 response. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and is part of the global organization Vital Strategies. To find out more visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL

Resolve to Save Lives created a website called PreventEpidemics.org that shows how prepared each country is for an epidemic, including COVID-19, and how many flights are coming and going from infected countries. This site is also a resource for current coronavirus statistics and resources.

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. We work with governments and civil society in 73 countries to design and implement evidence-based strategies that tackle their most pressing public health problems. Our goal is to see governments adopt promising interventions at scale as rapidly as possible. To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.

About Ipsos

Ipsos is the third largest market research company in the world, present in 90 markets and employing more than 18,000 people. Our passionately curious research professionals, analysts and scientists have built unique multi- specialist capabilities that provide true understanding and powerful insights into the actions, opinions and motivations of citizens, consumers, patients, customers or employees. Our 75 business solutions are based on primary data coming from our surveys, social media monitoring, and qualitative or observational techniques. “Game Changers” – our tagline – summarises our ambition to help our 5,000 clients navigate with confidence our world of rapid change.

Founded in France in 1975, Ipsos is listed on the Euronext Paris since 1 July 1999. The company is part of the SBF 120 and the Mid-60 index and is eligible for the Deferred Settlement Service (SRD). ISIN code FR0000073298, Reuters ISOS.PA, Bloomberg IPS:FP https://www.ipsos.com/en/news-and-polls/overview.

About the World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. In response to the COVID-19 emergency, the World Economic Forum, acting as partner to the World Health Organization (WHO), launched the COVID Action Platform. The platform is intended to catalyse private-sector support for the global public health response to COVID-19, and to do so at the scale and speed required to protect lives and livelihoods, aiming to find ways to help end the global emergency as soon as possible. For more information, visit: https://www.weforum.org/

Media Contacts:

James Ayodele, Principal Communication Officer, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). Email: Ayodelej@africa-union.org; Tel: +251 11 551 7700

Collins Boakye-Agyemang, Communications Officer, WHO Regional Office for Africa. Email: boakyeagyemangc@who.int; Tel: +4724139420 or +242065206565

Christina Honeysett, Director of PR, Vital Strategies. Email: CHoneysett@vitalstrategies.org; Tel: +1 914 424 3356

Dr. Darrell Bricker, CEO, Ipsos Public Affairs. Email: Darrell.bricker@ipsos.com; Tel: +14165098460

Amanda Russo, Head of Media Content, World Economic Forum. Email: Amanda.Russo@weforum.org; Tel: +1 415 734 0589

New Interactive Playbook Provides Critical Tool for World’s Public Health Decision-makers to Manage and Adapt COVID-19 Responses

New York, USA - April 24, 2020 | Permalink

Online tool synthesizes guidance documents and best practices from WHO, US CDC, and Africa CDC and links them to where countries are in the disease curve

The Prevent Epidemics Team at Resolve to Save Lives announced today the launch of their new interactive COVID-19 Playbook, a resource to help public health policymakers and other decision-makers around the world manage and adapt their countries’ COVID-19 responses as they move through different phases of the disease curve—from response to recovery.

“The World Health Organization, US CDC and Africa CDC are producing important and useful guidance,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, former CDC Director and President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of the global health organization Vital Strategies. “Our team has created a tool that brings these recommendations and best practices together and helps countries apply them at different phases as the pandemic spreads. It’s meant to complement these efforts as a one-stop entry point and provides links to guidance developed by expert organizations including the WHO. The playbook also has an essential checklist which is a great resource for any country and any state or province to determine if they are doing what they need to do to protect their people.”

The tool features a user guide, glossary, COVID-19 response essential checklist, and an interactive adaptive response graphic that links to key principles and high-yield tools tailored to different phases of the disease curve. The tools and principles are organized into the following categories:

• Coordinated response
• Box the virus in (disease control)
• Case management
• Physical distancing
• Essential health services
• Essential societal services

The Prevent Epidemics team’s technical experts will update the Playbook regularly as new guidance on COVID-19 is released and new examples of successful implementation are documented.

“The COVID-19 Playbook will serve as a living, dynamic document,” said Dr. Cyrus Shahpar, Director of the Prevent Epidemics Team. “Countries are tracking the transmission of disease closely. Based on disease trends and healthcare system capacity, they will now be able to tell where they are on the disease curve and look to appropriate guidance. We can also help them identify useful metrics to better understand where they are in the course of the pandemic.”

The Resolve to Save Lives team at Vital Strategies is working directly with countries to support their COVID-19 response, including supporting health care workers with infection prevention and control, providing rapid response funds to allow countries to quickly mobilize funds for critical activities, conducting polling on what intervention measures are acceptable where, and more. PreventEpidemics.org where the COVID-19 Playbook is hosted, is the world’s first website to provide clear and concise country-level data on epidemic preparedness and the ability to find, stop, and prevent epidemics.

Media Contacts:

Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies: choneysett@vitalstrategies.org; +1.914.424.3356

Erin Sykes, Resolve to Save Lives: esykes@resolvetosavelives.org; +1.646.612.0001

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives is a five-year, $225 million initiative funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gates Philanthropy Partners, which is funded with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation. Resolve received additional funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies for the COVID-19 response. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and is part of the global organization Vital Strategies. To find out more visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL

Resolve to Save Lives created a website called PreventEpidemics.org that shows how prepared each country is for an epidemic, including COVID-19, and how many flights are coming and going from infected countries. This site is also a resource for current coronavirus statistics and resources.

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. We work with governments and civil society in 73 countries to design and implement evidence-based strategies that tackle their most pressing public health problems. Our goal is to see governments adopt promising interventions at scale as rapidly as possible. To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.

Clear Criteria Must Be Met Before Gradually Reopening After COVID-19 Outbreaks

New York, USA - April 1, 2020 | Permalink

Resolve to Save Lives Public Health experts Dr. Tom Frieden, Dr. Cyrus Shahpar, and Amanda McClelland, RN briefed reporters on benchmarks that communities in the United States and world must urgently reach before we can “loosen the faucet” as safely as possible and “not allow the floodgates to reopen”

Today, Dr. Tom Frieden, President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of global public health organization Vital Strategies, briefed reporters on the criteria that must be urgently met to reopen society in the next phase of the COVID-19 response.

During the briefing, Dr. Frieden said, “It’s not about when we can reopen, but what we have to do to make that day come sooner. A key concept here is that we need to reopen the faucet gradually, not allow the floodgates to reopen. This is not a time to wait, it is time to work.”

“This is an emergency and we need to act with urgency to ready our public health and healthcare systems,” Dr. Frieden continued. “It’s a question of short-term economic pain for long term economic and health gains. But for this to happen we can’t just wait for cases to ebb; we must URGENTLY meet benchmarks so we can loosen the faucet as soon and as safely as possible. It’s not about WHEN we can reopen, but WHAT we have to do to make that day come sooner.”

Dr. Frieden concluded that, “This is World War C – we’re in a battle with coronavirus. We all have a role to play to protect our healthcare workers and each other. Decisions to reopen society should not be about a date but about the data – and today we have suggested clear criteria and triggers to follow.”

Dr. Frieden was joined by senior members of Resolve’s Prevent Epidemics team, Senior Vice President Amanda McClelland and Director Dr. Cyrus Shahpar, who reviewed the evidence base for reopening after experiencing a large increase of COVID-19 cases.

Together, they outlined criteria in three key areas to help communities know when and how to close and reopen due to COVID-19 spread. These include:

• Epidemiology: What do we know about the disease?
  • As one example: Are cases decreasing over the past 14 days as the ability to test increases?
• Healthcare: Is the system properly prepared to handle an increase in cases without risking the lives of health care workers and patients?
  • As one example: Is there enough personal protective equipment for healthcare staff, and face masks for patients, should the amount of patients double?
• Public Health Capacity – Can we effectively find and isolate cases and contacts, control the spread of disease, and resume physical distancing rapidly if needed?
  • As one example: Can every contact who develops symptoms gets tested?

Even when the criteria are met, older and medically vulnerable people will likely need to shelter for longer. Communities can partially reopen businesses, such as daycares so people can get back to work, as long as people continue to wash their hands, stay home when sick and isolate if they are confirmed to have COVID-19

Dr. Shahpar outlined which triggers would indicate a reversal in progress. “If cases increase significantly, communities will need to implement physical distancing restrictions again and work on flattening the curve. There could be a series of closures and re-openings while we wait and hope for treatments and vaccines,” he said.

The team at Resolve to Save Lives and Vital Strategies are also working with countries throughout Africa and beyond—61 countries—to help flatten the curve by providing practical information and tools to enhance local efforts to combat COVID-19 and share best practices.

“Implementing restrictions in low- and middle-income countries is difficult,” said Amanda McClelland. “For many, staying home and not going to the market means choosing to starve. It’s critical local leaders listen to their community and adapt to their environment to minimize risk of exposure but also ensure basic needs are met.”

Resolve to Save Lives’ Prevent Epidemics team, which she leads, is partnering with countries on tracking the virus and its impact on communities, as well as rapid action to minimize both viral spread and social disruption.

Dr. Frieden closed the briefing with this call to action: “We all have a role to play to protect our healthcare workers and each other. Decisions to reopen must be less about a date and more about data. If this virus is not controlled everywhere, we will be much less safe.”

For a recording of the briefing, visit this link.

To view the slide on containment and mitigation efforts discussed during the briefing, visit this link.

Media Contacts:

Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies: choneysett@vitalstrategies.org; +1.914.424.3356

Erin Sykes, Resolve to Save Lives: esykes@resolvetosavelives.org; +1.646.612.0001

About Dr. Tom Frieden

Dr. Tom Frieden is former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and former commissioner of the New York City Health Department. He is currently president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, a global non-profit initiative funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and part of the global non-profit Vital Strategies. Resolve to Save Lives works with countries to prevent 100 million deaths and to make the world safer from epidemics. @DrTomFrieden.

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives is a five-year, $225 million initiative funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gates Philanthropy Partners, which is funded with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation. Resolve received additional funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies for the COVID-19 response. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and is part of the global organization Vital Strategies. To find out more visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL

Resolve to Save Lives created a website called PreventEpidemics.org that shows how prepared each country is for an epidemic, including COVID-19, and how many flights are coming and going from infected countries. This site is also a resource for current coronavirus statistics and resources.

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. We work with governments and civil society in 73 countries to design and implement evidence-based strategies that tackle their most pressing public health problems. Our goal is to see governments adopt promising interventions at scale as rapidly as possible. To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.

Stay in the know: Follow #KnowCOVID or subscribe to Vital Strategies’ Twitter, Facebook or Instagram accounts.

Former CDC Director and Resolve to Save Lives President and CEO, Dr. Tom Frieden, Urges New York City Residents with Mild Symptoms Not to Seek Care or Get Tested at This Time

New York, USA - March 27, 2020 | Permalink

27 March 2020 – Today, Dr. Tom Frieden, President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies, a global health organization headquartered in New York, released the following statement urging New York City Residents with mild symptoms not to seek care or get tested at this time:

“If you’re in New York and you have some of the symptoms of COVID-19 such as cough and fever, I urge you not to get tested if those symptoms are only mild. Every non-essential test delays tests and uses scarce protective equipment needed for someone who is very sick. This means that soon healthcare workers may not have necessary safety equipment, including masks, to treat hospitalized patients.

On the other hand, if you are short of breath with cough and fever, definitely seek care, and do so safely. Call ahead. Cover your mouth and nose with a mask, scarf, bandana, or other piece of clothing.

Why not get tested if you have mild symptoms? Six reasons. If you’re only mildly ill and get tested:

1. You use up medical equipment and tests others need more.

2. You might infect others as you travel to and seek care.

3. If you don’t have the infection, you could get it in the process of traveling and getting tested, especially since health care gets less safe when more people are waiting for it — including people with only mild symptoms.

4. It’s not going to change what you should do: Stay home and isolate yourself. Anyone with symptoms of COVID-19 should be assumed to have it. The test result won’t change what you or your doctor do.

5. The test can be negative even if you have the virus, leading you to infect others if you don’t stay isolated.

6. Right now, testing positive won’t lead to useful action or meaningful data: The Health Department won’t be able to trace your contacts or confirm where you were infected because too many people are positive, and because this would not be as important in fighting COVID-19 at present than other urgent work, including preventing and stopping outbreaks in nursing homes and hospitals.”

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About Dr. Tom Frieden

Dr. Tom Frieden is former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and former commissioner of the New York City Health Department. He is currently president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, a global non-profit initiative funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and part of the global non-profit Vital Strategies. Resolve to Save Lives works with countries to prevent 100 million deaths and to make the world safer from epidemics. @DrTomFrieden.

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives is a five-year, $225 million initiative funded byBloomberg Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gates Philanthropy Partners, which is funded with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and is part of the global organization Vital Strategies. To find out more visit:https://www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. We work with governments and civil society in 73 countries to design and implement evidence-based strategies that tackle their most pressing public health problems. Our goal is to see governments adopt promising interventions at scale as rapidly as possible. To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.

Stay in the know: Follow #KnowCOVID and #PreventEpidemics

Media Contacts:

Erin Sykes, Resolve to Save Lives; esykes@resolvetosavelives.org; +1.646.612.0001

Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies; choneysett@vitalstrategies.org; +1.914.424.3356

Resolve to Save Lives and Vital Strategies Urge US Congress to Fund Global Health Security

New York, USA - March 19, 2020 | Permalink

Congressional leaders should support significant and sustained global health security investment for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the next emergency supplemental package. These funds are critical to making the US, and the world, safer from pandemics.

Read the full text our letter to US Congress here.

Resolve to Save Lives Statement on ACE-Inhibitors and Angiotensin Receptor Blockers and COVID-19

New York, USA - March 16, 2020 | Permalink

ACEi and ARBs are established, life-saving treatments for patients with hypertension and other chronic illnesses. Patients should continue to take these medicines unless instructed otherwise by a doctor.

Angiotensin Converting Enzyme inhibitors (ACEis) and Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers (ARBs) are among the standard preferred antihypertensive agents, and are also recommended standard treatments for patients with chronic kidney disease, coronary heart disease, or heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. ACEis and ARBs are life-saving treatments and are generally safe, as demonstrated by randomized clinical trials.

Currently, the COVID-19 pandemic is threatening public health around the world. Early case series emerging from China, where the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, suggest that chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, and underlying heart or cerebrovascular disease are associated with more severe COVID-19 disease (see case series 1, 2, and 3). The details of which patients are at highest risk for severe disease are not yet well understood.

The angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) in the lung and elsewhere is believed to be a binding site for SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19 disease. ACE2 de-activates angiotensin II, and early evidence in animal studies suggests that ACEis and ARBs may upregulate ACE2. Recently, researchers hypothesized that patients taking ACEis or ARBs may be at risk for more severe COVID-19 illness because of ACE2 upregulation. A different set of researchers suggested the opposite: that these medications may be protective against COVID-19 and are potential treatments of the infection. Neither hypothesis has any empirical evidence to support it at this time. Randomized controlled trials are currently in development that will provide more information about the impact of ACEis and ARBs on COVID-19.

Hypotheses about ACEi/ARB and COVID-19 risk are intriguing. They are a cause for further study, but not for changing treatment of patients who are taking, or who have indications to begin taking these medications.

ACEi and ARBs are established, life-saving treatments for patients with hypertension and other chronic illnesses. Patients should continue to take these medicines unless instructed otherwise by a doctor.

This statement aligns with guidance independently developed and released by the European Society of Cardiology.

Statement from Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and current president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, on World Health Organization declaring the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic

New York, USA - March 11, 2020 | Permalink

Today, Wednesday, March 11, The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. There are currently over 100,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in 110 countries.

Statement from Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and current president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, on World Health Organization declaring the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic:

“A pandemic declaration confirms what the data have shown for weeks: COVID-19 is spreading in many countries around the world. This does not mean it’s more severe today than it was yesterday. It’s a warning: every country needs to prepare for coronavirus. All of us, people with underlying conditions, health care facilities, and government can take steps now to prevent infection, improve outcomes of people who get infected, and reduce the societal harms the virus causes.”

Dr. Tom Frieden is former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and former commissioner of the New York City Health Department. He is currently president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, a global non-profit initiative funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and part of the global non-profit Vital Strategies. Resolve to Save Lives works with countries to prevent 100 million deaths and to make the world safer from epidemics. @DrTomFrieden.

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives is determined to prevent millions of deaths from cardiovascular disease and epidemics, with a focus on accelerating action through speed, simplicity, and scale in low- and middle-income countries. Resolve to Save Lives is an initiative of the global public health organization Vital Strategies. We received $225 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gates Philanthropy Partners, which is funded with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation. For more information on Resolve to Save Lives’ work, please visit www.preventepidemics.org or @ResolveTSL

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. We work with governments and civil society in 73 countries to design and implement evidence-based strategies that tackle their most pressing public health problems. Our goal is to see governments adopt promising interventions at scale as rapidly as possible. To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.

Ethiopia Introduces New Tax to Prevent Noncommunicable Diseases and Save Lives

New York, USA - March 9, 2020 | Permalink

Resolve to Save Lives commends the Ethiopian Parliaments’ action to reduce intake of trans fat, saturated fat, and sugar

Dietary risk factors are a leading driver of noncommunicable diseases, which are estimated to account for nearly half of all deaths in Ethiopia. Late last month, the Ethiopian Parliament passed an excise tax on food products proven to increase the risk for heart disease and diabetes, including margarines, fats and oils with high levels of saturated fats or trans fats, and sugar sweetened beverages. Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies, applauds the Government of Ethiopia for its action to prevent noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) by promoting healthier diets.

Under the new law, margarine with more than 40% saturated fat, or more than 0.5% trans fat, will be subject to a 50% tax. Fats and oils with more than 40% saturated fat, more than 0.5% trans fat, or any partially hydrogenated fats will be taxed 40%, as will oils whose saturated and trans fat content is not labelled. Sweetened beverages will be subject to a 25% tax—one of the highest in the world. The law also increases taxes on alcohol and tobacco.

“Ethiopia’s new tax is an important step forward for heart health” said Dr. Tom Frieden, President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives. “Taxes are a key component of a comprehensive NCD prevention strategy—they can guide consumers to healthier choices and encourage the food industry to reformulate products to offer healthier options. We hope that Ethiopia’s swift action will encourage other countries to take similar measures to prevent disease and save lives.”

Comprehensive NCD prevention strategies combine fiscal policies, including taxation, with product regulation, marketing restrictions, public education, labelling requirements, procurement rules and health system strengthening.

Additional background:

Artificial trans fat is a man-made compound still used in some countries as a substitute for butter or lard in fried food, deep fried food, baked goods, and spreads. It has been estimated to cause more than 500,000 deaths per year, but it can be eliminated and replaced with healthier alternatives without changing the taste or cost of food. WHO has called for global elimination of artificial trans fat by 2023 with the REPLACE initiative. As of late 2019, trans fat regu­lations protected more than 2.4 bil­lion people in 30 countries (31% of the world’s population).

Excess sugar consumption has been linked to diabetes, liver and kidney damage, heart disease, and some cancers. Taxing sugar sweetened beverages has been shown to reduce consumption of sugar and has been adopted by more than 50 countries and cities worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends taxes of at least 20% on sugary drinks.In addition to these Resolve to Save Lives efforts, Vital Strategies is engaged in obesity prevention work in Barbados, Brazil, Colombia, Jamaica and South Africa to reduce consumption of sugary drinks and junk food and promote healthy food policies.

Media Contact:

Erin Sykes, Resolve to Save Lives: esykes@resolvetosavelives.org; +1.646.612.0001
Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies: choneysett@vitalstrategies.org; +1.914.424.3356

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives is a five-year, $225 million campaign funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gates Philanthropy Partners, which is funded with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and housed at Vital Strategies.

Resolve to Save Lives aims to save 100 million lives by:

• Helping low- and middle-income countries improve treatment of high blood pressure by implementing programs that have been proven to be effective and that can be scaled up in large populations
• Supporting policies to eliminate artificial trans fat
• Supporting efforts to reduce global salt consumption by 30%

To find out more visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. Our programs reach into 73 countries and help prevent death and illness from noncommunicable disease, reduce harm caused by environmental factors, and support cities as engines for public health. We consult with governments on issues including advocating for taxation on unhealthy commodities like sugary drinks and junk food, promoting smoke-free laws, improving indoor and outdoor air quality, and strengthening road safety. These are protections that can add up to millions of lives saved. Our team combines evidence-based strategies with innovation to help develop and implement sound public health policies, manage programs efficiently, strengthen data systems, conduct research and design strategic communication campaigns for policy and behavior change.

To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.

Dr. Tom Frieden on the World Health Organization’s Declaration of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern

New York, USA - January 31, 2020 | Permalink

Today the World Health Organization announced a public health emergency of international concern related to the novel coronavirus (2019 nCov).

Statement from Dr. Tom Frieden, President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies

“The declaration of a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) is warranted and matches the situation on the ground. The PHEIC will allow WHO to go beyond the sound technical information they have distributed to date, and allow them to further lean into the role of global leadership for governments and the private sector. WHO’s leadership will help us address the major gap in combatting novel coronavirus: detailed epidemiology that allows us to better understand how it is spreading, the range of illness it causes, who is most susceptible to severe illness and death, its mortality rate, and the best ways to limit or stop spread. With China’s invitation for an expert team to join its efforts, the key will be to ensure investigations are rapid and findings are quickly disseminated.

Some of the things China and the world will benefit from understanding better include:

• How many people have been tested and what proportion are positive in different age, sex, geographic, and risk groups in different time periods?
• What is the range of illness among infected people and what proportion are symptomatic?
• Has there been spread in hospitals and under what circumstances?
• How often do people without symptoms spread the virus to others?
• In sentinel healthcare facilities, what proportion of patients with and without respiratory symptoms test positive for the virus.

Resolve to Save Lives will continue to keep a close watch on the outbreak, working with countries in Africa and elsewhere on preparedness, and offering assistance in China.”

Media Contact:

Erin Sykes, Resolve to Save Lives: esykes@resolvetosavelives.org; +1.646.612.0001

Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies: choneysett@vitalstrategies.org; +1.914.424.3356

Dr. Tom Frieden (www.DrTomFrieden.net) is former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and former commissioner of the New York City Health Department. He is currently president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, a global non-profit initiative of Vital Strategies, working with countries to prevent 100 million deaths and make the world safer from epidemics. Twitter @DrTomFrieden, Facebook, LinkedIn, Medium

Resolve to Save Lives is a five-year, $225 million initiative funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gates Philanthropy Partners, which is funded with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and housed at Vital Strategies. To find out more visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. We work with governments and civil society in 73 countries to design and implement evidence-based strategies that tackle their most pressing public health problems. Our goal is to see governments adopt promising interventions at scale as rapidly as possible. To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.orgor Twitter @VitalStrat.

Leading Cardiovascular Health Organizations Urge Food Companies and Restaurant Chains to Stop Use of Deadly Chemical by 2023

New York, USA - January 14, 2020 | Permalink

American Heart Association, NCD Alliance, Resolve to Save Lives, and World Heart Federation Issue Letter to 41 Companies Calling on them to Replace Artificial Trans Fat with Healthier Alternatives

January 14, 2020: American Heart Association, NCD Alliance, Resolve to Save Lives (an initiative of Vital Strategies), and World Heart Federation have called on 40 of the largest multinational food manufacturers and a major global fats and oils supplier to protect the cardiovascular health of consumers worldwide by eliminating artificial trans fat from all products by 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO)’s target date for global trans fat elimination.

The four cardiovascular health organizations sent company leaders a letter inviting them to commit to reformulating products containing artificial trans fat, which has been estimated to cause more than 500,000 deaths from heart disease each year.

“For decades, industry has sold this toxic product to consumers, and these companies have a critical role to play in its elimination,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives. “The evidence is clear: trans fat kills, and companies have an obligation to act. No one asks for trans fat in their food, and no one will miss it when it’s gone.”

American Heart Association, NCD Alliance, Resolve to Save Lives, and World Heart Federation previously contacted 13 of the 41 companies in May of 2019 to urge them to commit to trans fat elimination, but none of these companies responded. In their most recent letter, the health organizations indicated that they plan public action against those that fail to respond a second time: “Because we believe that consumers have the right to know when foods, fats and oils companies disregard their obligation to protect consumer health, we will make the names of companies that fail to respond to this second call public. We will also test food products in markets around the world to measure the trans fat contents and share the results with policy-makers and the public.”

Artificial trans fat is fully replaceable by healthier oils and fats without changing the taste of food, and many major food companies have committed to eliminating trans fat for their global product lines. In 2018, WHO released the REPLACE Action Package ( www.who.int/replace-transfat/ ) to guide the global elimination of industrially-produced trans fat, including policy action and support for healthier oils and fats.

Eliminating artificial trans fat is possible. Member companies of the International Food and Beverage Alliance (IFBA) are 12 of the leading food and non-alcoholic beverage companies globally and committed in May 2019 to eliminate industrially produced trans fat from global product lines by 2023, in line with the WHO call on industry. IFBA members are The Coca-Cola Company, Danone, Ferrero, General Mills, Grupo Bimbo, The Kellogg Company, Mars, McDonald’s, Mondelez International, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever.

Companies challenged to eliminate trans fat by 2023:

Ajinomoto

Archer Daniels Midland

Barilla Group

Barry Callebaut

Boparan Holdings

BRF Global

Campbell Soup Company

Conagra Brands

Doctor's Associates

Domino's Pizza

Dr August Oetker KG

Dunkin Donuts

Flowers Foods

Groupe Lactalis S.A.

Hormel Foods Corporation

International Dairy Queen, Inc.

Itoham Yonekyu

Jacobs Douwe Egberts

JBS S.A.

JR Simplot

Kraft Heinz

Lindt & Sprungli

Marfring Group

McCain Foods Ltd

McCormick Corporation

Meiji Holdings

Morinaga Milk Industry

NH Foods Ltd

Nisin Foods Group

Nisshin Seifun Group

OSI Group

Papa John's

Restaurant Brands International

Starbucks Corporation

Tate & Lyle

The Hershey Company

The JM Smucker Company

TreeHouse Foods

Tyson Foods, Inc.

Yamazaki Baking

YUM! Brands

Media Contact:

Erin Sykes, Resolve to Save Lives: esykes@resolvetosavelives.org; +1.646.612.0001

Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies: choneysett@vitalstrategies.org; +1.914.424.3356

Tracey Johnston, Vital Strategies: tjohnston@vitalstrategies.org; +44-7889-081-170

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives is a five-year, $225 million initiative funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and housed at Vital Strategies, which works in 73 countries with the vision of a world in which every person is protected by a strong public health system. To find out more, visit www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL.

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that seeks to accelerate progress on the world’s most pressing health problems. The Vital Strategies team combines evidence-based strategies with innovation to help develop and implement sound public health policies, manage programs efficiently, strengthen data systems, conduct research, and design strategic communication campaigns for policy and behavior change. To find out more, visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.

Resolve to Save Lives Announces US $2.3 Million in Grants to Promote Heart Health in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

New York, USA - November 7, 2019 | Permalink

Programs in 18 Countries Receive Highly Competitive Grants

November 7, 2019 (New York, NY)—Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies, announced the recipients of the highly competitive LINKS grants, with awards totaling more than US $2.3 million. Funded programs support blood pressure control, salt reduction and trans fat elimination, and include a patient-centered hypertension screening and treatment program in Pakistan, monitoring South Africa’s sodium reduction laws, and advocacy for effective regulation of trans fat in Kenya.

The grant program, part of the LINKS platform that connects people working to improve cardiovascular health around the world, is funded by Resolve to Save Lives, and managed by Resolve along with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through the CDC Foundation.

“Cardiovascular disease kills more people each year than all infectious diseases combined, but it remains neglected by many health systems and the global health community.”

Dr. Tom Frieden, President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives.

“Cardiovascular disease kills more people each year than all infectious diseases combined, but it remains neglected by many health systems and the global health community,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives. “LINKS is connecting champions on the front lines of work in low- and middle-income countries and sharing lessons and resources to accelerate progress.”

This second round of grant funding will support government and civil society organizations working in 18 countries. Programs will target high blood pressure in Ecuador, Jordan, Haiti, Kenya, Mongolia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Vietnam; salt reduction in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Costa Rica, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan; and trans fat elimination in Kenya and Tanzania.

“The LINKS grant program will help to identify local solutions to hypertension control and advance control of non-communicable diseases through primary health care,” said Dr. Cherian Varghese, Coordinator of Management of Non-communicable Diseases at WHO. “The program will also build capacity in health systems, which is critical to advance universal health coverage.”

“To address cardiovascular disease, the CDC Foundation is pleased to work with partners by providing support to countries around the world seeking technical assistance through the LINKS online community and platform,” said Dr. Judy Monroe, president and CEO of the CDC Foundation. “Working together to address the health challenge of cardiovascular disease ensures that knowledge, best practices and lessons learned are shared and utilized across the globe.”

First-round grants totaling USD 1.25 million were awarded in March 2019 to LINKS members in 11 countries. The grants are intended to help health systems and non-governmental organizations pilot approaches that will lead to scalable national programs that can save both lives and money, including by reducing health care costs associated with avoidable heart attacks, strokes, and kidney failure.

LINKS membership is free and members are eligible to apply for one-time grants to improve cardiovascular health in their communities using one of three proven, effective approaches to improving heart health: increasing control of high blood pressure, reducing salt intake or eliminating trans fat. LINKS also provides members access to technical assistance from cardiovascular health experts from around the world, networking opportunities, useful tools for cardiovascular health, and live webinars.

2019 LINKS Grant Recipients and Projects:

Caucasus Region (Armenia, Azerbaijan, & Georgia): WHO European Office for the Prevention and Control of NCDs

Reduce salt intake in the Caucasus region by collecting quality data on population salt consumption and nutritional composition of selected products, bringing together policy makers to develop national salt targets and nutritional guidelines for public institutions and implementing a national campaign to raise awareness about salt reduction among primary care professionals and the food and hospitality sector.

Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, & Uzbekistan): Kazakhstan WHO Country Office, WHO/Europe

Reduce salt intake in Central Asia by estimating population salt intake, training researchers, primary care professionals and the food and hospitality sector on salt reduction, implementing a campaign about the risks of excess salt among consumers, cooks and caterers, and promoting food reformulation and product improvement.

Costa Rica: Costa Rican Institute of Research and Teaching in Nutrition and Health (INCIENSA)

Support salt reduction policy by assessing amount, sources and trends in population salt consumption, surveying knowledge, attitudes and practices around salt in food services, and adapting a regional social media campaign for national use.

Ecuador: Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO)

Improve control of high blood pressure by training health staff and developing monitoring and evaluation tools for the national implementation of the WHO HEARTS technical package.

Haiti: Weill Cornell Medicine & GHESKIO Centers

Train physician, nurses, and community health workers at 30 clinics across Haiti to implement new national primary-care blood pressure guidelines, support the Ministry of Health with strategic planning for blood pressure medication supply management, and expand a community-based blood pressure management program.

Jordan: The Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network (EMPHNET)

Implement the WHO HEARTS technical package for cardiovascular disease management in 20 health care centers in the north of Jordan and evaluate impact on blood pressure control.

Kenya: Ministry of Health and Ujamaa Health and Strategy Solutions

Train community health workers and primary health care workers to implement appropriate blood pressure screening, diagnosis, care, follow-up and reporting.

Kenya: International Institute for Legislative Affairs (ILA)

Assess the existing policy and regulatory framework and identify stakeholders for trans fat elimination and advocate for effective policy and legislative approaches for the regulation of trans fat in Kenya.

Malaysia: Ministry of Health Malaysia, National University of Malaysia, The George Institute for Global Health (TGI) and the WHO Office in Malaysia

Analyze salt levels in street foods to accelerate mandatory sodium labelling, inform salt-reduction education messages, and engage the food industry in reformulation efforts.

Mongolia: Onom Foundation

Expand blood pressure control program to all provinces in Mongolia by training healthcare professionals and increasing screening and diagnosis.

Nigeria: Epidemiology and Biostatistics Research Unit at the Institute of Advanced Medical Research and Training (EBRU-IAMRAT)

Determine salt content of meals served by National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, educate students on the risks of too much salt, train school food vendors on reduced-salt cooking, and evaluate the effectiveness of salt reduction education in primary schools.

Nigeria: African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET)

Improve blood pressure control in three communities in Anambra state by raising awareness about high blood pressure, promoting patient-centered approaches for community-based diagnosis, building health systems capacity for blood pressure management, and ensuring availability of blood pressure drugs in primary care centers.

Pakistan: Indus Health Network-Global Health Directorate (IHN-GHD)

Launch a patient-centered hypertension screening and treatment program at four IHN-GHD primary care sites by using standardized screening and treatment protocols, creating a patient registry, and ensuring accessibility of regular blood pressure monitoring and convenient, affordable medication refills and adjustments.

South Africa: University of Wollongong (UoW)

Establish a rigorous, transparent and sustainable mechanism for monitoring and evaluation of salt reduction legislation in South Africa.

Tanzania: Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS)

Assess trans fat levels in street foods and edible oils/fats, and generate local evidence to promote best practice policies for trans fat elimination and the use of healthier replacement oils/fats.

Vietnam: National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology

Improve access to quality, affordable cardiovascular medications among rural populations in northern Vietnam by implementing and scaling up the Revolving Fund Pharmacy model, a patient-centered supply chain system to bridge gaps in government pharmacy medication supply.

Media Contact:

Erin Sykes, Resolve to Save Lives: esykes@resolvetosavelives.org; +1.646.612.0001

Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies: choneysett@vitalstrategies.org; +1.914.424.3356

Tracey Johnston, Vital Strategies: tjohnston@vitalstrategies.org; +44-7889-081-170

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives is a five-year, $225 million initiative funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and housed at Vital Strategies, which works in 73 countries with the vision of a world in which every person is protected by a strong public health system. To find out more, visit www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL.

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that seeks to accelerate progress on the world’s most pressing health problems. The Vital Strategies team combines evidence-based strategies with innovation to help develop and implement sound public health policies, manage programs efficiently, strengthen data systems, conduct research, and design strategic communication campaigns for policy and behavior change. To find out more, visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.

New Website for Francophone Africa Shows Most Countries are not Prepared for an Epidemic

New York, USA - October 17, 2019 | Permalink

PreventEpidemics.org Highlights Gaps in Preparedness and Encourages Action to Save Lives

The world will face another epidemic, but most countries are not ready to find, stop, and prevent its spread. A website that was just launched in French, PreventEpidemics.org, spotlights gaps in preparedness and highlights actions countries, donors, activists, and organizations can take to fill them. Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies, first released PreventEpidemics.org in English in 2018. Now, the information is available in French to facilitate understanding of preparedness gaps and strengths among journalists and advocates in Francophone Africa.

The website is the first to provide advocacy tools based on each country’s progress towards epidemic preparedness, and a single number ⁠— the ReadyScore®⁠— that details how prepared countries are to find, stop and prevent epidemics. The site also features an interactive map showing real time international flights and outbreak alerts overlaid on ReadyScores.

“By the end of this year, nearly 120 countries will have completed a rigorous, transparent assessment of how prepared they are for an epidemic, but there has been too little progress closing life-threatening gaps,” says Dr. Tom Frieden, President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives and former US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director. “It’s not a matter of if there will be another global epidemic, but when. It’s time for the global community and countries to step up and improve preparedness.”

Resolve to Save Lives partners with countries to help them step up their preparedness through technical assistance, resource mobilization and catalyzing political will.

“How can we prevent a nurse in DRC from contracting measles, or a child in Senegal from getting malaria?” said Marine Buissonniere, Senior Adviser, Resolve to Save Lives. “Our website not only communicates the risk that epidemics will not be effectively managed, but, most importantly, encourages action to reduce these risks.”

A key feature of PreventEpidemics.org is the ReadyScore, a measure of country preparedness based on existing data from the Joint External Evaluation (JEE), an external assessment developed by the World Health Organization and partner organizations to help countries find and close gaps in epidemic preparedness. ReadyScore uses JEE data to calculate a numerical score — from 0 to 100 — representing a country’s ability to prepare for and respond to an epidemic. These scores can drive action at the country and global level by motivating countries to step up preparedness overall and by specific area.

In Francophone Africa, there are a range of ReadyScores, from Senegal with 45 to the Central African Republic with 26, and each country has unique strengths and gaps. Senegal has strong immunization activities but can improve coordination of outbreak response. DRC scored 35 and is working to develop a trained workforce but struggling with preparedness. PreventEpidemics.org provides detailed information for countries and allows users to see how their own ReadyScore compares to a list of their neighbors.

PreventEpidemics.org provides a geo-targeted homepage, advocacy tools including detailed global- and country-level data, highlights of countries’ strengths and gaps, and action plans to engage decision makers to improve epidemic preparedness.

For further information or to arrange an interview with a Resolve to Save Lives expert, please contact ebradford@rtsl.org.

Additional information:

The ReadyScore consolidates 19 areas of epidemic preparedness assessed during a JEE. Within those areas, nearly 50 factors are assessed, such as whether a country has a national laboratory system to diagnose diseases and the capacity of its public health workforce to find, stop and prevent epidemics. The JEE rates each of these indicators on a scale of 1 – 5. One is “no capacity” and is coded red. Two and three indicate the “need to build capacity” (limited or developed capacity) and are coded yellow. Four and five indicate “sustainable capacity” and are in the desired green band. The ReadyScore is the average score of the nineteen area scores, placed on a scale of 0 to 100.

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives is a five-year, $225 million initiative funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and housed at Vital Strategies, which works in 73 countries with the vision of a world in which every person is protected by a strong public health system. To find out more, visit www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL.

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that seeks to accelerate progress on the world’s most pressing health problems. The Vital Strategies team combines evidence-based strategies with innovation to help develop and implement sound public health policies, manage programs efficiently, strengthen data systems, conduct research, and design strategic communication campaigns for policy and behavior change. To find out more, visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.

Un nouveau site web pour l'Afrique francophone démontre que la plupart des pays ne sont pas préparés à faire face à une épidémie

New York, USA - October 17, 2019 | Permalink

PreventEpidemics.org souligne les lacunes dans la préparation aux épidémies et encourage les actions visant à sauver des vies

Une nouvelle épidémie est inévitable, mais la plupart des pays ne sont pas prêts pour prévenir, détecter, et empêcher la propagation d’une telle épidémie. PreventEpidemics.org, un site web qui vient d'être lancé en français, souligne les lacunes en matière de préparation aux épidémies et met en évidence les actions que les pays, les donateurs, les activistes et les organisations peuvent entreprendre pour combler ces dernières. Resolve to Save Lives, une initiative de Vital Strategies, a mis en ligne pour la première fois PreventEpidemics.org en anglais en 2018. Désormais, les informations sont disponibles en français pour faciliter la compréhension des lacunes et des forces en matière de préparation aux épidémies parmi les journalistes et les promoteurs de la santé publique en Afrique francophone.

Le site web est le premier à fournir des outils de plaidoyer basés sur les progrès de chaque pays en matière de préparation aux épidémies, et un numéro unique - le ReadyScore® - détaillant le niveau de préparation des pays pour la prévention, la détection, et le contrôle des épidémies. Le site propose également une carte interactive montrant les vols internationaux en temps réel et les alertes d'épidémies combinées aux ReadyScores.

« À la fin de cette année, près de 120 pays auront achevé une évaluation rigoureuse et transparente de leur niveau de préparation aux épidémies, mais les progrès accomplis pour combler les lacunes qui posent un danger immédiat pour les vies humaines sont insuffisants», a déclaré le Dr Tom Frieden, Président et CEO de <i>Resolve to Save Lives</i> et ancien directeur des Centres américains pour le contrôle et la prévention des maladies. « Ce n’est pas une question de savoir s’il y aura une autre épidémie mondiale, mais <i>quand</i>. Il est temps que la communauté internationale et les pays intensifient leurs efforts et améliorent leur niveau de préparation.»

Les partenaires de Resolve to Save Lives aident les pays à renforcer leur niveau préparation aux épidémies en apportant une assistance technique, en mobilisant des ressources et en catalysant la volonté politique.

« Comment pouvons-nous éviter qu’une infirmière en République démocratique du Congo contracte la rougeole, ou qu’un enfant au Sénégal attrape le paludisme?» demande Marine Buissonnière, conseillère principale de Resolve to Save Lives . « Non seulement notre site web signale le fait que des risques épidémiques ne soient pas gérées efficacement, mais, surtout, encourage les mesures visant à réduire ces risques. »

Un élément clé de PreventEpidemics.org est le ReadyScore, une mesure du niveau de préparation des pays basée sur les données existantes des Évaluations Externes Conjointes (EEC), réalisées par l’Organisation mondiale de la Santé et des organisations partenaires pour aider les pays à identifier et à combler les lacunes en matière de préparation aux épidémies. Le ReadyScore utilise les données des EEC pour calculer un score numérique - compris entre 0 et 100 - représentant la capacité d’un pays à se préparer et à faire face à une épidémie. Ces scores peuvent conduire à une action aux niveaux national et international en motivant les pays à renforcer leur préparation globale et par domaine spécifique.

En Afrique francophone, il existe une gamme de ReadyScores, du Sénégal avec 45 à la République centrafricaine avec 26, et chaque pays possède des forces et des lacunes uniques. Le Sénégal met en œuvre d’importantes activités de vaccination mais peut encore améliorer la coordination de sa riposte aux épidémies. La RDC a obtenu un score de 35 et travaille à la mise en place d'une main-d'œuvre qualifiée, mais lutte avec des difficultés de préparation. PreventEpidemics.org fournit des informations détaillées aux pays et permet aux utilisateurs de voir comment le ReadyScore de leur pays se compare à ceux de leurs voisins.

PreventEpidemics.org fournit une page d’accueil géo-ciblée, des outils de plaidoyer comprenant des données détaillées aux niveaux international et national, les forces et les faiblesses des pays et des plans d’action pour inciter les décideurs à améliorer leur niveau de préparation aux épidémies.

PreventEpidemics.org reconnaît qu'aucun pays ne sera jamais totalement à l'abri de la menace d'épidémies, mais des systèmes solides et robustes pour détecter et contrer les menaces peuvent minimiser les maladies évitables et les décès en cas de maladies infectieuses nouvelles ou émergentes.

Pour plus d'informations ou pour organiser une interview avec un expert de Resolve to Save Lives, veuillez contacter l’African Media Agency.

Informations supplémentaires:

Le ReadyScore fusionne les 19 domaines de préparation et de réponse aux épidémies évaluées au cours d’une EEC. Près de 50 facteurs sont évalués dans ces domaines, par exemple si un pays dispose d’un système national de laboratoires pour diagnostiquer les maladies et de la capacité de son personnel de santé publique à prévenir, détecter, et empêcher la propagation des épidémies. L'EEC note le niveau d’avancement dans chacun de ces domaines sur une échelle de 1 à 5. 1 correspond à « capacité absente » et est codé en rouge. 2 et 3 indiquent le « besoin de renforcer les capacités » (capacité limitée ou en place) et sont codés en jaune. 4 et 5 désignent une capacité « démontrée » ou « pérenne » et se situent dans la bande verte souhaitée. Le ReadyScore est le score moyen des 19 domaines présenté sur une échelle allant de 0 à 100.

À propos de Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Livesest une initiative quinquennale de 225 millions de dollars américains financée par Bloomberg Philanthropies, l'Initiative Chan Zuckerberg et la Fondation Bill & Melinda Gates. Elle est dirigée par le Dr Tom Frieden, ancien directeur des Centres américains pour le contrôle et la prévention des maladies, et hébergée par Vital Strategies, une organisation qui travaille dans 73 pays avec la vision d'un monde dans lequel chaque personne est protégée par un système de santé publique fort. Pour en savoir plus, visitez le site www.resolvetosavelives.org ou Twitter @ResolveTSL.

À propos de Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies est une organisation internationale de santé publique qui vise à accélérer les progrès concernant les problèmes de santé mondiale les plus urgents. L’équipe du Vital Strategies associe des stratégies fondées sur des données probantes à l’innovation afin de contribuer à l’élaboration et à la mise en œuvre de politiques de santé publique fortes, à la gestion efficace des programmes, au renforcement des systèmes de données, à la recherche et à la conception de campagnes de communication stratégiques axées sur le changement de politique et de comportement. Pour en savoir plus, visitez le site www.vitalstrategies.org ou Twitter @VitalStrat.

China Debuts First-of-its-kind Salt Reduction Mass Media Campaign

New York, USA - September 2, 2019 | Permalink

China leads the world in strokes and heart attacks caused by eating too much salt

(New York, NY) This week, the Chinese government debuted, “Love with Less Salt,” the country’s first major mass media campaign to dramatically depict the dangers of the high salt diet common in China. The eight-week long campaign is the cornerstone of the government’s mass media effort to prompt actions to curb high salt consumption. “Love with Less Salt” will run on China Central Television (CCTV), China’s primary state television broadcaster, and in Shandong and Anhui Provinces, which have a combined population exceeding 160 million people. The campaign was developed with China’s National Health Commission, Shandong and Anhui Health Commissions, and the Shandong and Anhui Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Excess salt kills at least four hundred thousand people in China every year,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies. “The Chinese government has set a goal to reduce salt intake by 20% by 2030. The ad empowers consumers to make healthier choices. This public education effort, along with the government’s recent action to lower the recommended amount of salt to 5 grams per day, are important steps towards achieving their goal.”

Average salt intake in China is 10.5 grams per day, more than double the amount recommended by the World Health Organization and is among the highest in the world. High salt diets are directly linked to high blood pressure, kidney failure and stroke. The ad recommends no more than 5 grams of salt each day to improve heart health.

Data show that the primary source of sodium in China is salt added during home cooking. In addition to showing the disabling effect of stroke, “Love with Less Salt” shows popular foods that are high in salt, such as pickles, as well as a measuring spoon with the recommended amount of salt per day.

“Vital Strategies is excited to be working with Shandong and Anhui on a mass media campaign to reduce salt consumption, a leading cause of hypertension,” said Sandra Mullin, Senior Vice President of Policy, Advocacy and Communications at Vital Strategies. “The campaign was developed using rigorous local research on the messages that would prompt people to change attitudes and ultimately behavior. We are optimistic that this effort will contribute to the broader effort underway of reducing salt intake and improving health in China.”

“Love with Less Salt” will air on television and radio for eight weeks, and billboards and posters relaying the ad’s key messages will be posted in Shandong and Anhui provinces during the 2- month campaign period. The campaign will be supported by community education events in major cities in these two provinces, such as healthy recipe competitions, guest speakers at large gatherings and printed materials in public facilities.

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Additional information:

The Chinese government has instituted several programs to lower salt intake:

• Sodium must be labeled on food products.
• In early 2018, optional nutrition guidelines for school meals went into effect, which aim to reduce salt to ≤5 grams and ≤6 grams of salt per day for students aged 6 to 14 years and 15 to 17 years, respectively.
• The China Healthy Lifestyle for All Initiative includes education programs and campaigns to lower salt intake as well as programs to encourage salt reduction in different settings.
• Healthy China 2030 Action Plan advocates daily sodium intake no more than 5 grams per day.
• Shandong Province has implemented the SMASH project from 2011 to 2015 to reduce salt intake in Shandong.

Media Contact:

Erin Sykes, Resolve to Save Lives: esykes@resolvetosavelives.org; +1.646.612.0001

Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies: choneysett@vitalstrategies.org; +1.914.424.3356

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives is a five-year, $225 million campaign funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and coordinated by Vital Strategies, which works in 60 countries to address the world’s most challenging health issues.

Resolve to Save Lives aims to save 100 million lives over the next 30 years by:

• Supporting policies to eliminate artificial trans fat and reduce global sodium consumption by 30%.
• Helping low- and middle-income countries improve treatment of high blood pressure by supporting efforts that have been proven to be effective and can be easily scaled up in large populations.

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that seeks to accelerate progress on the world’s most pressing health problems. Our team combines evidence-based strategies with innovation to help develop and implement sound public health policies, manage programs efficiently, strengthen data systems, conduct research, and design strategic communication campaigns for policy and behavior change. To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.

For further information or to arrange an interview with a Resolve to Save Lives expert, please contact Erin Sykes at +1 646-612-0001 or esykes@resolvetosavelives.org or Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies at +1 914.424.3356 or choneysett@vitalstrategies.org.

100 Countries Now Know How Prepared They Are for Next Outbreak – Time to Close the Gaps

New York, USA - July 9, 2019 | Permalink

The 100th JEE was completed by Haiti, one of the first countries in the Americas to complete the exercise.

(New York, NY) The world has reached a new milestone in epidemic preparedness. One hundred countries have now completed a Joint External Evaluation (JEE), the world’s gold standard for evaluating how prepared a country is to find, stop and prevent an epidemic. The JEE helps countries determine which preparedness gaps are most important to fill in order to reduce epidemic risk, and how to fill these gaps.

“Congratulations to the 100 countries that completed the JEE. Five years ago, this seemed like a nearly impossible goal,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies. “JEEs are pointing the way to a safer world. As we shift from evaluation to action – governments, civil society and donors need to urgently step up readiness.”

The 100th JEE was completed by Haiti, one of the first countries in the Americas to complete the exercise.

“100 countries have completed the JEE, and 7,000 gaps have been identified,” said Amanda McClelland, Senior Vice President of the Prevent Epidemics team at Resolve to Save Lives. “As we celebrate this success, we can’t lose sight of the work ahead of us. Once countries complete a JEE, that’s when the real work begins⁠—closing the gaps identified by the assessment to ensure we’re better prepared tomorrow.”

PreventEpidemic.org, a website created by Resolve to Save Lives, uses JEE data to show how prepared each country is for the next epidemic, and provides advocacy tools to encourage governments to fill preparedness gaps.

Additional information:

The Joint External Evaluation (JEE) is a comprehensive, standardized and transparent assessment of a country’s ability to find, stop and prevent disease threats, conducted first by a group of domestic experts and then validated by an external group of independent international experts. Similar to a report card, 19 areas of epidemic preparedness and response ability are assessed and then scored. The assessment is voluntary, initiated by a country, conducted approximately every five years, and the results are published by the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO also uses other processes, including mandated annual self-reporting (the results of which are also presented on this site), simulation exercises, and after-action reviews to help countries assess and identify areas for improvement in preparedness and response.

WHO Endorsement of Simpler Drug Treatment for Blood Pressure Will Save Lives

New York, USA - July 9, 2019 | Permalink

Including fixed dose combinations on Essential Medicine List will improve availability, affordability for 1 billion

(New York, NY) Resolve to Save Lives (RTSL), an initiative of Vital Strategies, welcomes the addition of four fixed dose combinations (FDCs) of antihypertensive medications to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Essential Medicines List (EML) in response to an application filed by RTSL and partners. Adding four FDCs (lisinopril/amlodipine, lisinopril /hydrochlorothiazide, telmisartan/amlodipine, and telmisartan/hydrochlorothiazide) to the Essential Medicines List is a critical step to improve the availability and affordability of these drugs, making it easier for the more than 1 billion people with high blood pressure worldwide to regularly take the medicines they need to prevent early disability and death.

FDCs, which combine two or more blood pressure medications that are commonly taken together into a single pill, have been proven to improve patients’ adherence to medication regimens and blood pressure control rates. FDCs have important advantages for patients and health systems, including simpler dose schedules, decreased pill burden, reduced stockouts, and easier task sharing, training, and supervision.

“High blood pressure kills more people than all infectious diseases combined, but there are safe, effective, generic, low-cost medications that can prevent many of these deaths,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives. “FDCs have played an important role in improving blood pressure control rates in many countries, and their inclusion in the WHO EML will encourage all health systems to prioritize these life-saving drugs.”

Many countries use the WHO EML as a model, and the listing of FDC antihypertensive medications will promote broader global uptake. Resolve to Save Lives coordinated the application for antihypertensive FDC’s inclusion in the 21st WHO EML with support from Vital Strategies, the Arnhold Institute for Global Health, the George Institute for Global Health, and the Young Professionals Chronic Disease Network.

Only one of every seven people who has high blood pressure worldwide has it under control, even though high blood pressure can be safely treated and managed with medication. A major reason for low global control is that most patients require two or more drugs to control blood pressure, yet many only receive one. Improving worldwide control of high blood pressure to 70% percent can prevent almost 40 million deaths over 25 years.

“Ensuring a supply of safe, effective medications for high blood pressure and promoting patient-centered care through convenient medication regimens are both key to improving blood pressure control rates around the world,” said Dr. Frieden. “Having FDCs for hypertension on the WHO EML is a breakthrough for both of these proven strategies, and for getting these drugs to the people who need them.”

Many leading global organizations support increasing access to FDCs of antihypertensive medications, including the American Heart Association, European Society of Hypertension, International Society of Hypertension, Lancet Commission on Hypertension Group, Latin American Society on Hypertension, Resolve to Save Lives, World Heart Federation, World Hypertension League, and World Stroke Organization.

Resolve to Save Lives does not accept funding or any type of gift from pharmaceutical companies or device manufacturers.

Additional Information

Although specific medications are listed in the EML, countries can select similar medications of the same class. For example, many experts recommend that chlorthalidone be used in place of hydrochlorothiazide because of evidence that it is more effective in preventing cardiovascular events. Current availability of chlorthalidone is limited and prices are higher than hydrochlorothiazide, but that may change if chlorthalidone becomes more widely used.

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives is a five-year, $225 million campaign funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and coordinated by Vital Strategies, which works in 60 countries to address the world’s most challenging health issues.

Resolve to Save Lives aims to save 100 million lives over the next 30 years by:

• Supporting policies to eliminate artificial trans fat and reduce global sodium consumption by 30%.
• Helping low- and middle-income countries improve treatment of high blood pressure by supporting efforts that have been proven to be effective and can be easily scaled up in large populations.

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that seeks to accelerate progress on the world’s most pressing health problems. Our team combines evidence-based strategies with innovation to help develop and implement sound public health policies, manage programs efficiently, strengthen data systems, conduct research, and design strategic communication campaigns for policy and behavior change. To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.

For further information or to arrange an interview with a Resolve to Save Lives expert, please contact Erin Sykes at +1 646-612-0001 or esykes@resolvetosavelives.org or Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies at +1 914.424.3356 or choneysett@vitalstrategies.org.

How To Save 100 Million Lives Through Improved Heart Health

New York, USA - June 11, 2019 | Permalink

New study shows three scalable interventions can save millions of lives globally

(New York, USA) – A new study in the journal Circulation reports nearly 100 million lives could be saved by increasing the number of people around the world treated for high blood pressure, by reducing salt intake and by eliminating trans fat from the global food supply. The authors used current global figures on blood pressure, salt intake and trans fat consumption to estimate the impact that evidence-based interventions would have on future death rates. They found that scaling up global treatment for high blood pressure to 70% could delay 39.4 million deaths, that reaching a 30% reduction in sodium intake could delay an additional 40 million deaths, and that eliminating trans fat could delay 14.8 million deaths, for a total of almost 100 million lives in 25 years.

Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies, welcomes these findings, which demonstrate the life-saving potential of cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention on a global scale. The findings highlight the need for renewed and increased commitments to improving high blood pressure treatment, reducing salt intake, and eliminating trans fats from governments, health systems, and advocates. The three cost-effective, feasible interventions are needed to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3.4, which aims to reduce risk of premature death from noncommunicable diseases by one third by 2030.

“Improving blood pressure, reducing salt and eliminating trans fat have tremendous potential to improve cardiovascular health globally, said Dr. Tom Frieden, President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives. “But the full potential of these interventions to save lives can only be reached with increased national and international efforts. The research published in Circulation shows that this is a public health opportunity that we can’t leave on the table. There are millions of lives at stake, and we have proven solutions.”

Resolve to Save Lives aims to work with partners to save 100 million lives by:

• Helping low- and middle-income countries improve treatment of high blood pressure by implementing programs that have been proven to be effective and that can be scaled up in large populations
• Supporting policies to eliminate artificial trans fat
• Supporting efforts to reduce global salt consumption by 30%

Non-communicable diseases (NCD), including cardiovascular disease, claim 38 million lives a year and are the leading global cause of death. 40% of those who die from NCDs are younger than 70, and 80% of these premature NCD deaths occur in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs).

Despite the substantial and growing burden of heart disease in LMICs, only 1% or less of all global health funding is currently invested in NCD prevention.

Media Contact:

Erin Sykes, Resolve to Save Lives: esykes@resolvetosavelives.org; +1.646.612.0001
Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies: choneysett@vitalstrategies.org; +1.914.424.3356
Tracey Johnston, Vital Strategies: tjohnston@vitalstrategies.org; +44.(0)7889.081.170

Link to article

https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.118.038160

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives is a five-year, $225 million campaign funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gates Philanthropy Partners, which is funded with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and housed at Vital Strategies. .

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. Our programs reach into 73 countries and help prevent death and illness from noncommunicable disease, reduce harm caused by environmental factors, and support cities as engines for public health. We consult with governments on issues including restricting junk food marketing to kids, promoting smoke-free laws, improving indoor and outdoor air quality, and strengthening road safety. These are protections that can add up to millions of lives saved. Our team combines evidence-based strategies with innovation to help develop and implement sound public health policies, manage programs efficiently, strengthen data systems, conduct research and design strategic communication campaigns for policy and behavior change.

Five Billion People Still at Risk From Industrial Trans Fat Exposure

New York, USA - May 22, 2019 | Permalink

First WHO annual report on trans fat elimination shows some countries taking action, but more is needed

22 May, 2019 - Geneva, Switzerland: Six countries restricted industrially produced trans fat since 2018, and another 24 countries, including the European Union, recently adopted trans fat regulations that will come into effect over the next two years. Yet, more than 110 countries still have no regulations against this harmful compound, meaning five billion people are at risk for industrially produced trans fat exposure in the foods they eat every day, according to the first annual global progress report on trans fat elimination issued by today by the World Health Organization.

Trans fat causes an estimated half a million deaths each year, despite data that show an immediate and long-lasting health benefit when industrially produced trans fat is removed from the food supply.

The new report summarizes country actions to ban industrially produced trans fat and makes recommendations for action to achieve the 2023 goal for global elimination. WHO also released detailed step-by-step implementation modules for the REPLACE action package, which give countries exact guidance on how to cut industrially produced trans fat from their foods and save lives.

“Momentum is growing for the global elimination of industrially produced trans fat, with nearly one third of the world’s population in 28 countries now protected from its harms,” said WHO Director General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “But more than two-thirds of the world’s population lacks protection from industrial trans-fat in their food. WHO stands ready to support elimination efforts in the remaining countries. We welcome industry commitments to reformulate and remove trans fat from their products.”

A few highlights from the annual report include:

- Thailand implemented best practice regulations to eliminate industrially produced trans fat in January 2019

- The European Union enacted best practice regulations to eliminate industrially produced trans fat in foods by 2021

- India released draft regulations in December 2018 to further lower limits for industrially produced trans fat to 2%

- Turkey released draft best practice regulations in January 2019 against trans fat

- More than 40 countries began activities to limit trans fat

“Eliminating artificial trans fat is one of the simplest and most effective ways to save lives and create a healthier food supply,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies. “Progress eliminating trans fat has been uneven. The new REPLACE modules provide detailed guidance on cutting trans fat from the food supply. There’s no excuse to delay taking action to eliminate trans fat.”

The inaugural progress report also shows most of the policy action against trans fat has been in high income countries. No low-income countries and only three lower-middle-income countries (India, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan) have trans fat policies. This new map shows where actions have, and have not, been taken.

Building on the lessons and recommendations in the annual progress report, the REPLACE modules help countries take action. The modules provide practical and evidence-based guidance on how to implement best practice policies.

Recently, food companies of the International Food and Beverage Alliance have committed to eliminate industrial trans fats from all their products globally by 2023.

WHO urges action against industrially produced trans fat from countries, regional bodies and industry. When industrially produced trans fat is finally cut from the global food supply, it will save millions of lives, be the first risk factor for a non-communicable disease ever eliminated, and prove that substantial progress against non-communicable diseases is possible.

Media Contact:

Erin Sykes, Resolve to Save Lives: esykes@resolvetosavelives.org; +1.646.612.0001

Christina Honeysett, Vital Strategies: choneysett@vitalstrategies.org; +1.914.424.3356 Tracey Johnston, Vital Strategies: tjohnston@vitalstrategies.org; +44.(0)7889.081.170

About Resolve to Save Lives

Resolve to Save Lives is a five-year, $225 million campaign funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gates Philanthropy Partners, which is funded with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation. It is led by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and housed at Vital Strategies. To find out more visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.org or Twitter @ResolveTSL

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. We work with governments and civil society in 73 countries to design and implement evidence-based strategies that tackle their most pressing public health problems. Our goal is to see governments adopt promising interventions at scale as rapidly as possible. To find out more, please visit www.vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.