Sorry – I’ve been busy, but that’s no excuse

My sincerest apologies for not blogging in so so long. This is exactly what I would advise a blogger should never do, but I guess I’ll have to live with a do as I say, not as I do philosophy for now.

Just to give you a brief update of my last  weeks, I have been;

• Helping out with Sadiq Khan MP’s campaign in Tooting. It feels good here, I think we will win it and Mark Clarke and the Tories seem increasingly all over the place. We had the Tooting Action Day last week which was about 6 hours of canvassing and envelope stuffing. Sounds awful, but it is great to hang out with people as passionate as I am. Plus it is a pleasure to help out Sadiq any way I can. Bring on the election.
• I’ve been helping manage the launch of the Labour Campaign for International Development. I’m election and media manager for the group and again, it is great to work with people who share my passions. I won’t go into too much detail, but follow my link and you can get a good idea of what we’ve put into place.
• I’ve been reading. Firstly Kafka’s  The Trial irritating. Secondly David Plouffe’s story of how he managed Obama’s campaign in the brilliant The Audacity to Win – read it.
• I’ve been saving the world. Work has been fantastic, I’ve been seeing the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Pneumococcal Disease Prevention in the Developing World transition itself to the APPG for Global Action against Childhood Pneumonia as well as partaking in some pretty high-profile campaigns, which I probably shouldn’t discuss here.
• I’ve been watching Mad Men, brilliant.
• I’ve been planning some holidays, I’m looking forward to it

There’s plenty more, I’ll add to this list when I think about it. I’ll add hyperlinks soon too.

Pneumoccocal disease in the developing world

The WHO has recently released figures surrounding the global disease burden of pneumococcal disease and Hib, two of the leading causes of pneumonia which kills more children that AIDS, malaria and measles combined.

In 2000, 735,000 children under 5 died from pneumococcal disease which is an enormous number. There were an incredible 14.5 million cases globally.

This disease causes meningitis, pneumonia, sepsis and inner ear infections. These diseases lead to disability and death. Tragically, it is entirely preventable by vaccination.

According to the press release posted on PneumoADIP’s website, “the ten countries with the greatest number and greatest proportion of global pneumococcal cases were in Asia and Africa, and taken together account

Pneumococcal disease deaths

for 66% of cases worldwide. These countries include India (27%), China (12%), Nigeria (5%), Pakistan (5%), Bangladesh (4%), Indonesia (3%), Ethiopia (3%), Democratic Republic of the Congo (3%), Kenya (2%) and the Philippines (2%).”

Hib, another disease that is almost completely preventable, yet in 2000, there were 363,000 deaths and 8.1 million cases.

The work of PneumoADIP, the Hib Initiative, the WHO, the GAVI Alliance and UNICEF to name but a few players has been phenomenal. Their work to get the developing world access to vaccines against this disease, in particular through the Advanced Market Commitment, has been phenomenal. Likewise, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Pneumococcal Disease Prevention in the Developing World which I am involved with as secretariat has made enormous strides lifting the profile of this disease in the UK and overseas.

These figures will enable governments, for the first time, to have accurate figures actually detailing the scale of the problem. A significant reason why more hasn’t as yet been done was simply because there wasn’t enough awareness surrounding the disease and there were no accurate figures to ascertain the true breadth of the problem. However, nations will now understand the scope of the problem and be able to do something about it. These figures could make a world of difference and hopefully, it will.