Lectures curated around the issues and challenges of global health, and that examine the diseases that kill more people each year than conflict alone. break - One billion people lack access to health care systems. - Around 11 million children under the age of 5 die from malnutrition and mostly preventable diseases, each year. - In 2002, almost 11 million people died of infectious diseases alone, far more than the number killed in the natural or man-made catastrophes that make headlines. - UNAIDS estimates for 2007 that there are roughly 32.8 million living with HIV, 2.5 million new infections of HIV, 2 million deaths from AIDS. - There are 8.8 million new cases of Tuberculosis (TB) and 1.75 million deaths from TB, each year. - 1.6 million people still die from pneumococcal diseases every year, making it the number one vaccine-preventable cause of death worldwide. More than half of the victims are children. - Malaria causes more than 300 million acute illnesses and at least 1 million deaths, annually. - More than half a million people, mostly children, died from measles in 2003 even though effective immunization costs just 0.30 US dollars per person, and has been available for over 40 years.
Paul Farmer, a world-renowned infectious disease specialist who has been called a public health Robin Hood, discusses global health equity and the future of public health. Farmer is co-founder of Partners in Health, an international organization that brings the benefits of modern medical science to some of the most impoverished areas of the world. In Haiti, where he spends much of his time, Farmer implemented one of the first HIV/AIDS treatment programs in the developing world. Thanks to the efforts of a tuberculosis (TB) center in Haiti, founded by Farmer, the success rate for multidrug-resistant TB rivals that of hospitals in the United States. He expanded the treatment of multidrug-resistant TB to Peru and Russia, where he has achieved similar success.
American businessman and former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney joins moderator Jeff Jacoby, *Boston Globe* columnist, to explore why American strength is essential--not just to our own well-being, but for the world--and how we can move America back to a position of political and economic strength.
