July 28, 2015

Dr. Parth Mehta’s favorite picture is one with five young children sitting around a small table putting together a puzzle. The kids, most of them bald, are smiling for the camera as their doctor snaps the photo. They’re cancer patients in a Texas Children’s clinic in Botswana and of the five, four have survived. While even one death is devastating, just a few years ago, none of them would have received the appropriate treatment. Most would have died without ever being diagnosed. Eight years ago, Mehta, now the director of Texas Children’s Global Oncology Programs, was the first pediatric oncologist in Botswana. When he arrived at the Princess Marina Hospital, only 22 cases of pediatric cancer had ever been diagnosed there. Today, more than 200 patients are under the care of Texas Children’s physicians in the same facility, and over the last eight years, more than 450 children with blood disorders and cancer have been treated.

“There is a population of 2 million people in Botswana and the challenge was quite overwhelming,” Mehta said, “Children died from diseases with a 95 percent cure rate in America because the drugs were not consistently available and no one really knew how to take care of these patients.”

Mehta started the first organized international effort in sub-Saharan Africa by Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers, the largest pediatric cancer institute in the U.S. Under the vision of Physician-in-Chief Dr. Mark W. Kline, Texas Children’s and Baylor College of Medicine had already established several centers to care for children with AIDS in Africa. Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative helped secure the Texas Children’s name in these regions and Dr. David Poplack, director of Texas Children’s Cancer & Hematology Centers, was determined to make a long-term effort to help kids with cancer and blood disorders in these countries.

“Our role has been to put ‘medical boots’ on the ground,” said Poplack. “We send physicians and nurses and we use our staff to train our local counterparts in the treatment of these diseases. Our real aim is to provide the intellectual capital to train the appropriate individuals who will carry the work forward.”

That’s the key to the sustainability of these programs. About 80 percent of pediatric cancer cases are in developing countries where the survival rate is less than 40 percent. In countries like the U.S., it’s approximately 80 percent. While Texas Children’s treats patients from all over the U.S. and 26 different countries, for those in Africa, just bringing their child to a clinic in a nearby town is a difficult task. Dr. Gladstone Airewele who grew up in Nigeria knows about these problems. Airewele is the director of the Global Hematology Programs at Texas Children’s Cancer & Hematology Centers. For many of his patients, saving a life is as easy as a pin prick to collect blood for newborn screening to detect sickle cell disease.

“It’s very gratifying to see children come to the clinic, get great care and do much better than they ordinarily would if it weren’t for this program,” Airewele said.

Airewele said the long-term plan is to help with a broad range of hematologic diseases including bleeding disorders, bone marrow failure, and hemoglobin disorders.

“In a few years, I hope to see leaders of pediatric blood disorders all over Africa who are affiliated with Texas Children’s but are local physicians in those countries,” Airewele said. “People who have been trained and are training others, so these diagnoses are no longer a death sentence for these children.”

Texas Children’s international cancer & hematology initiative is concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa with programs in Uganda, Botswana, Malawi, and Angola. Poplack and his team plan to expand the program to other regions. For now, a group of physicians at Texas Children’s are on call as consultants to BIPAI physicians who need answers about hematological and cancer-related diagnoses. Mehta and Airewele make frequent visits to the designated cancer clinics to pursue potential growth in our programs. For Mehta, the five young patients in that old photograph are a reminder of why this work is so pertinent.

“Medicine is not about borders,” Mehta said. “Medicine is not about cities and states. Cancer doesn’t just affect children in some places, and as a doctor who cares, not just treats, but cares for children with cancer, it’s almost axiomatic that one must take care of children everywhere.”

March 10, 2015

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Texas Children’s Hospital is proud to announce Fundacíon Carlos Slim of Mexico as the recipient of the 2015 International Recognition Award at the 25th Texas Children’s Hospital International Colloquium. The Latin American foundation is being recognized for work in global health.

The Texas Children’s Hospital International Colloquium, now in its 25th year, is a convening body for stakeholders in global health and believed to be the longest-standing international educational forum of any freestanding pediatric hospital in the United States.

“Since 1990, Texas Children’s has honored the highest echelon of leaders in pediatrics, maternal and community health,” said Michael T. Walsh, Jr., Director of Texas Children’s Global Health Initiative. “The award recognizes transformational contributions to patient care, education, research and outreach with a notable focus on addressing the needs of underserved populations. This year, the International Colloquium Curriculum Committee proudly selected Fundacíon Carlos Slim, the first institution to receive this honor.”

The close alignment of the Fundación Carlos Slim mission to that of Texas Children’s establishes an ideal platform for the sharing of new ideas, expertise, and solutions targeting transformational improvements in maternal and child health in the Americas and beyond.

“Fundación Carlos Slim is honored to receive this recognition from Texas Children’s Hospital,” said Dr. Roberto Tapia-Conyer, Chief Executive Officer of Fundacíon Carlos Slim. “Our foundation shares a common vision with Texas Children’s for alleviation of poverty and health disparity through a sound focus on the right solutions.”

With an extensive philanthropic profile, Fundación Carlos Slim is considered to be the most significant philanthropic entity in Latin America and among the top five globally. The Fundación Carlos Slim and its high impact, social programs, focused on the most vulnerable populations, has directly benefited more than 29.7 million persons and provided access to high quality medical care, equipment and technology, fostering preventative health care, promoting professional development and training and encouraging research and solutions addressing the most significant health problems facing underserved populations in Mexico and Central America.

The 2015 Texas Children’s Hospital’s International Colloquium is taking place March 9-11, 2015 at the BioScience Research Collaborative.

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Texas Children’s Hospital announced on February 26 a recognition of Chevron Corporation’s long-term support of the hospital’s global health programs with the dedication of “The Chevron Bridge,” the walkway linking the Abercrombie Building and the Feigin Center.

Since 2011, Chevron has invested more than $16 million in Texas Children’s Hospital programs in Africa and Latin America. That funding includes the corporation’s most recent announcement of $5 million to support the Angola Sickle Cell Initiative over the next five years.

“We value the opportunity to support remarkable doctors who provide critical day- to-day pediatric and maternal health care while training in-country care givers to help build a legacy of greater health expertise,” said Ali Moshiri, president of Chevron Africa and Latin America Exploration and Production Company.

Chevron, Texas Children’s Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine and the Angolan Ministry of Health partnered four years ago to establish the Angola Sickle Cell Initiative, the first program of its kind in the country. Angola has one of the world’s highest rates of the genetic blood disease. More than 10,000 babies are born with sickle cell each year.

To watch a video about the Angola Sickle Cell Initiative click here.

“For these babies, Chevron’s support is the difference between life and death,” said Dr. Mark W. Kline, physician-in-chief at Texas Children’s Hospital and founder of the Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric AIDS Initiative at Texas Children’s Hospital. “Without the sickle cell program, they would have been sick at an early age and very likely would have died before reaching age of five.”

The program, led by Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers, tests newborn babies, provides treatment, patient and family consultation, and helps train Angolan health care professionals. Through the program more than 96,000 babies have been tested for sickle cell, and the program has trained more than 500 Angolan nurses, lab technicians and social workers.

The company’s funding also has helped expand Texas Children’s Global Health Corps, which recruits and trains American-trained pediatricians and family doctors for long-term assignments in Africa in pursuit of a two-part mission: 1. expanding access to lifesaving care and treatment for some of the world’s poorest and least fortunate children, and 2. training local health professionals to build capacity for pediatric health care that currently does not exist.

Chevron’s contributions helped support the Global Health Corps assignments in Liberia and new programs are being evaluated for Morocco and Argentina.

In 2014, Chevron, Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine also partnered to create a health program in a remote region of Colombia. The program called SAIL focuses on caring for children under age five and expectant mothers with the goal of reversing the high child and maternal morbidity and mortality rate. Chevron’s funding supports doctors who treat families in the Wayúu indigenous community of the Riohacha and Manaure Municipality in La Guajira state where hospitals and clinics are difficult to reach and food security is an issue.

“We are grateful for Chevron’s continued support, which has helped enormously in our programs to fight devastating diseases and improve child and maternal health care,” said Kline. “The relationship has evolved and I imagine it will evolve further. What is exciting to me is that our partnership represents several different projects on two continents serving thousands of children and families in need. I look forward to where we will be working together next.”

May 27, 2014

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Peter Hotez, president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and Texas Children’s Hospital Endowed Chair in Tropical Pediatrics, put the spotlight on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in the Central African Republic (CAR) through a recent op-ed piece in the Huffington Post. With just more than five million people, CAR is considered one of the most remote and economically devastated countries in Africa – and according to Hotez, its brewing brutal civil war could mean an overwhelming increase in disability and death caused by NTDs if action isn’t taken quickly.

“NTDs and poverty reinforce each other through mechanisms that involve reductions in workforce, food insecurity and the health of girls and women. Less well known, but equally important social forces, in promoting NTDs, are war and conflict,” said Hotez. “CAR has a fragile health system to begin with. If we now superimpose conflict and war, it could result in near or complete collapse and inability to provide treatments.”

CAR is one of Africa’s largest sources of endemic and hyperendemic NTDs, and the numbers are staggering. Approximately 1.5 million children require periodic deworming for their intestinal helminth infections, of whom more than 500,000 also need regular treatment for schistosomiasis. Hotez explains that while all of the most common NTDs, such as intestinal worms and schistosomiasis, are of concern in CAR, there also is reason to be especially worried about NTDs transmitted by insect vectors such as kala azar and African sleeping sickness. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), CAR is one of four African countries annually reporting more than 100 cases of the Gambian form of sleeping sickness, which usually leads to death in two to three years.

Currently, neither the United States nor the United Kingdom governments support NTD control and elimination programs in CAR, and there is very little private philanthropic money focused on NTDs going to support such measures. The END Fund, a private philanthropic fund dedicated to combatting NTDs, was one exception and supported NTD control efforts in CAR in 2012. But due to the impact that violence and instability had on the ability for program partners to move forward with mapping and mass drug administration (MDA) activities, the END Fund had to place support to CAR on hold.

“NTD control often falls off the priority list when conflict arises as agencies and governments focus on providing food, shelter and security to affected populations,” said Hotez. “As MDA often mobilizes thousands of health workers to treat millions of people at risk of NTDs in a short period of time, the activities can be dangerous in times of conflict.”

While the majority of health organizations in the U.S. don’t seem focused on NTDs in CAR yet, Texas Children’s is highly aware of the situation there, stressing how important it is that the people of CAR receive access to essential NTD medicines.

“Texas Children’s Hospital is emerging as the first truly global children’s hospital – we take care of the world’s children,” said Hotez. “This is an absolutely unique vision pioneered by Dr. Mark Kline and Mark Wallace, but also extends to Drs. Michael Belfort and Chuck Fraser who are committed to women’s health and surgical issues in resource-poor settings.”

To ensure that NTDs are not further neglected during times of crisis in CAR, Hotez calls for engagement from health agencies with expertise in complex emergencies and a willingness to ensure NTD control efforts remain a priority.

He also is working tirelessly to develop vaccines that can be administered in places like CAR to help eliminate the spread of NTDs. The Sabin Vaccine Institute and Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development are pioneering the development of a human hookworm vaccine and schistosomiasis vaccine. They also have a new vaccine for leishmaniasis under development.

“At Texas Children’s, we are very concerned about the suffering of children everywhere,” said Hotez. “We’re making vaccines for the world’s poor.”

May 6, 2014

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At Texas Children’s, we see firsthand all the good that Physician-in-Chief Dr. Mark W. Kline does for our hospital every day. Now, the extraordinary work that he does all around the world is being recognized, as he was presented with the 2014 Programme for Global Paediatric Research (PGPR) Award for Outstanding Contributions to Global Child Health. Dr. Kline accepted the award in Vancouver, CA on May 3, as part of the 2014 PGPR Symposium session Global Child Health in Rich and Poor Countries: Lessons Learned from Indigenous Health Research and Practise.

The PGPR, a component of the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health in Toronto, works with researchers, societies, NGOs and governments throughout the world to address global health issues affecting infants and children. Its mission is to inform, educate, and facilitate international research cooperation and collaboration, and to advocate for research to improve the health of all children.

“Dr. Kline’s work is a wonderful example of effectively implementing health care solutions to help some of the most vulnerable children in the world, while building local capacity and ensuring sustainability,” said Dr. Alvin Zipursky, chair and scientific director of PGPR, SickKids Centre for Global Child Health.

The PGPR has presented this award annually since 2009 to a global researcher and thought leader in the pediatric field. The award is designed to honor and profile outstanding research achievements in global child health; especially work that has been conducted in developing regions.

“Dr. Kline is a globally respected leader in pediatric HIV/AIDS and deserving of this recognition for his outstanding research achievements in the field, especially in reaching populations in greatest need in the developing world,” said Dr. Zulfiqar Bhutta, the inaugural award recipient and co-director of the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health.

Kline was chosen as this year’s recipient based on his hugely important contribution to changing the global child health landscape through capacity-building, leadership training and program implementation focused on revolutionizing the care of children in developing countries with HIV/AIDS.

“To be chosen by my peers, many of whom I admire greatly, is a great honor,” said Kline. “The work is far from done, but I find it both gratifying and comforting that so many outstanding health care providers are united together in this mission to improve global health and am grateful to the PGPR for this award.”

Kline’s career achievements and global efforts speak for themselves. Specifically, a long-time researcher in pediatric HIV/AIDS, Kline has been the recipient and principal investigator for more than $50 million in research grants from the U.S. National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He has authored more than 250 scientific articles and textbook chapters and has presented over 350 national and international lectures on subjects related to infectious diseases of children and global child health. He directs international research for the NIH-funded BCM Center for AIDS Research and is principal investigator for BCM’s NIH-funded Child Health Research Center and AIDS International Training and Research Program. Kline is also the founder and President of the BCM International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI) at Texas Children’s Hospital, an ambitious program that encompasses HIV/AIDS care and treatment and health professional education and training programs across sub-Saharan Africa, Libya and Romania. BIPAI provides HIV/AIDS treatment to more children than any other organization worldwide.

March 11, 2014

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The Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric AIDS Initiative at Texas Children’s Hospital (BIPAI) recently announced its partnership with Chevron and the global health nonprofit AmeriCares by accepting a grant to address the gap in health care resources in Romania.

AmeriCares has been providing lifesaving anti-retroviral medications, anti-infectives and nutritional supplements to families receiving care at BIPAI’s Romanian NGO affiliate, the Baylor College of Medicine Black Sea Foundation, since 2004. Now, Chevron Romania has made a multi-year commitment to increase the availability of medications and medical supplies at selected public and private hospitals in Romania through AmeriCares and the Baylor College of Medicine Black Sea Foundation.

According to Michael Mizwa, chief operating officer of BIPAI, the partnership will provide support for our global health initiatives, specifically for care, treatment and capacity building in Romania. Funds will be allotted to help bolster our inventory of medical and pharmaceutical supplies to specific hospitals and clinics serving disenfranchised populations in Romania.

Since being founded in 1996 by Dr. Mark W. Kline, BIPAI has grown into a network of state-of-the-art clinical centers in Romania and across southern and East Africa. BIPAI-affiliated organizations provide care and treatment to more than 180,000 HIV-infected children and their family members, which is believed to be more than any other program in the world. BIPAI is now part of Texas Children’s overall global health initiative, which includes the largest collection of pediatricians and pediatric specialists in the world.

With the new Chevron partnership, BIPAI and AmeriCares will expand the donation of medication and medical supplies to a network of qualified health care institutions across Romania, by increasing BIPAI-Romania’s capacity to manage larger quantities of donations on behalf of its own clinical center as well as additional health care institutions with identified resource needs throughout Romania.

“Our partnership with Chevron will take our humanitarian partnership to a higher level of expanded outreach across Romania,” said Tammy Allen, director of AmeriCares programs in Asia and Eurasia.

To date, AmeriCares has supported BIPAI-Romania’s health care programs with gift-in-kind donations valued at $41 million.