State of the Union / Barack Obama / Safe Water

It has been brought to our attention that President Obama has invited a fellow safe water advocate to Capitol Hill as his special guest this evening for the State of the Union address. That special guest is:

Li Boynton (Bellaire, Texas)

Li is an 18-year-old senior from Bellaire, Texas, whose passion for science and global health has led her to new and potentially groundbreaking methods for testing the quality of drinking water. Almost 1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water, and 3.5 million people die each year from water-related diseases. Observing the limitations and significant expense of conventional chemical-specific tests, Boynton saw a need for a broader, more efficient assay for testing and developed a bacteria bio-sensor. Li's work, which has the potential to be significant in improving public health worldwide, received the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair award for 2009.

Li has always had a passion for science and invention: in fifth grade, she designed a solar-distillation device after reading Life of Pi in case she ever got stranded in the middle of the ocean. Li is an avid painter and participates in high school debate, which is where she developed her environmental interests.

Great to see this issue is on the President's agenda.

Cholera in Africa: More crappy news

It really (really) pisses me off when cholera is in the news - again. Cholera should not exist. It angers me even more when it is featured so prominently in so much of the reporting reaching my desk from many parts of the developing world, particularly in Africa. Cholera is preventable. If cholera kills someone, the world is doing something wrong.

The latest piece of shitty news is this disturbing piece from Kenya, where cholera is hitting a little too close to home:

Obama Brother May Have Cholera


and from the Associated Press:


Official: Obama's half-brother falls ill in Kenya


We hope that it is just a nasty case of diarrhea. We hope that this will be treated (as it can be quite easily) and that Malik Obama will be back at work soon. We hope that it is not cholera, and if it is, we hope even more that it doesn't kill him like it does many other Africans, preventably.

Keys to cholera:

- It is dangerous (viz. fatal all too often).
- It is easily spread through lack of simple safe drinking water and sanitation facilities.
- It is treatable.
- Most importantly, it is preventable, and both the international donor community and every government throughout the developing world can do something about it.

Sources:

• My other recent blog post on the issue. There will likely and distressingly be more such posts.


• An insightful piece from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


• Cholera at the World Health Organization

This steady stream of cholera in the news has to stop. Cholera mortality and morbidity must stop. The White House is in an extraordinarily strong position to contribute to the elimination of fatal cholera and other diarrheal disease. For an interesting and related take on unnecessary and preventable childhood mortality please see Nicholas Kristof's piece Good News: Karlo Will Live. And call the White House.