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Good News

2024-11-26 · letter vlog · John · 4:35 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Global development (also: Health) · mode: Personal essay · tags: fundraising ask, heavy topic

John explains how disease and maternal deaths are measured per 100,000, then shares good news from Vicky Reed of Partners In Health Sierra Leone: maternal mortality in Sierra Leone is down about 60% since 2017 and close to 80% at Koidu Government Hospital since 2019, which he credits to the government's partnership and long-term attention.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Measuring disease burden per 100,000 people: Hodgkin lymphoma and tuberculosis in the US and Lesotho

  • ★★ John says the burden of health problems is measured per 100,000 people: about 2.5 of every 100,000 people are diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, the cancer Hank had, each year. — 00:00:08 · Hodgkin lymphoma
  • ★ John finds measuring per 100,000 people slightly unhelpful because he cannot picture 100,000 people, though it gives a point of comparison. — 00:00:23
  • ★★ Since most people in the US survive Hodgkin lymphoma, its mortality rate is only about 0.28 per 100,000, close to the US tuberculosis death rate of about 0.22 per 100,000, or several hundred deaths a year. — 00:00:34 · Hodgkin lymphoma, tuberculosis, United States
  • ★★ In Lesotho the tuberculosis mortality rate is around 213 per 100,000 people, so a person is a thousand times likelier to die of tuberculosis there than in the United States. — 00:00:57 · tuberculosis, United States

00:01:12 — The PIH board meeting, Vicky Reed's good news, and maternal mortality in Germany, the US and Sierra Leone

  • ★★ The week before, John attended the Partners In Health board meeting with global health leaders from Mexico, Rwanda, Peru, New Jersey and elsewhere, and met Vicky Reed, head of Partners In Health Sierra Leone. — 00:01:12 · Partners In Health, Sierra Leone
  • ★★ Since 2019 the community has made a long-term, open-ended commitment to pay attention to and raise funds for Sierra Leone's maternal and child health care system. — 00:01:24 · Sierra Leone
  • ★ Vicky Reed, a nurse, came up to John to say she had really good news, and he answered that he needed some. — 00:01:32
  • ★★ Maternal mortality is measured per 100,000 births; in Germany it is about 4 per 100,000 births. — 00:01:45 · maternal death
  • ★★ The United States, with a weaker health care system and much more unequal access, has a maternal mortality rate over five times Germany's, at 22 deaths per 100,000 births. — 00:01:56 · maternal death, United States
  • ★★★ In 2017 Sierra Leone's maternal mortality rate was over 1,100 per 100,000 births, and with multiple pregnancies in a lifetime, one in 17 women there died in pregnancy or childbirth. — 00:02:06 · maternal death, Sierra Leone
  • ★★★ Sierra Leone's maternal death rate is now 443 per 100,000 births. — 00:02:22 · maternal death, Sierra Leone
  • ★★★ Sierra Leone's maternal death rate is still far too high, about 100 times too high, but down about 60% in seven years. — 00:02:26 · maternal death, Sierra Leone

00:02:40 — The near 80% fall in maternal mortality at Koidu Government Hospital and why it is happening

  • ★★★ In Kono, the district where Partners In Health began working in 2019, maternal mortality has fallen further: Koidu Government Hospital has seen a reduction close to 80% since 2019. — 00:02:40 · Partners In Health, Koidu Government Hospital, maternal death
  • ★★ Vicky Reed told John that although the Maternal Center of Excellence is still under construction, its fruits already show: more community health workers, more specially trained obstetric nurses, and better-supported, safer clinics. — 00:02:52 · Maternal Center of Excellence
  • ★★ There are more OB/GYNs in the region, with more being trained all the time, because Koidu Government Hospital serves as a teaching hospital. — 00:03:09 · Koidu Government Hospital
  • ★★★ About 2,000 more mothers survive childbirth every year in Sierra Leone than in 2019, when the brothers' project with Partners In Health began. — 00:03:16 · Sierra Leone, Partners In Health

00:03:26 — The government's partnership, a generational change, long-term attention, and thanks to the community

  • ★★★ John says the community is a tiny part of Sierra Leone's progress on maternal deaths; Vicky Reed and her colleagues would be the first to point out that it only works through deep partnership with the government, the main driver of health care quality in the country. — 00:03:26 · maternal death, Sierra Leone
  • ★★ At the Sierra Leonean government's invitation, Partners In Health's model is being recreated in five districts, with hopes of eventually covering all 16 districts. — 00:03:40 · Partners In Health, Sierra Leone
  • ★★ When mothers survive childbirth, their children are less likely to be stunted by malnutrition and more likely to go to school, so John calls the fall in maternal deaths a generational change. — 00:03:48 · maternal death
  • ★★★ John finds the progress against maternal deaths in Sierra Leone encouraging and says it can only be seen because the community has paid long-term attention to a long-term crisis. — 00:03:56 · maternal death, Sierra Leone
  • ★★ John says the community is not the main character of the Sierra Leone story but gets to be part of it, and should be really proud of that. — 00:04:04 · Sierra Leone
  • ★★ John thanks those who donated at pih.org/hankandjohn, bought from Good Store, or, just as vitally, gave their attention and interest over the last five years. — 00:04:14 · Good Store

In the description and comments

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: maternal death · Partners In Health · Sierra Leone

Also: People: Vicky Reed

Projects: Good Store

Organizations: Koidu Government Hospital · Maternal Center of Excellence

Concepts: community health worker · Hodgkin lymphoma · stunted growth · tuberculosis

Places: Germany · Kono District · Lesotho · Mexico · New Jersey · Peru · Rwanda · United States

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