Reproductive tract infections (RTis) have become a silent epidemic that is devastating women's lives. Each year, thousands of women die needlessly from the consequences of these infections, including cervical cancer, ectopic pregnancy, acute and chronic infections of the uterus and the fallopian tubes, and puerperal infections. For many women, this happens because they receive medical attention too late, if at all. The terrible irony of this tragedy is that early diagnosis of and treatment for many RTis do not require high-technology health care. For the hundreds of millions of women with chronic RTis acquired from their sexual partners, life can become a living hell. Infection is a major cause of infertility, and it leads to scorn and rejection in many countries. These women may experience constant pain, have festering lesions of the genital tract, be at enhanced risk of second ary diseases, and endure social ostracism. The problems associated with RT s have grown even greater in the past decade with the emergence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and AIDS. Preexisting sexually transmitted disease, particularly when associated with genital tract ulcers, raises women's vulnerability to the transmission of HIV 3-5 fold."

When Peter Piot was in medical school, a professor warned, "There's no future in infectious diseases. They've all been solved." Fortunately, Piot ignored him, and the result has been an exceptional, adventure-filled career. In the 1970s, as a young man, Piot was sent to Central Africa as part of a team tasked with identifying a grisly new virus. Crossing into the quarantine zone on the most dangerous missions, he studied local customs to determine how this disease-the Ebola virus-was spreading. Later, Piot found himself in the field again when another mysterious epidemic broke out: AIDS. He traveled throughout Africa, leading the first international AIDS initiatives there. Then, as founder and director of UNAIDS, he negotiated policies with leaders from Fidel Castro to Thabo Mbeki and helped turn the tide of the epidemic. Candid and engrossing, No Time to Lose captures the urgency and excitement of being on the front lines in the fight against today's deadliest diseases.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Nutrition and Health in Developing Countries, Second Edition was written with the underlying conviction that global health and nutrition problems can only be solved through a firm understanding of the different levels of causality and the interactions between the various determinants. This volume provides policy makers, nutritionists, students, scientists, and professionals with the most recent and up-to-date knowledge regarding major health and nutritional problems in developing countries. This greatly expanded second edition has new chapters relevant to humanitarian emergencies, including a case study of the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, food in humanitarian relief, food policy, the emerging role of supermarkets in developing countries, homestead food production, aging, ethics, and the adverse impact of parental tobacco use on child health in poor families. These new chapters reflect the increasing complexity and changes that are occurring in developing countries.

This book examines the issue of price volatility in agricultural commodities markets and how this phenomenon has evolved in recent years. The factors underlying the price spike of 2007-08 appear to be global and macroeconomic in nature, including the rapid growth in demand by developing countries, the international financial crisis, and exchange rate movements. Some of these factors are new, appearing as influences on price volatility only in the last decade. Although volatility has always been a feature of agricultural commodity markets, the evidence suggests that volatility has increased in certain commodity markets. A growing problem is that agricultural price shocks and volatility disrupt agricultural markets, economic incentives and incomes. With increased globalization and integration of financial and energy markets with agricultural commodity markets, the relationships between markets are expanding and becoming more complex. When a crisis such as a regional drought, food safety scare or a financial crisis hits a particular market, policy-makers often do not know the extent to which it will impact on other markets and affect producer, consumer and trader decisions. Including contributions from experts at the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the USDA, and the European Commission, the research developed throughout the chapters of this book is based on current methodologies that can be used to analyze price volatility and provide directions for understanding this volatility and the development of new agricultural policies. The book highlights the challenges facing policy makers in dealing with the changing nature of agricultural commodities markets, and offers recommendations for anticipating price movements and managing their consequences. It will be a practical guide for both present and future policy-makers in deciding on potential price-stabilizing interventions, and will also serve as a useful resource for researchers and students in agricultural economics.

Reproductive tract infections (RTis) have become a silent epidemic that is devastating women's lives. Each year, thousands of women die needlessly from the consequences of these infections, including cervical cancer, ectopic pregnancy, acute and chronic infections of the uterus and the fallopian tubes, and puerperal infections. For many women, this happens because they receive medical attention too late, if at all. The terrible irony of this tragedy is that early diagnosis of and treatment for many RTis do not require high-technology health care. For the hundreds of millions of women with chronic RTis acquired from their sexual partners, life can become a living hell. Infection is a major cause of infertility, and it leads to scorn and rejection in many countries. These women may experience constant pain, have festering lesions of the genital tract, be at enhanced risk of second ary diseases, and endure social ostracism. The problems associated with RT s have grown even greater in the past decade with the emergence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and AIDS. Preexisting sexually transmitted disease, particularly when associated with genital tract ulcers, raises women's vulnerability to the transmission of HIV 3-5 fold."

Peter Piot, founding executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), recounts his experience as a clinician, scientist, and activist fighting the disease from its earliest manifestation to today. The AIDS pandemic was not only disruptive to the health of millions worldwide but also fractured international relations, global access to new technologies, and public health policies in nations across the globe. As he struggled to get ahead of the disease, Piot found science does little good when it operates independently of politics and economics, and politics is worthless if it rejects scientific evidence and respect for human rights.

Piot describes how the epidemic altered global attitudes toward sexuality, the character of the doctor-patient relationship, the influence of civil society in international relations, and traditional partisan divides. AIDS thrust health into national and international politics where, he argues, it rightly belongs. The global reaction to AIDS over the past decade is the positive result of this partnership, showing what can be acheved when science, politics, and policy converge on the ground. Yet it remains a fragile achievement, and Piot warns against complacency and the consequences of reduced investments. He refuses to accept a world in which high levels of HIV infection are the norm. Instead, he explains how to continue to reduce the incidence of the disease to minute levels through both prevention and treatment, until a vaccine is discovered.

In recent years the popularity of service learning and study abroad programs that bring students to the global South has soared, thanks to this generation of college students' desire to make a positive difference in the world. This collection contains essays by undergraduates who recount their experiences in Togo working on projects that established health insurance at a local clinic, built a cyber cafe, created a microlending program for teens, and started a local writers' group. The essays show students putting their optimism to work while learning that paying attention to local knowledge can make all the difference in a project's success. Students also conducted research on global health topics by examining the complex relationships between traditional healing practices and biomedicine. Charles Piot's introduction contextualizes student-initiated development within the history of development work in West Africa since 1960, while his epilogue provides an update on the projects, compiles an inventory of best practices, and describes the type of projects that are likely to succeed. Doing Development in West Africa provides a relatable and intimate look into the range of challenges, successes, and failures that come with studying abroad in the global South. Contributors. Cheyenne Allenby, Kelly Andrejko, Connor Cotton, Allie Middleton, Caitlin Moyles, Charles Piot, Benjamin Ramsey, Maria Cecilia Romano, Stephanie Rotolo, Emma Smith, Sarah Zimmerman

As we approach the 25th anniversary of the first recognition of HIV/AIDS in 1981, this book reflects on the international impact of the disease. It has persistently remained a global issue, with more than 50 million people worldwide estimated to have been infected since that date. This ambitious book, written by 165 authors from 30 countries, offers a multi-country comparative study that examines how the response to the common, global threat of HIV is shaped by the history, culture, institutions and health systems of the individual countries affected. Increasingly the shift of health systems has been from prevention only as the main containment strategy, to a strategy that includes scaling up HIV treatment, and care and prevention services, including antiretroviral therapy. Thus, all parts of the health system must be involved; policy makers, healthcare professionals and users of the services have been forced to think differently about how services are financed, how resources are allocated, how systems are structured and organized, how services are delivered to patients, and how the resulting activity is monitored and evaluated in order to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, equity and acceptability of the response. This book is unique in attempting to describe and assess a range of responses across the globe by situating them within the characteristics of each country and its health system. Most chapters combine a health policy expert with an HIV specialist, allowing both a 'top down' health system approach and a 'bottom up' HIV-specific perspective. There are thematic and analytical sections, which provide an overview and some suggestions for solutions to the most serious outstanding issues, and chapters which analyse specific country and organisational responses. There is no perfect health system, but the evidence provided here allows the sharing of knowledge, and a opportunity to assess the impact and reactions, to an epidemic that must be considered a long term issue.

This updated and expanded book was written with the underlying conviction that global health and nutrition problems can only be solved through a firm understanding of the different levels of causality and the interactions between the various determinants. This volume provides policy makers, nutritionists, students, scientists, and professionals with the most recent and up-to-date knowledge regarding major health and nutritional problems in developing countries.

In recent years the popularity of service learning and study abroad programs that bring students to the global South has soared, thanks to this generation of college students' desire to make a positive difference in the world. This collection contains essays by undergraduates who recount their experiences in Togo working on projects that established health insurance at a local clinic, built a cyber cafe, created a microlending program for teens, and started a local writers' group. The essays show students putting their optimism to work while learning that paying attention to local knowledge can make all the difference in a project's success. Students also conducted research on global health topics by examining the complex relationships between traditional healing practices and biomedicine. Charles Piot's introduction contextualizes student-initiated development within the history of development work in West Africa since 1960, while his epilogue provides an update on the projects, compiles an inventory of best practices, and describes the type of projects that are likely to succeed. Doing Development in West Africa provides a relatable and intimate look into the range of challenges, successes, and failures that come with studying abroad in the global South. Contributors. Cheyenne Allenby, Kelly Andrejko, Connor Cotton, Allie Middleton, Caitlin Moyles, Charles Piot, Benjamin Ramsey, Maria Cecilia Romano, Stephanie Rotolo, Emma Smith, Sarah Zimmerman

"University endowment managers have generally outperformed the market benchmarks. However, their knowledge has not been well documented in any book. This book fills that gap and should be of significant help to all those who want to learn from extensive interviews with a number of endowment managers."--PREM JAIN, McDonough Professor of Accounting and Finance, Georgetown University

Learn how higher education's largest endowments consistently achieve higher investment returns than the overall market.

The Chief Investment Officers who oversee the top academic endowment funds manage over $400 billion in total assets. Over the last ten years (1999-2009), large endowments returned an average of 6.1%, compared to the S&P 500 index average of -2.22%, an outperformance difference of over 8%. With the recent sharp economic downturn, and a decade of inflation-adjusted flat returns in the overall equities market, institutional and individual investors alike are looking to endowments for proven strategies for improving the performance of their portfolios. "Outperform: Inside the Investment Strategy of Billion Dollar Endowments" interviews top CIOs from leading endowments, to detail how they consistently outperform the market, what they predict for the coming years, and how small investors can employ their investment philosophies.