A secret weapon against Zika and other mosquito born disease.

Zika Virus disease is a nationally notifiable condition in US. As of June 2017, there were 1,997 pregnant women with laboratory evidence of Zika.

There were 8 pregnancy losses and 88 infants born with Microcephaly in US, with the worldwide estimate being 2,300.

Zika is spread mostly by the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito (Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus), although sexual transmission has also been documented.

Although, Zika virus no longer constitutes an international public health emergency but according to WHO ‘Zika is here to stay.’

"Although Zika's spread has waned, it still holds the potential for an explosive epidemic. If it were to reemerge in the Americas or jump to another part of the world, it would significantly threaten a new generation of children born with disabilities such as microcephaly." said Lawrence Gostin, a global health law expert from Georgetown University.

In this Ted Talk Molecular biologist Nina Fedoroff takes us around the world to understand Zika's origins and how it spread, proposing a controversial way to stop the virus -- and other deadly diseases -- by preventing infected mosquitoes from multiplying.

An Inspiring TED talk by Zubaida Bai, who has empowered women around the world with a simple purse.

Zubaida Bai is the co-founder of ayzh, an organization founded to provide women around the globe with resources for giving birth in sterile and clean environment. Zubaida founded ayzh in 2009 and a year later launched the clean birth kit that goes by the name “janma,” Sanskrit word for ‘birth’.

It is the only birthing kit that includes all the 6 items recommended by the World Health Organization to prevent infection at birth and is small enough to carry it in purse.

Source: http://www.ayzh.com/

 As per WHO statistics, every day, approximately 830 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth of which 99% occur in developing country. Even worse, poor hygiene and sanitation during birth is directly linked to the preventable deaths of more than 1 million women and newborns each year.

In the process, she also provides employment to local Indian women to assemble the packages, allowing them to develop a stable income. It costs $3 which is half of what similar kits costs.

Zubeida displaying the purse. 

Since 2010, about 250,000 kits have been sold in India, Afghanistan, Gambia, Laos, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Zambia, and Haiti — reaching 500,000 mothers and babies.

Ayzh targets to reach 6 million women over the next five years.

With funding and support from USAID’s and MIT she plans to develop similar kit for newborn too.

Zubeida had a troublesome infection after the birth of her first child in one of the best facilities in India, which made her think about the plight and ordeal of poor village and low resource women during birthing . This incidence catapulted her in whole new world of maternal and child health very different from her engineer background. 

Link to Ayzh Website:http://www.ayzh.com/ 

More information on ‘Janma’ can be accessed here.