Golfer Rory McIlroy, from Northern Ireland and one of the top golfers in the world, stated this week that he would not be participating in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. According to USA Today, McIlroy explained that “even though the risk of infection from the Zika virus is considered low, it is a risk nonetheless and a risk I am unwilling to take.”
What is being done by the private sector to help not only Olympic athletes going to Brazil, but numerous other people affected by this virus in Brazil and other countries, including the United States?
According to a June 6 (updated June 8) whitehouse.gov blog post by Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “business leaders and philanthropic organizations are taking action to protect the American people,” and Congress should also. (Meanwhile, news reports today say that Congress is continuing to debate the subject.)
Frieden notes that Zika “is an emergency that we need to address.” It will require everyone—“leaders in both the public and private sectors—to ensure [that] we mount a robust and comprehensive response in the United States.”
The CDC Foundation, a nonprofit “that builds private sector partnerships to help [the] CDC protect more people,” has been contacting business and philanthropy to help Americans protect themselves from the virus, and Frieden adds, “the response has been enthusiastic and generous.”
By going to the private sector, the CDC Foundation can obtain funding for the CDC more quickly and more flexibly than is available through the government’s funding bureaucracy.
The CDC Foundation could use some more financial help, though. It needs flexible funding as the virus evolves and spreads. Just two examples of how additional donations could be used are (1) to equip laboratories and health care providers with diagnostic technologies and other critical tools to detect and treat Zika quickly; (2) to provide “the full range of effective contraception methods” now available for women in Puerto Rico who are of childbearing age and desire to either avoid or delay becoming pregnant. Read more here.
Those partnering with the CDC Foundation thus far include the following.
Annie E. Casey Foundation has awarded funding to the CDC Foundation for a Zika health communications campaign.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded “a comprehensive health campaign to educate communities and empower women on how to prevent Zika transmission.” This effort is in collaboration with the CDC, the CDC Foundation, and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) Foundation is working with the March of Dimes Foundation, the CDC, and the CDC Foundation by presenting radio and online educational messages spreading the word about how Zika is spread and that it “can cause a serious birth defect called microcephaly, as well as other severe fetal brain defects,” says the NACDS Foundation’s website. Listen to the radio messages in both Spanish and English. The NACDS Foundation’s Zika Prevention Campaign focuses on Puerto Rico. The “campaign is supported by business, philanthropic and political leaders” in Puerto Rico, the foundation’s website says.
Pfizer Foundation has made a donation to the CDC Foundation’s US Emergency Response Fund to help the agency respond to the Zika virus.
Here is the full list of private-sector supporters, on the CDC Foundation’s website. It includes corporate entities, foundations, and others.
Several of these have made donations specifically earmarked for Puerto Rico, which is suffering not only from Zika but budgetary challenges. For example, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the Lopez Family Foundation have made an in-kind donation. They are using a telemedicine platform to provide a Zika tele-education session, so that CDC staffers can connect with health care workers in Puerto Rico and Panama to discuss Zika’s “emerging threat,” according to the listing. (Actor and singer Jennifer Lopez is affiliated with the Lopez Family Foundation, which is a nonprofit.)
Notice to readers: There are likely other foundations funding projects related to Zika, but in this post, I am focusing on those supporting the CDC Foundation.
Related reading:
“Zika Is Spreading, and More Funding Is Needed to Stop It,” by Pierce Nelson of the CDC Foundation, June 20, on its blog.
“Zika May Place Burden On Medicaid,” by Emma Sandoe, a PhD candidate at Harvard University, June 8, on Health Affairs Blog.
“Zika Virus Threatening US Health Security while Congress Bickers,” by Tom Kenyon, president and CEO of Project HOPE, June 6, in the Letters section of the The Hill. (Project HOPE publishes Health Affairs journal.)
“Is the Nation Ready for an Emergency?” by Lori Grubstein and Paul Kuehnert of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), on the RWJF’s Culture of Health blog, April 25.
from Health Affairs BlogHealth Affairs Blog http://ift.tt/290IIyh
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