Every child deserves a fair chance to reach their full potential, and that starts with getting the health care and nutrition they need. Since the turn of the millennium, scientists and health workers have invented and delivered new solutions to address deadly diseases, cutting childhood deaths worldwide in half.
But even so, 5 million children die every year, and we have both the responsibility and the ability to change that. As researchers continue to expand the frontiers of science and health workers bring those advances to the families who need them, we can cut the number of child deaths in half again.
Around the world, nutrition experts are generating more precise insights into the nutrients children need to develop strong immune systems. Doctors and nurses are learning more about how to keep mothers healthy through pregnancy and childbirth so they and their babies can thrive. New vaccines, diagnostic tests, and treatments are making it easier for health workers to fight common illnesses.
Ahead of the World Health Summit in Berlin later this month, we asked several global health experts to share what inspires them as they work toward a common goal: a future in which no child dies from a preventable disease or condition. Their words are a reminder that, with the right funding and partnerships, the future of health is bright.
The Future of Health depends on continued investment in the critical innovations that can dramatically reduce child deaths from preventable diseases. Learn more about the Future of Health to see how far we’ve come—and where we’re heading.
Crafting superfoods to strengthen and empower malnourished children for life
Tahmeed Ahmed, Executive Director, icddr,b
What led you to work on treatments for child malnutrition?
Tahmeed Ahmed: If you visit a hospital in Bangladesh or any other low- or middle-income country, you will see children being treated for preventable diseases who are thin and small. They’re suffering from wasting, an acute form of malnutrition. When I began caring for malnourished children more than 30 years ago, we knew some children would die despite our best efforts. That’s because malnourished children have an increased risk of death from many diseases. In 2022, 45 million children suffered from wasting. Severely wasted children in some countries can get a peanut paste–based treatment called ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), and it can help, but these children often relapse. It’s long been clear that as we work to scale existing lifesaving treatments, we also need to develop better treatments for wasting.
About 12 years ago, Dr. Jeffrey Gordon of the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine and I began looking together into new ideas around wasting: Could we learn something from the bacteria living in the intestines, called the gut microbiome? Our initial studies showed that severely wasted children were immature compared to healthy children and lacked gut bacteria that are helpful for growth, mental development, and immunity. The question became how to replenish the good bacteria in children suffering from wasting. After several years of relentless work, we developed Microbiome-Directed Food (MDF), also known as Microbiome-Directed Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (MD-RUTF). It has been shown in initial trials to be an effective treatment for wasting and severe wasting.
How are nutrition innovations working to address global health challenges?
Tahmeed Ahmed: Malnutrition affects millions of children, slowing the development of their bodies, their immune systems, and even their brains. MDF is a first-of-its-kind treatment, and initial studies are promising. It not only provides nutrition to the malnourished child but also modulates the child’s gut microbiome. That’s why we see MDF as a game-changer. We expect that its effects will be long-lasting, promoting development of the brain and boosting the immune system. It’s now being tested in community-based clinical trials in five countries.
Saving mothers and babies with the help of AI-enabled ultrasound
Zahra Hoodbhoy, Associate Professor, Aga Khan University Medical College
What led you to work on access to ultrasound?
Zahra Hoodbhoy: Over my decade of work in maternal health, the disparities I’ve seen in health care access have been etched on my conscience. Access to ultrasounds during pregnancy is one of those disparities, and it has grave consequences. Without ultrasounds, also called sonograms, health care workers are missing an important tool to look for potential pregnancy complications. Women here in Pakistan—just like women elsewhere—are eager to have a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby. But many millions of them simply can’t get this core diagnostic scan recommended by the World Health Organization. I’ve seen some pregnant women cutting back on household expenses, including food, hoping to save enough to get this test done. They’re deprived just because of where they live and their circumstances.
How are ultrasound innovations that use artificial intelligence (AI) helping to address global health challenges?
Zahra Hoodbhoy: AI-enabled ultrasound will democratize access for vulnerable women in Pakistan and around the world. The device is portable, plug-and-play, and easy to use. It requires only eight hours of training to use, so even in remote settings health care workers can quickly learn to use it. The AI feature guides the user through the process, and the scan is synced to the cloud, where it’s analyzed. Currently the tool is being used for pregnancy dating, but in the future it will be able to detect placental and fetal conditions that may indicate an at-risk fetus. Also, it’s 20 times cheaper than a standard ultrasound machine. For communities that were never before able to use this key tool for identifying at-risk pregnancies, it will dramatically improve care for both mothers and babies. I know it’s going to save lives.
How global funding could save millions more children
Dr. Sania Nishtar, CEO, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance
What inspired you to lead global efforts on vaccine access?
Dr. Sania Nishtar: It is unjust for a child to be denied access to vaccines because of where they are born or whether their family can pay. That conviction comes from very deep personal experience. Growing up in Pakistan, the terrible evidence of vaccine-preventable diseases was everywhere. I saw people whose faces still bore the scars of smallpox, or who had been paralyzed by polio. When I became a physician, I treated children suffering from many preventable diseases. I have seen not only the anguish and pain in individuals and families, I have also seen the broader impacts that vaccine-preventable diseases can have on health systems and societies. These experiences help to keep me grounded in the realities faced by families, communities, and health workers in the countries that Gavi supports. These constant reminders leave us no choice but to succeed in our mission.
How is innovation in vaccine access helping to address global health challenges?
Dr. Sania Nishtar: We only have to look at what we have already achieved to see what is possible. Since Gavi was launched in 2000, it has vaccinated over 1 billion children. That has helped to prevent more than 18 million deaths and to halve child mortality in the lower-income countries that Gavi supports.
Now we want to go even further. We can vaccinate 500 million more children before the end of 2030 and save more than 8 million lives. We can halve the number of children who have never had a single dose of any vaccine. And we can do all this with an eye on long-term sustainability, because the countries that Gavi supports are paying a greater proportion of vaccination costs than ever before. That is a sure sign that those leaders see vaccines as central to reducing preventable child deaths.
We have the strategy. We have the track record. We have the political will. Families and communities see the power of immunization to transform lives. What we need now is assured funding.
A lifesaving device that detects postpartum hemorrhage early
Dr. Hadiza Galadanci, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Bayero University Kano
What led you to work on maternal health?
Dr. Hadiza Galadanci: Nigeria, where I’m from, has one of the world’s highest maternal mortality rates. In 2020, more than one in 100 Nigerian women who gave birth did not survive. It’s unacceptable.
Tackling maternal mortality has been my life mission. I’ve always known that I wanted to do what I could to support women’s and babies’ health, even when it wasn’t obvious for women like me to have careers in the medical field. I grew up in a patriarchal society, where women had fewer opportunities than men. Thankfully, my father encouraged me to pursue an education and medical training, which enabled me to become the first woman consultant, gynecologist, and professor of medicine in Nigeria’s Kano region. Now I’m committed to paying this forward by both supporting my patients and acting as a mentor to younger women starting out.
How are maternal health innovations working to address global health challenges?
Dr. Hadiza Galadanci: The fact is, almost all maternal deaths could be prevented. Today, there are a number of low-cost tools and medicines that can help us combat infections and life-threatening conditions. The key is ensuring access so that all women and their babies can have healthy pregnancies and safe births.
Take postpartum hemorrhage (PPH), which is responsible for 70,000 deaths annually—the leading cause of maternal deaths worldwide. The development of one simple tool, called a postpartum hemorrhage drape, is aiming to change that. It drastically improves health care workers’ ability to measure blood loss accurately—and when combined with proper treatments, it can reduce the risk of severe bleeding by 60%. Ultimately, that lowers the chances of death. The PPH drape is just one example of how even the most basic innovations can have a dramatic impact on women’s lives.
Saving mothers’ lives has a huge impact on other global health priorities, like newborn survival and well-being. Healthy women are the foundation of healthy families, vibrant communities, and prosperous economies.
Cutting-edge vaccines that protect mothers and babies
Dr. Shabir A. Madhi, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology, University of the Witwatersrand
What led you to work on vaccines that protect both mother and baby during pregnancy?
Dr. Shabir A. Madhi: During my training as a pediatrician in South Africa, I saw babies who had been born healthy suddenly succumb to neonatal tetanus in their first few weeks of life. It was heartbreaking. With the dawn of democracy in South Africa came changes in health care, including the introduction into the public immunization program of the tetanus toxoid vaccine for pregnant women. Vaccinating the mother during pregnancy induces antibodies that can protect her and also cross the placenta and protect the baby. In the case of tetanus, maternal vaccination helped reduce global neonatal tetanus deaths from over 1 million in 1980 to less than 50,000 by 2021.
Seeing the drop-off in tetanus cases, I became convinced that there was even more potential to protect vulnerable young infants by vaccinating their mothers against other pathogens.
How are maternal immunization innovations working to address global health challenges?
Dr. Shabir A. Madhi: Group B streptococcus (GBS) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are two leading causes of newborn and infant death for which maternal vaccines hold great potential.
GBS is estimated to cause at least 90,000 newborn deaths and 46,000 stillbirths yearly. I’ve been working for many years on a maternal vaccine for GBS, which could have the triple benefit of protecting the mother, reducing the risk of stillbirth, and preventing disease in the newborns. I remain optimistic that the last mile to licensure will come before the turn of the decade.
RSV is the leading cause of lower respiratory tract infections in children globally and causes at least 100,000 infant deaths per year, almost entirely in low- and middle-income countries. Most recently, a new maternal vaccine against RSV has achieved licensure after demonstrating that vaccinating the mother significantly reduces the risk of severe disease in infants up to age 6 months. The rollout of a maternal RSV vaccine is likely to be transformative—provided that it’s accessible and is deployed widely.
Read next
Can AI transform education?
Meet the Kenyan women making syringes for Africa
