Today has been inspirational and slightly mindblowing. The Foundation has convened its annual 'Partners Forum' with a thousand experts in Global Health who are advisors or receive grant funding converging in Seattle. I listened to keynote presentations and panels with giants including Peter Piot, one of the discoverers of Ebola in Zaire in 1976, Bill Foege, a major player in smallpox eradication, and Ewa-Marie Coll-Seck, Minister of Health for Senegal, and hob-nobbed with pandemic flu expert Fred Hayden, who has recently turned his attention to ebola. The day was filled with those wonderful random encounters when everyone you sit next to has an interesting story to tell. I learned about neglected tropical diseases including lymphatic filariasis and sleeping sickness, and about nutrition - who knew that you have to blanch or boil carrots to solubilize the vitamin A so it can be absorbed, and that too much spinach can cause inflammatory changes in your lower intestinal microbiome - iron supplements are much safer as they are absorbed higher in the alimentary tract.
Most inspiring were the many speakers from Africa who eloquently described the health needs in their countries. There were many surprises - I didn't know that Rwanda is held up as a model of health systems, with early adoption of new vaccines for national immunization programs and high uptake of family planning. Senegal and Zambia are also spending a considerable portion of their GDP on health systems. An old friend from Uganda, Alex Coutinho, who was Director of the Infectious Diseases Institute when I worked there in 2012, and now has joint appointments at IAVI and Makerere University, was there.
I am looking forward to see what then next two days of similar meetings will bring.
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