Global Initiatives

Cambodia: Children's Family Nutrition Education and Support

War and civil unrest have left Cambodia with some of the worst health statistics in the region, with women and young children at particular risk. The Abbott Fund has formed a partnership with Direct Relief International (DRI) to support nutrition education and training programs for physicians and nurses at Angkor Hospital for Children, a pediatric teaching hospital in Cambodia. The partnership supports the ongoing efforts of the hospital to train health care workers to both counsel families on the importance of proper child nutrition, and provide them with the necessary tools for success.

Abbott and The Abbott Fund provided two grants totaling $139,500, along with almost $1 million worth of nutritional and pharmaceutical products. The grants have gone towards training, staff, funding of local and regional educational workshops, materials for the hospital's family education program, food rations and demonstration equipment, and treatment of hospitalized children and their mothers. The product contributions to date have already benefited some 6,220 children and 4,300 mothers.

Since the partnership began in September 2006, progress has been significant, with over 90,000 children receiving health services:

• 138,000 children assessed for nutritional status
• 230 children identified and treated for severe malnutrition
• 3,360 families attending nutrition information classes
• 300 staff and government healthcare providers attending in-service training on nutrition

Bolivia: Diabetes Education, Care and Counseling

In Bolivia, more than 7 percent of the people have diabetes; in Cochabamba, the country's third-largest city, more than 10 percent of the residents suffer from the disease, according to a 2005 article, A Holistic Approach to Diabetes Care in Bolivia, published by the International Diabetes Foundation. (www.diabetesvoice.org). In response to this growing health problem, The Abbott Fund partnered with Direct Relief International to support the education and outreach activities of El Centro Vivir Con Diabetes, a non-governmental organization in Cochabamba dedicated to the education, care and counseling of low-income adults and children living with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.

In the first 6 months of the program, product contributions were used to screen more than 6,000 people – an increase of 25 percent versus the six months prior.

Additional product contributions will be used to screen another 6,000 people for the disease and monitor the condition of thousands more. Abbott support has also helped train 604 people ranging from diabetes patients to biochemists and pharmacists to become diabetes educators. Ultimately, hundreds of thousands of people will be assisted through these programs.

Kosovo: Improving Neonatal Survival

Kosovo is a province located in southern Serbia that has been under United Nations administration since the end of the war in 1999. Well before then, the province's health sector suffered from long-term under investment in human resources development, infrastructure and modern medical equipment. As a result, the province experiences a shockingly high infant mortality rate of 49 per 1,000 live births, according to UNICEF. The University Clinical Center in Kosovo (UCCK) in Pristina is the only tertiary care facility in Kosovo, and the only hospital equipped to treat very sick or premature newborns. To help improve neonatal survival, The Abbott Fund partnered with AmeriCares and neonatal specialists from Dartmouth Medical College and UCCK to conduct Neonatal Respiratory Assistance staff training, and to donate new medical supplies and equipment to the hospital.

The Abbott Fund provided AmeriCares with a grant of $86,800 to purchase advanced ventilators, 15 CPAP machines, incubators, pulse oximeters and gas analyzers to equip four patient units within the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The grant also supported an education exchange at UCCK that trained 52 health professionals on respiratory care interventions, specifically neonatal resuscitation and stabilization, and the treatment of infant Respiratory Distress Syndrome, caused by the developmental lack of surfactant in the lungs of premature babies. Additionally, health professionals received training on how to administer Survanta, Abbott's surfactant replacement therapy used to prevent or treat respiratory distress syndrome in premature infants. We also donated over $257,000 worth of Survanta. At the end of 2007, declines in neonatal mortality were noted among all weight ranges, but the most significant was documented among the target population of infants between 1,000-1,499 grams where there was a 17% reduction vs 2006.

Afghanistan: Improving Health Care for Women and Children

According to the World Health Organization, Afghanistan has the second highest maternal mortality rate in the world, second only to Sierra Leone. In 2005, The Abbott Fund partnered with Direct Relief International and the Afghan Institute for Learning (AIL) to help lower the country's high maternal mortality ratio and increase the survival and overall health of women and children. The Abbott Fund support is focused on empowering Afghan women through the training of female nurses and birth attendants (midwives) to provide skilled assistance during labor and delivery, as well as care for infants and children. To date, grants over $444,000 have trained 46 nurses/midwives, with most now employed in clinics and hospitals. The Abbott Fund also supports women's community health workshops that provide basic health education. Abbott has also donated nutritionals, vitamins and antibiotics, such as Biaxin, Pedialyte and Ensure Healthy Mom, valued at more than $3 million. These products have been distributed among AIL's three health clinics in Kabul and Herat.

Despite political turmoil and violence in the country in 2006, the program has achieved significant results:

• More than 250,000 women and children receiving services
• More than 39,000 women received reproductive health services
• More than 100,000 patients received vaccinations
• More than 55,000 children received nutritional assessments, and 369 children were treated for malnutrition
• More than 180,000 women attended health education classes in clinics and the community

As a result of the Abbott Fund's support, the health workers are performing at a high level and are being asked to assist with surgeries and other specialized health services, in addition to delivering babies.

Vietnam: Treating Malnutrition

Children in rural areas of Vietnam are afflicted with some of the most severe forms of malnutrition, often as a result of limited access to nourishing food and a lack of nutritional education. According to UNICEF, 30 percent of the country's children under five years of age suffer from malnutrition. In 2005, Abbott and The Abbott Fund worked with AmeriCares and Gao Diem Humanitarian Foundation to launch a rural school program to improve the nutritional status of children through the consumption of local foods, vitamins and Abbott nutritional supplements. The program educates parents, caregivers and teachers about the importance of nutrition and provides training on preparation of soymilk using local resources.

Based on the program's success, The Abbott Fund provided AmeriCares with $92,000 in grants to expand the program to over 1,600 children in 3 provinces. Abbott also donated PediaSure valued at $220,000. Flooding and infrastructure damage as a result of the typhoon caused challenges for the program; however, increases in both height and weight were noted in all 3 provinces among the students.

Operation Smile

For more than 13 years, Abbott has supported the work of Operation Smile, a global organization dedicated to improving the health and lives of children and young adults suffering from facial deformities. The organization's volunteer medical professionals travel the globe to help strengthen health care systems for both children and families. Since Operation Smile's inception in 1982, volunteers have provided free reconstructive surgery to more than 100,000 children and young adults around the world.

Since 1993, Abbott has donated more than $3 million in grants and products. In 2002, Operation Smile elected to use sevoflurane, our leading anesthesia product, for all of their missions, and since that time, our donations of the product have helped treat more than 20,000 patients in 25 countries. In 2007 in celebration of Operation Smile's 25th anniversary, Abbott donated product valued at almost $500,000 that was used to treat over 3,000 children during a two-week, 25-country event.

In 2005 The Abbott Fund expanded its partnership with Operation Smile by supporting the Pediatric Advanced Life Support and Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support training program, conducted in nine developing countries. The goal of the program is to help strengthen the expertise of pediatricians and anesthesiologists in the developing world and provide quality services for children and adults requiring emergency critical care. To date, Operation Smile has been able to train more than 1,600 medical professionals in critical lifesaving techniques and purchase related training equipment.