Which Technology Could You NOT Live Without?

Vaccines save lives, plain and simple. They are cheap, very effective, and they help entire countries (and continents) turn the tide against deadly diseases. But nearly 1.5 million children still die each year from diseases that could’ve been prevented with a vaccine. Ridiculous, right?

Complications can arise during childbirth that threaten both the mother and baby. In low-resource communities without access to advanced medical care, those complications can be fatal. But new low-tech devices have the potential to help health workers in rural communities reduce the risks to mother and child.

Far too many newborns die each year because they get an infection shortly after they’re born. We have a proven, affordable to way to stop that from happening. The antiseptic chlorhexidine can be used to significantly reduce the number of umbilical cord infections, with the potential to save more than 1 million newborns between now and 2030.

The absence of options in developing countries to prevent or delay pregnancy leads to the deaths of mothers and infants each year. But by increasing access and use of voluntary contraceptives for the 200+ million women with an unmet need for family planning, the world could save an estimated 80,000 women and more than 1 million babies each year.

New devices that safely chlorinate water have the potential to prevent diarrheal diseases in rural communities where clean water is hard to come by. More than 1.5 million children could be saved between now and 2030 with technologies that provide safe water.

What if you felt sick, but a doctor couldn’t accurately or swiftly diagnose the problem? That’s been an issue with detecting tuberculosis or TB in many developing countries for way too long. Thankfully, there are new rapid devices designed to do just that: tell you quickly if you have TB so you can start treatment immediately.