Fighting Disease

Project High Hopes supports the Vayu Foundation Programs

The Vayu Foundation was founded by Dr. Thomas Burke of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He has developed many programs to promote global health with a focus on maternal care and accessible respiratory care for babies.

Breathing For Babies

Every year, more than 2.3 million newborns and infants die before 28 days of life, with 20 times that number becoming permanently disabled. With respiratory distress being one of the most common reasons for death in children younger than 5 years of age, Vayu Global Foundation is dedicated to providing innovative medical solutions on a global scale.

The Vayu Foundation has projects all around the world. Contact is made between an in-country entity so Vayu Global Health can learn about its needs. Then, in collaboration with its partners, Vayu plans in-person or on-line training for healthcare workers to feel comfortable using life-saving ventilator devices. Vayu also provides remote technical assistance and refresher trainers to assure project success.

Reducing Post-Partum Hemorrhage

Project High Hopes has worked with Dr. Burke, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and World Health Organization (WHO) to address the alarming incidence of death resulting from post-partum hemorrhage (PPH). More than 2,000,000 women in rural and impoverished settings bleed to death each year after suffering a tear in the uterus following childbirth. Dr. Burke has developed a technique to stop PPH by inserting a condom into the uterus and filling it with water to create a water “balloon.” This device applies pressure to the tear to suppress and halt bleeding. Brilliant in its simplicity and extremely low cost, this procedure offers a viable solution. Project High Hopes has engaged in partnership with Dr. Burke to identify major foundation donors to support the production of small kits (including condoms, tubing, cleansing products and instructions translated into Spanish) for distribution to more than 150,000 mid-wives and other health care providers throughout Latin America.

Project High Hopes supported research to treat bacterial infections

Project High Hopes supported research at Yale which addresses the need for virulence-targeted antibodies in treating bacterial infections no longer effectively halted by traditional antibiotics. Dramatic results have been produced demonstrating that genetically engineered viruses may defeat bacteria which are otherwise resistant to antibiotics. This therapy may lead to striking new approaches to treating diseases such as Cystic Fibrosis. Dr. Turner and Dr. Chan’s work on combined approaches to using phage therapy and traditional antibiotics in targeting MDR bacterial pathogens was recently published in Scientific Reports.