PBS1122_4134662K5n

GWEN IFILL: When it comes to global health,much attention is now focused on Ebola. But more routine[adj.常规的] diseases take a toll on the world's poorest people every day. In Seattle, there's a not-for-profit group trying to develop new tools and medicines to combat[v.战斗，与...斗争] them. The "NewsHour" 's Cat Wise has the story, another report in our Breakthroughs series, which explores inventions and innovation[n.创新] both here and abroad. GLENN AUSTIN, Group Leader, PATH: All we need is salt, water, and electricity to make thisproduct work. CAT WISE: With just those three ingredients, this small device produces concentrated chlorine[n.氯], a powerful disinfectant[n.消毒剂，杀菌剂]. The man behind the product, Glenn Austin, says it took yearsto develop, but now there is a greater need for chlorine in parts of West Africa because of theEbola outbreak, and this device may one day soon be helping to meet that demand. GLENN AUSTIN: We are really thinking about how quickly we can move, because there's asense of urgency here. Chlorine is probably the most widely accepted universal disinfectant.It's great. You can treat water with it and you can treat surfaces with it. And that is thepreferred application for infection control and disease outbreak control. CAT WISE: The Electrochlorinator is just one of the many products turned out by a global health nonprofit in Seattle, Washington, called PATH. For more than 30 years, the organizationhas been developing innovative[adj.创新的] medical devices, drugs, vaccines, and diagnostic equipment for use in low-income countries. STEVE DAVIS, President and CEO, PATH: The fact that some people have access to lifesaving devices and other people don't is simply wrong, it's unfair, and it's correctable[adj.可纠正的]. CAT WISE: Steve Davis is president and CEO of PATH. He says one of the organization's mostsuccessful products could come in handy in fighting the Ebola outbreak if a vaccine using a live virus, that has to be kept cold, is developed. It's a tiny heat-sensing sticker that tells health workers if a vaccine is no longer effective. It'sbeen used on five billion vaccine vials over the past two decades. STEVE DAVIS: It turns out, in food, in frozen chicken, they have something on the package to show that if it had been thawed[v.融化，解冻] or unthawed. So we took that idea and now, by having a vaccine vial monitor, this little dot, we can actually tell whether that vaccine has got too hot,and therefore we wouldn't use it if it's changed colors. And so that's — that's been really critical[adj.关键的，重要的], saved literally millions of lives. CAT WISE: PATH got its start in the 1970s bringing reproductive health technology to rural China. Today, the organization has 1,200 employees, a mix of scientists, engineers, doctors,lawyers, businesspeople, and health policy experts. They work in more than 70 countries on issues such as clean water and sanitation[n.卫生系统&设备], maternal and newborn health[n.母婴健康] and neglected diseases. They often collaborate with public and private sector partners on the development, funding and distribution of products. MIKE EISENSTEIN, Shop Manager, PATH: So, welcome, this is PATH's product development shop. CAT WISE: Mike Eisenstein manages the workshop where many of PATH's health tools have emerged after months, sometimes years of research, development, testing, and old-fashioned tinkering. MIKE EISENSTEIN: We're looking for solutions that are sustainable, that are easy to use.They're low-cost, very sturdy, very affordable. So we try and mimic all the settings wherethey will be used, how are the technologies we develop going to react to dust, to high humidity[n.湿度], to temperature, things like that. CAT WISE: Eisenstein says the end users, often women and children, are what drive theinventions and designs. He showed us how that played out during the development of a newversion of a decades-old female contraceptive. MIKE EISENSTEIN: The challenge in this particular case was, really, diaphragms come inmany different sizes, and in developing countries, it's especially hard, you know, finding a doctor and then getting sized for a specific diaphragm. What we did was, we designed a diaphragm with the idea of it fits most of the femalepopulation. CAT WISE: Another tool developed in the workshop project is the Uniject, aimed at low-skilledhealth workers administering shots. Steve Brooke was one of the product developers. STEVE BROOKE, Commercialization Advisor, PATH: It's unique in that its completely self-contained. The dose of vaccine or the lifesaving medicine is already filled in this little bubble[n.泡泡]. So the health care worker doesn't have to measure the dose, take the time to find a different syringe[n.注射器]. Once you have made the injection, it's designed such that you cannot refill it,because reuse of syringes is a significant problem in developing countries. CAT WISE: Down the hall from the workshop is PATH's lab, where scientist Manjari Lal isdeveloping methods to freeze-dry certain vaccines and drugs. The resulting tablets, whichwould eliminate the need for refrigeration and skilled health workers to administer shots orI.V.s, could be a game-changer, according to Lal. MANJARI LAL, Technical Officer, PATH: We need to conduct some clinical studies to reallydemonstrate if this technology has value. But, yes, I mean, this is easy, packaging-wise,administration-wise, and storage, especially in places like sub-Saharan Africa or Africa ingeneral, where the temperatures run so high, if we have a product which is stable, heat-stable,I mean, it can indeed save a lot of lives. CAT WISE: Saving through the use of innovation was a big t