TIME NAMES 18 HEROES OF GLOBAL HEALTH

New York – TIME has named 18 heroes of global health in this week’s special report on global health, “How to Save a Life” (on newsstands Monday, October 31). Twelve of the heroes will be honored at this week’s TIME Global Health Summit for their work in solving health problems in the developing world. The TIME Summit will convene leaders in the fields of medicine, government, business, public policy, and the arts to develop actions and solutions to the world’s health crises.

The 18 heroes hail from the every corner of the globe, including Bolivia, China, Cambodia, Congo, Honduras, India, Kenya, Nepal, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nigeria, Swaziland, United Kingdom and United States

“We were looking for people who had pioneered innovative ways to improve the health of poor people around the world,” TIME Sciences Editor Philip Elmer-DeWitt said. “To our surprise, wherever we looked, we found them—from an ex-motorbike racer who dispatched hundreds of sidecar-equipped motorcycles across Africa for use as mini-ambulances to a Thai economist who championed condom use among Bangkok sex workers and headed off what could have been a devastating outbreak of HIV/AIDS. The great thing about these projects is that they can be replicated and scaled up—and inspire even more pioneering approaches to improving health worldwide.”

TIME’s heroes of global health to be profiled in the issue include:

*Indicates a hero who will also be honored at the TIME Global Health Summit.

*BOSTON: Dr. Paul Farmer, Founding Director of Partners in Health, is turned an abandoned hospital in a rural Rwandan province with a population of 340,000 and no doctors into a thriving clinic drawing patients from miles around.

BOTSWANA: Ernest Darkoh, co-founder of BroadReach Healthcare, whose organization has made it possible for 10% of the HIV-infected population of Botswana to have access to free antiretroviral medications. In addition, an untold number of HIV-negative people remain uninfected.

CAMBODIA: Sok Thim and Anne Goldfeld co-founders, the Cambodian Health Committee

CHINA: Gui Xien, Infectious Disease Specialist, whose clinic at Wuhan University is now recognized as a national training center for AIDS doctors and has pioneered use of a three-drug combination therapy for HIV-positive pregnant women.

*CONGO: Dr. Ngoma Miezi (Leon) Kintaudi, Rural Health Medical Director, who is working to reverse the ‘brain drain’ of highly skilled medical professionals who leave Africa for Europe and North America.

HONDURAS: Vicky Alvarado, whose work with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) improved the welfare of children by taking educational nutrition information directly to villages rather than making villagers travel for it. After initial success in keeping children healthy, the program is now active in 2,000 out of 30,000 Honduran communities.

HONG KONG: Dr. Guan Yi, Influenza Specialist at the University of Hong Kong, has managed to sequence the genetic code for more than 250 strains of the H5N1 avian flue virus, giving he and his team a chillingly accurate picture of how widespread bird flue is in the region and how the virus is mutating.

INDIA: Abhay and Rani Bang, founders, the Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health, whose health training program cut child mortality in half for a cost of $2.64 for each child saved. The program is being adopted across India and in Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and parts of Africa.

*KENYA: Peter Okaalet, Africa Director of MAP International, who engaged religious leaders in Kenya to fight HIV/AIDS.

MOZAMBIQUE: Dr. Pedro Alonso, founder, Manhiça Health Research Centre, who is testing a promising malaria vaccine in Mozambique.

BURMA (MYANMAR) and THAILAND: Dr. Cynthia Maung, founder, Mae Tao Clinic, whose clinic has provided badly needed health care for 70,000 people a year along the treacherous Thailand-Burma border.

*NEPAL: Ram Shrestha, Chemist and Health Expert, who has recruited 49,000 grandmothers in Nepal to distribute Vitamin A to 3.5 Nepalese children.

*NIGERIA: Dora Akunyili, Head of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration, who has led a crackdown on dealers of counterfeit prescription drugs.

NIGERIA: Kabiti Ishaya, founder of Hope for the Living, is HIV positive and now advocates for people with HIV/AIDS.

SWAZILAND: Busi Bhembe, director of the Swaziland Infant Nutrition Action Network, is educating women on how to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission resulting in a sharp drop in the number of babies born HIV positive to women in her program.

*UNITED KINGDOM/ ZIMBABWE: Andrea and Barry Coleman, Co-Founders of Northamptonshire-based Riders for Health, who built a fleet of motorbikes that deliver health-care services to rural areas of Zimbabwe, Gambia and Nigeria.

Additional heroes to be honored at the TIME Global Health Summit include:

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.: Kimberly Chapman, Board of Directors, Chair, of Carolina for Kibera a 5000-member youth sports association, reproductive health center, and medical clinic in Kibera, the largest urban slum in Africa, which is run exclusively by youth in Kenya and advised by U.S.-based volunteers.

NEW JERSEY: Dr. P. Roy Vagelos, Retired Merck Chairman and CEO, who developed Mectizan, a drug to prevent river blindness.

SEATTLE: Ezra Teshome, Representative, Rotary International Polio Eradication Program, who has helped to raise millions of dollars for polio vaccination programs and provide volunteers to help with mass inoculations.

BANGLADESH: Mufaweza (Mustari) Khan as co-founder of Concerned Women for Family Development, Khan is persuading Muslim women to space their births and use family planning, and works for women’s education and opportunities for girls and young women to get job training and start small businesses.

THAILAND: Mechai Viravaidya, Chairman of Population and Community Development Association, who is working with Thailand’s leaders to face its growing AIDS crisis by educating and helping drug dealers and commercial sex workers to find ways to avoid spreading the virus.

The full package of stories and additional reporting will be available at 6pm EST Sunday on www.time.com.

Media Contacts: Ty Trippet, 212-522-3640, Kim Noel, 212-522-3651