Time magazine on Monday celebrated the 100 most influential people leading health change at a special dinner. The first, his TIME100 Health list, spotlights doctors, scientists, business leaders, advocates and more who are on the front lines of major changes in the industry.
After a panel discussion on women's health priorities, three TIME100 Health honorees toasted their survival from Norma, a severe gangrenous disease of the mouth and face. Medical organizations are advocating pioneering research and treatments related to the novel coronavirus. Hospitals are under attack in conflict zones.
Surviving Noma
Norma survivor Fidel Strub has led an awareness campaign about the disease, which primarily affects young, malnourished children living in extreme poverty. In 2023, the WHO officially recognized Noma as a neglected tropical disease, noting that early detection is essential for effective treatment. Norma can be deadly and severely disfigure the victim. It usually begins as an inflammation of the gums and, if left untreated, destroys facial tissues and bones.
Stab thanked the doctors who saved her life and talked about turning to advocacy to feel empowered. He mentioned the 27 surgeries he underwent to reconstruct his face. “When Dr. Zara first saw me, I was just skin and bones. There was little hope for him, and yet he literally fought to save my life.” Strub said. “It took me three years of speech therapy just to learn how to blow out candles.”
A pioneer in responding to the new coronavirus
Dr. Eric Topol, founder and director of the Scripps Research Institute's Translational Institute, gave a shoutout to the more than a dozen TIME100 Health honorees who have helped shape the world's response to the pandemic. “Somehow over the course of the pandemic, I transitioned from being a cardiologist to being a virologist,” he said. “That was not my intention at all.”
Topol said Monday's event was the first time he had met many of the people working on coronavirus solutions in person, although some have become close friends. Among those he acknowledged were researchers who have closely tracked the long coronavirus, Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunobiology at Yale University School of Medicine, and Ziyad Al-Ziyad Al, a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Mr. Ally was also included.
Hospital under attack
Alaa Murabit, Director of Global Policy, Advocacy, and Communications at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, started her medical career in conflict zones and served as a front-line health worker in Gaza, Ukraine, Yemen, and Sudan. He talked about how he draws inspiration from.
In his toast, Mr Mouravit said that over the past year, medical facilities have increasingly been caught up in political violence. “Hospitals are supposed to be places of healing and hope, but I always say that hospitals are more spiritual to me than any mosque, church, or synagogue, because you hear more prayers in a hospital. You get overloaded and in the worst case you get attacked,” she said. “It will come as no surprise to many that in moments of crisis and insecurity, women and children are the most vulnerable. Violence worsens infectious diseases, causes malnutrition and maternal and child deaths. It makes it worse.”
Mr Murabit spoke specifically about Gaza. More than 35,000 people have been killed in the Israeli attack, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. She noted that most of those killed were believed to be women and children.
Murabit also paid tribute to female health workers, noting that women make up more than two-thirds of the health workforce. “They are on the front lines providing care even in the worst of circumstances,” she says. “We've talked about everything from hyperemesis to menopause to COVID-19. You can imagine how bad things can get when you have bombs and bullets over your head.”
“TIME100 Impact Dinner: Leaders Shaping the Future of Health” was hosted by Eli Lilly, Northwell Health, Deloitte, On Purpose, A Podcast by Jay Shetty, and Apeiron Investments.
