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Topic

Health

The goal of many projects worldwide is to promote health. Find out on KfW Stories about the fight against AIDS, Ebola and multi-resistant germs, or how innovative technology and drugs improve therapy for cancer and dementia.

Image-Reference

On our website, pictures taken, among others, by the following photographers/photo agencies are used:

Agentur photothek.net, Deutsche Messe Hannover, Andreas Arnold, Jörg Böthling, Dominik Butzmann, Carsten Costard, Susanne Esche, Charlie Fawell, Rendel Freude, Torsten George, Gaby Gerster, David Greedy, Peter Himsel, Barbara Högner, Frank Homann, Fred Hoogervorst, Steffen Jagenburg (BRANSCH EUROPE), Thomas Klewar, Studio Kohlmeier , Florian Kopp, Georg Lopata, Jürgen Lösel, Kirsten Milhahn, Rüdiger Nehmzow, Rolf Obertreis, Rubén Arnaldo Farina Ortiz, Holger Peters, Joachim Röttgers, Mika Schmidt, Bernhard Schurian, Jens Steingässer, Pietro Sutera, Uwe Tölle, Jan Zappner.

Fotolia.com: amandare, Yuri Arcurs, Kitch Bain, Ingo Bartussek, Sergio Donà, drizzd, Dmitry Ersler, eyewave, Zoltán Futó, Eric Gevaert, Fotolia XXV, Friedberg, goodluz, Dirk Hoffmann, imageteam, Christian Jung, Abdelhamid Kalai, Sergej Khakimullin, Vladimir Kolobov, krizz7, Kzenon, lumen-digital, marog-pixcells, Mindwalker, Miredi, mirpic, Nebuto, Tino Neitz, Christian Pedant, Franz Pfluegl, prognone, Gina Sanders, Henry Schmitt, spree berlin, SVLuma, Kheng Guan Toh, tom, Torbz, typomaniac, VRD, Joachim Wendler, Sreedhar Yedlapati.

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A woman holds an ampoule of Hepcludex, powder for injection preparation in her hand

The billion-euro drug

MYR is a particularly special German success story In just under ten years, the biotech company from Bad Homburg has gone from zero to 1 billion euros with just one drug. How is that possible?

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nurse

Protection against hospital germs

Patients become infected with pathogens as many as 700,000 times a year during a stay in hospital. In order to optimise hand hygiene in hospitals, the start-up GWA Hygiene relies on artificial intelligence.

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Centogene lab

The fight against the coronavirus

Responsibility in times of crisis: the Rostock-based company Centogene that otherwise tracks rare diseases is opening its laboratories for life-saving coronavirus tests. Up to 10,000 swabs can be analysed per day.

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To the series Technologies of the future - Hightech for health
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Hightech for health

There are technologies that are much more than just inventions that make life easier. In the healthcare sector, innovations can save lives, as the coronavirus pandemic shows us every day.

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hospital after renovation

DEG finances the fight against Covid-19 in eastern India

India is one of the world’s countries hardest hit by the pandemic: case numbers and deaths have recently been at very high levels, and the healthcare system is severely overstretched. Problems such as bed shortages, lack of liquid medical oxygen or transport difficulties massively complicate the fight against the pandemic.

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Men wearing protective masks in a mobile laboratory in Kenya

Waiting for certainty

Only people with negative coronavirus test results are allowed to enter Kenya. This measure is intended to curb the disease in eastern Africa. KfW Stories visited a border crossing where mobile laboratories financed with German aid are helping to expedite the process.

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protective clothing hospital

Intermediary in times of crisis

The start-up scoutbee developed a platform to bring together buyers and suppliers. During the coronavirus crisis, the company is helping to locate urgently needed medical equipment such as protective suits and breathing tubes.

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Portrait of Yannik Schreckensberger. The 32-year-old sits on a chair in his office.

“The focus needs to shift to patients”

How are sick people doing when they are not hospitalised, and stay at home? Yannik Schreckenberger has closed this knowledge gap and contributed to peoples’ recovery with his start-up Heartbeat Medical – not least during the coronavirus pandemic.

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Portrait of Bernd Fertig

We will be there for you

DEG-financed companies all over the world are affected by the impacts of the pandemic. To mitigate the effects locally, and prudently support its customers through the crisis, the KfW subsidiary has developed various COVID response measures. Three reports from Central and South America and North Africa.

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Authentic Newtworks robot

Blockchain against counterfeiting

The start-up Authentic.Network has developed a digital seal that makes malaria drugs identifiable, forgery-proof and traceable.

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A Centogene employee takes a throat swab on a passenger

“We have to live with it”

Coronavirus tests could become part of everyday life in future. Germany is also gaining good experience just now. The mobile laboratories of the Rostock-based biotech company Centogene enable preventive and extensive testing.

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In the PEPperPRINT laboratory

With biotech against the virus

Three biotech companies from Heidelberg, Leipzig and Hennigsdorf in Brandenburg are considered particularly innovative. Their developments could help in the fight against coronavirus.

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To the article about mobile labs in Africa
mobile laboratories in africa

Mobile laboratories in Africa

The German Federal Government, KfW and the Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine have joined forces to detect impending epidemics in East Africa at an early stage. To this end a regional network of mobile laboratories is being set up for Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Southern Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. And now, in the corona crisis, the technology is much-needed.

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Ouagadougou Burkina Faso

Strict rules in Burkina Faso

The corona virus has arrived in Africa. Verena Le Chuiton, head of the KfW office in Burkina Faso, reports on how the office is maintaining operations under the difficult conditions and where the greatest dangers are currently to be seen.

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Activate! staff and participants

Hope at the Cape

More than seven million people in South Africa are infected with HIV. Young people in particular are affected by the epidemic. This is why they are the focus of Activate!, a programme supported by KfW. We present the project to you in our video.

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Karebo Streetworker

An empowering network

The Activate! Network brings together people who are pushing ahead with projects in their communities in order to reduce the risk of an infection with HIV. People like Karabo, who is a street worker and distributes bandages to schoolgirls. In our video you can find out why.

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Videostill neglected tropical diseases

Global health care

Around 1.5 billion people are affected by neglected tropical diseases such as river blindness and rabies. Together with its partners, KfW ensures that sick people are helped. To learn more about this, please watch our animated film.

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Ball from Ichó

A ball to evoke memories

It is common to feel helpless when dealing with dementia patients. A start-up in Duisburg has a promising idea: a ball filled with electronics that gives people a piece of their life back.

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Monique Wasunna and her fight against neglected tropical diseases

”Health is a human right“

Monique Wasunna campaigns for research on new drugs that treat neglected tropical diseases and for these drugs to be made available on the market at affordable prices. Interview with the Interview with the Africa Director of Drugs for Neglected Diseases.

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Screen of the Magnosco apparatus

Using light to faster detect skin cancer

When moles change shape or colour, dermatologists often take tissue samples to rule out the possibility of skin cancer. But is it always necessary? Magnosco GmbH has developed a device that uses a combination of laser light and artificial intelligence to make diagnosis easier.

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lab assistant with test tube

Protective shield against multi-resistant germs

Multi-drug-resistant germs are on the rise. Researchers at the German-French start-up Allecra have now developed an effective shield for antibiotics and want to bring it to market as quickly as possible.

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A condom is shown during a hiv prevention seminar for priests and other listeners

”We have reached a crossroads“

The reports on HIV and AIDS often appear to contradict one another. Our expert Dr Kai Gesing explains the current danger posed by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and how to interpret the numbers on our interactive world map.

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To the article about child marriages in Niger
Young mothers carrying babies on their backs

Forced into marriage as a young girl

Niger has the world's highest number of child marriages. A total of 28 per cent of all girls are married before the age of 15. They have to stop going to school and miss out on their chance of an education. In many cases, they fall pregnant while they are still children themselves, increasing risks during birth.

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Minimising birth-related risks in Malawi

Minimising birth-related risks

Our interactive world map shows that mortality rates among mothers are very high in Malawi. That is why KfW is supporting an initiative to make sure women are transferred to health stations in time to give birth.

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Taking the future into their own hands
Mothers in Yemen

Taking the future into their own hands

Yemen suffers from a high rate of maternal mortality, as our interactive world map shows. The Yamaan Foundation promotes better medical care for women and aims to alleviate poverty through family planning.

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Project in the health sector in Cameroon

Ailing health-care system

Cameroon, an economic ray of hope on the central African horizon, turns in a disappointing performance in the health-care sector. The FC project for the construction of a regional hospital and the rehabilitation of three district hospitals and six medical centres did not produce any noticeable eff ects: the assessment is “clearly inadequate”.

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Woman cooking on biogas stove

Smoke-free cooking

Cooking over an open fire is dangerous. Every year, millions of people are killed by toxic smoke. Biogas stoves help to protect the health of mainly women and children. A report from Bangladesh and Nepal.

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Proton radiation in Essen

The power of particles

Cancer is becoming forever prevalent in our ageing society. But children develop cancer too. In Essen patients can receive targeted treatment with beams of protons. A visit to the West German Proton Therapy Center.

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Founder of Linguedo

Nursing transfer

The start-up Linguedo is solving a distribution problem on the European labour market: Germany has far too few nurses, while in Italy and Spain not all trained nurses can find a job. One of them was Kristine Kasala, who now works as a nurse in Darmstadt, thanks to Linguedo.

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Baby receives polio vaccination

The battle against polio

Nigeria is one of the last-remaining high-risk countries. Supported by KfW and the Japanease development agency JICA, WHO and UNICEF are currently running a campaign in the country with the aim of providing polio vaccinations to all children under the age of five. However, the terrorist group Boko Haram is posing a threat to doctors.

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