Ten years ago it was conventional wisdom that antiretroviral therapies for HIV were not feasible and too costly to implement in the developing world, where more than 90 percent of HIV cases occur. That was until Dr. Paul Farmer's work in rural Haiti proved that that conventional wisdom was dead wrong. Today, the number of HIV positive people in the developing world who have access to anti-retroviral drugs has increased seven-fold between 2002 and 2007.

What does it take to get a 96 percent detection rate and 98 percent cure rate for tuberculosis in the world's most densely populated country? How about hiring 70,000 housewives to implement your plan?  That's exactly what the non-government organization BRAC did in Bangladesh. Women like Amina Tewari, despite having only a sixth-grade education, are critical foot soldiers in one of the most effective public health campaigns in the world. (link)

  In the tiny African nation of Malawi there are 83,000 HIV positive children, yet there were only two pediatricians just a few years ago. The "brain drain" of doctors leaving the country was so bad that Manchester, England had more Malawian doctors than Malawi did.  For the few remaining doctors, a lack of equipment, drugs and facilities further hampered their ability to provide adequate care. "There's nothing more frustrating than knowing what you need to do, but not having the resources to do it," says Dr. Peter Kazembe, one of Malawi's few pediatricians.  But all of that is now changing thanks to Houston-based Dr. Mark Kline, who created a peace corps-style program for American pediatricians to practice in Africa. It fills in gaps in Malawi's health care system, while also giving the American doctors infectious disease experience that they won't likely get anywhere else. Today Malawi has 13 pediatricians who treating patients as well as training a whole new generation of caregivers.

  These are the people whose creativity and tenacity are making our world healthier.