resources
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GFAN Guide to Global Fund Board Meetings
November 2019 read morePublisher: GFAN
A short guide to Global Fund Board Meetings and the role that civil society has on the Board.
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Policy Update: Lateral flow urine lipoarabinomannan assay (LF-LAM) for the diagnosis of active tuberculosis in people living with HIV
November 2019 read morePublisher: World Health Organisation (WHO)
“The World Health Organization (WHO) has updated its guidance for the use of lateral flow urine lipoarabinomannan assay (LAM) in the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB). Tests based on the detection of mycobacterial LAM antigen in urine have emerged as potential point-of-care tests for TB. The WHO Global TB Programme recommended the use of LF-LAM for the first time in 2015. Urinary LAM assays have shown greater sensitivity when used for the diagnosis of TB in people living with HIV. The sensitivity increases significantly in patients with lower CD4 cell counts. Following the new evidence, WHO is now recommending LF-LAM use to assist in diagnosis in a broader group of people, both in inpatient and outpatient settings.”
Source: Policy Update
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Tuberculosis and Universal Health Coverage
October 2019 read morePublisher: Results UK
This report aims to define what provision of TB services in “the context of progress towards UHC” looks like in practice, and to what extent the recognition of the codependency of achieving TB and UHC at international fora like the UN and WHO translates to action at ground level. It defines an essential set of services that would both help to make the TB response “universal” and help to make the TB response contribute to the achievement of UHC more broadly.
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The Problem with Patents
September 2019 read morePublisher: Frontline AIDS
The introduction of combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) in 1996 was one of the most significant interventions in the history of the HIV response. Combination therapy today means that in many parts of the world, AIDS is no longer seen as a death sentence. However, in the early days of the AIDS epidemic, very few people could access this treatment. People living with HIV led efforts across the world to improve access to treatment including campaigning to reduce the prices of HIV medicines. In 2018, over 23 million people were accessing ART but the struggle to ensure affordable access to treatment for all is not over.
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Resurgence: Could AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria make comebacks?
September 2019 read morePublisher: Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
The world has made remarkable progress over the past two decades to address AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and increased investment can help ensure disease resurgence does not undo these gains. Stepped-up funding for the Global Fund and U.S. bilateral programs is our best defense against future disease resurgence.
The path forward is clear: to end AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, we must scale up prevention and treatment, strengthen surveillance systems and invest in innovation. Drawing on historical examples and empirical evidence about resurgence, this new report demonstrates why it is crucial for U.S. policymakers to invest in the Global Fund.
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MAKING THE SWITCH: Saving More Lives with Optimal Treatment for Drug-Resistant TB
September 2019 read morePublisher: MSF Access Campaign
Previously recommended treatment regimens for drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) used by most countries had a high pill burden, long treatment duration (of up to two years), painful daily injections (for up to eight months), severe side effects (due to toxic drugs) and poor treatment outcomes. These suboptimal regimens achieved treatment success rates of only 55% for people with multidrug-resistant/rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis (MDR/RR-TB) and 34% for people with extensively drug-resistant TB.
The World Health Organization (WHO) issued new MDR/RR-TB treatment guidelines in March 2019. This technical brief provides a summary of the treatment regimens now recommended by WHO, which represent hope for people with DR-TB and their caregivers because they offer better cure rates and fewer side effects using safer all-oral treatment.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) urges countries to make a timely switch to these regimens given the clear benefits of providing bedaquiline for all people with MDR-TB and the urgent need to discontinue use of harmful injectable agents.
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Lessons Learned: Implementation of the Young Key Populations Programmes in the Global Fund Grant
September 2019 read morePublisher: Youth LEAD
LOLIPOP is a programme designed to increase testing, treatment, and adherence, and decrease new infection among young key populations in Indonesia. In 2016, this programme was implemented under the Global Fund Grant. The study aimed to [1] document activities targeting YKP under Global Fund Grant; [2] analyse the key achievement and challenge during the programme; and [3] know how the engagement of YKPs during the planning, implementation, and monitoring of the activities. This study used a qualitative approach through in-depth interviews, while the tools for data collection utilised an input-process-output framework. In total, 16 informants, made up of 7 young beneficiaries, 3 local programme implementers, and 6 national programme implementers from three study sites (Denpasar, Surabaya, West Jakarta) have participated in the primary data collection. The data was analysed thematically to achieve the findings.
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Sustainable Health Financing Advocacy
July 2019 read morePublisher: GFAN
Civil Society Advocacy for Sustainable Financing for Health Sustainable Health Financing Advocacy
Concept Note: As a broad framework, Sustainable health financing advocacy (SHFa) encompasses advocacy across multiple health priorities and in multiple health financing contexts. This unified framework for action can help advocates align efforts, understand the interlinkages and potential synergies for collaboration, and avoid silos in our work.
Download the Full Report here.
Download the Executive Summary here.
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Global AIDS update 2019 — Communities at the centre
July 2019 read morePublisher: UNAIDS
When communities organize and people empower each other, oppression can be replaced by rights and access to HIV services can be accelerated. Peer-to-peer counsellors, community health workers, door-to-door service providers, grass-roots activists and networks of people living with or affected by HIV all have key roles to play in the response to HIV. As this report shows, community leadership in the AIDS response helps to ensure that HIV services are relevant to, and reach, the people who need them the most.
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Getting local: focusing on communities to achieve greater impact in the next phase of the HIV response
July 2019 read morePublisher: Journal of the International AIDS Society
Despite numerous achievements in addressing HIV epidemics worldwide, there is still much more that needs to be done to control HIV as a public health threat. As such, the world is at a critical juncture in the HIV response. Decelerating the response now would reverse the enormous gains achieved so far. Achieving a greater impact in the next phase of the HIV response requires an improvement in the quality and integration of services to make the services align to the identified needs of communities.