resources
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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.
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Are monitoring and evaluation systems adequate to report the programmatic coverage of HIV services among key populations in countries?
July 2019 read morePublisher: Infectious Diseases of Poverty
There was no global guidance or agreement regarding when a country has an adequate system to report on the service packages among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) key populations. This article describes an approach to categorizing the system in a country for reporting the service package among HIV key populations. The approach consists of four dimensions, namely the epidemiological significance, comprehensiveness of the service packages, geographic coverage of services, and adequacy of the monitoring system. The proposed categorization approach utilizes available information and can inform the improvement of the service delivery and monitoring systems among HIV key populations.
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Delivering Quality-assured Medical Products for All 2019–2023
July 2019 read morePublisher: World Health Organization
Universal health coverage will bring about greater access to medical products, but we must ensure that those products are quality-assured, safe and effective so that they do what they are supposed to do – prevent illness and improve people’s health. That is why today’s launch of WHO’s five-year plan ‘Delivering Quality-assured Medical Products for All 2019–2023’ is important.
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Tackling the Triple Transition in Global Health Procurement
June 2019 read morePublisher: Center for Global Development
Within a changing global health landscape, a forward-looking approach is needed to anticipate tomorrow’s challenges and plan for the future. To this end, the Center for Global Development convened the Working Group on the Future of Global Health Procurement to review the evidence and formulate recommendations for how the global health community—international health organizations, their bilateral and foundation donors, and low- and middle-income countries—can ensure the medium- to long-term relevance, efficiency, quality, affordability, and security of global health procurement. Importantly, the group limited its focus to the procurement process: the journey of a health product from manufacturer to a centralized warehouse or other wholesaling facility. The downstream supply chain and delivery process—a product’s journey from warehouse to end user—was beyond the Working Group’s scope.