Publisher:  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

Publisher:  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.

Publisher:  JLI  with Funding and support from ICSS, GFAN, PITCH-FSP and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands.

“While there is much to applaud about development progress, there is also much of concern, not least with regard to widening inequality and threats to our environment. With the advent of the Sustainable Development Goals, however, there is a bold global framework through which to address common challenges and build a coherent response.

An area where thinking and practice in the international development sector will need to evolve is in its approach to “aid”. With worrying signs of growing nationalism in many countries, we need to strengthen our discourse of solidarity and shared responsibility. The changing nature of geopolitics is conducive to doing that as the voices of the Global South continue to strengthen in the international arena.

This is the context in which this report proposes a new vision for development co-operation. Building
on the best of “aid”, it suggests a series of paradigm shifts to modernise our approach. Those shifts
include raising ambitions from the level of the MDGs to that of the more comprehensive SDGs;
emphasising the unique value of concessional international public finance as a complement to
other sources of development finance; recognising the shifting geography of development co-operation
to which all the world’s countries now contribute one way or another, and suggesting governance
arrangements to reflect that. We should also insist on a new narrative to replace the old-fashioned and
misleading language of “donors” and “aid”. “

 

Publisher: Frontline AIDS

Publisher: 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.

Publisher: 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.

Publisher: Youth LEAD

Publisher: 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. 

Publisher: UNAIDS

Publisher: 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.