Health

  • July 3, 2013

    PrEP use and risk perception: What’s the connection?

    Written by
    Amy Corneli, Scientist, Social and Behavioral Health Sciences, FHI 360
    Cynthia Geary, Director, Social and Behavioral Health Sciences, FHI 360

    Now that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of the antiretroviral drug combination of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate and emtricitabine (Truvada®) for HIV prevention, its success will depend on user adherence to the daily drug regimen.

    Several trials of Truvada as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) showed it is most effective when adherence is high. Two trials, VOICE and FEM-PrEP, were unable to determine whether Truvada worked, likely because most participants did not take the study pills daily as directed.

    One explanation for low adherence to PrEP is that study participants might have thought they were not at risk of HIV infection.

    A study from FHI 360’s Preventive Technologies Agreement (PTA) explored this possibility. Our analysis of data from a randomly assigned cohort of 150 participants who received Truvada in the FEM-PrEP trial yielded some intriguing results, presented in a late-breaker poster this week at the International AIDS Society conference (IAS 2013) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

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  • June 19, 2013

    PROGRESS: Empowering women for a brighter future

    For more than 40 years, FHI 360 has played a pioneering role in increasing the availability, acceptance, safety, effectiveness and use of high-quality contraceptive methods throughout the world. Through the U.S. Agency for International Development’s PROGRESS project, FHI 360 works to improve access to family planning methods and services among underserved populations in selected countries. PROGRESS builds capacity in research and research utilization by strengthening both the supply of and the demand for program research results, as well as by refining contraceptive technologies and services. In this video, Project Director Dr. Baker Ndugga Maggwa describes how PROGRESS has empowered women in countries around the world.

  • June 4, 2013

    Family planning and text messages: How mobile phones can save lives

    Written by
    Kelly L’Engle, Scientist, Social and Behavioral Health Sciences, FHI 360

    The numbers on maternal and child mortality around the world are staggering. Every day, approximately 800 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. A notable 99 percent of these maternal deaths occur in developing countries, where over 220 million women lack access to effective contraception and family planning services. Statistics indicate that if even half that number, or 120 million of those women, had adequate access to family planning information, the lives of 3 million children would be saved.

    In recent years, many people have dedicated themselves to bridging the gap between this sizeable problem and a workable solution. And, as it turns out, answers have come in the form of something as common as a mobile phone. With more than three-quarters of the world’s inhabitants having mobile connectivity, millions of women can benefit from information delivered through what has become a standard 21st century way of communicating: text messages.

    It was the growing use of mobile phones and text messaging in developing countries that prompted FHI 360 to develop innovative ways to use technology to improve family planning services. In 2008, with funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, FHI 360’s Program Research for Strengthening Services (PROGRESS) project started developing Mobile for Reproductive Health (m4RH), an opt-in text message-based health communication program that provides information about family planning methods to anyone who wants it who has access to a mobile phone.

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  • May 28, 2013

    Patriotism, sacrifice and an HIV vaccine

    Written by
    A. Cornelius Baker, Technical Advisor, FHI 360

    Over the past week, scientists and advocates around the world refocused their attention on the search for an HIV vaccine. Fittingly the observance stems from a long ago speech by President Bill Clinton. On May 18, 1997, Mr. Clinton delivered an inspiring commencement address at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. In the speech, the president challenged the scientific community and the graduating class from one of America’s foremost historically black universities to invest their talents in the discovery of an HIV vaccine. Mr. Clinton also called for a worldwide commitment to develop an “AIDS vaccine within the next decade.” Since that commencement, May 18 has been marked by scientists, advocates and governments as HIV Vaccine Awareness Day.

    In the years following Mr. Clinton’s bold challenge, there have been gains and setbacks in our quest to find an HIV vaccine.

    In 2009, the world applauded when the U.S. Army’s research program and the Thai Ministry of Health announced the first HIV vaccine trial to show efficacy. The trial results showed that the candidate vaccines in the RV144 study worked in 31 percent of the people who were vaccinated. Although this level of efficacy is not sufficient to bring a product to market, it is a promising sign that a vaccine is indeed possible.

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  • May 23, 2013

    ROADS II: Transforming corridors of risk into pathways of prevention and hope

    Written by
    Dorothy Muroki, Project Director, ROADS II, FHI 360

  • May 22, 2013

    FHI 360 livelihoods project hosts Twitter chat and launches new website

    Written by
    Cheryl Tam, Program Assistant, LIFT, FHI 360

    On May 23rd, from 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. EDT, FHI 360’s Livelihoods and Food Security Technical Assistance (LIFT) project, Agrilinks and USAID Global Health will be co-hosting an #AskAg Twitter chat on the “Intersection of HIV/AIDS and Food Security” as a part of Global Health month at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

    Twitter chats are virtual social media conversations on specific topics. The Agrilinks’ #AskAg series is a monthly event that convenes different partners to discuss current topics in agriculture and food security. These events leverage social media to facilitate new types of knowledge exchange between technical experts and chat participants from around the world. This month, we’ll have a panel of expert tweeters, including LIFT’s Meaghan Murphy, to discuss approaches to improve food security, particularly for those affected by HIV or AIDS.

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  • May 22, 2013

    FHI 360 expert interviewed on Voice of America about HIV and TB in Nigeria

    FHI 360’s Deputy Country Director for Nigeria, Dr. Robert Chiegil, spoke with Voice of America’s health correspondent Linord Moudou yesterday about reducing the impact of HIV and TB in Nigeria and other African countries. Watch the video below.

  • May 14, 2013

    The power of public–private partnerships in tackling global health challenges

    Written by
    Camille Saadé, Senior Project Director for Partnerships, FHI 360

    This week, GBCHealth will bring together some of the most prominent private-sector leaders in the world to discuss strategies for tackling pressing global health challenges. This year’s GBCHealth conference will focus on how business can better align its work with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The fourth MDG is to reduce mortality for children under 5 years old. The biggest threats to young children are pneumonia and diarrheal diseases, which are the cause of nearly 2 million deaths a year in children under 5 years old. The good news is that there is a simple way to prevent much of the spread of these two diseases: handwashing. And the private sector has been on the forefront of promoting handwashing in developing countries for more than a decade.

    In 2000, I co-founded the Global Public–Private Partnership for Handwashing along with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the World Bank/ Water and Sanitation Program. Today, FHI 360 operates the secretariat for the partnership, and our membership has expanded to include Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive, the University of Buffalo, the World Health Organization, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the United Nations Children’s Fund. Each member of our partnership contributes financial resources, skills or time.

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  • May 7, 2013

    It’s time to control asthma

    Written by
    Kate Fink, Communication Officer, FHI 360

    It may seem simple: breathe in, breathe out. But for the 25 million Americans who have asthma, inhaling and exhaling can be like breathing through a straw. Asthma is a common, chronic disease causing inflammation of the airways. In the United States, asthma is responsible for nine deaths each day and costs the health care system $56 billion every year. Asthma is more common and severe among African American, Puerto Rican and Native American children.

    There is no cure for asthma. But with proper treatment, asthma can be controlled. Each May, people across the globe commemorate World Asthma Day and Asthma Awareness Month to spread the message that it’s time to control asthma.

    FHI 360 recently worked with the U.S. National Institutes of Health to implement the National Asthma Control Initiative, a program that empowers health care providers and patients to follow the latest science-based asthma care guidelines.

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  • April 24, 2013

    Village workers fight malaria in Pailin, Cambodia

    In the beautiful and remote Cambodian province of Pailin, FHI 360 is working with rural communities to reduce malaria transmission and save lives.

    With support from the Global Fund through the Village Malaria Workers program, FHI 360 has trained people in 28 villages across this region to provide malaria education, diagnosis and treatment. Village workers have provided malaria testing to more than 15,000 fever patients in these remote areas and have treated over 3,600 patients for malaria.

    This World Malaria Day, visit Pailin by video. Your guide is an FHI 360 malaria program coordinator who shares how the program works.

    Village workers fight malaria in Pailin, Cambodia, from FHI 360 on Vimeo.

    This post also appeared on GBCHealth’s website as part of their World Malaria Day coverage here.