Health

  • January 13, 2020

    Total Quality Leadership and Accountability: Reaching the last mile in HIV epidemic control

    Written by
    Otto Chabikuli, Director, Global Health, Population and Nutrition, FHI 360
    Moses Bateganya, Technical Director, HIV Programs, FHI 360
    Robert Chiegil, Director, Project Portfolio, West Africa and Middle East, FHI 360

    At recent global health meetings that assessed progress made against the HIV epidemic, presentation after presentation confirmed that the world is inching closer to epidemic control. The excitement at these gatherings was palpable. It would be the first time in human history that such a public health milestone would be achieved without either a cure or a vaccine.

    As technical experts attending these meetings, we were struck by the critical importance of logistical and operational interventions, alongside biomedical ones, to reach the last mile. Yet, unlike the private sector, public health systems in low- and middle-income countries often remain underfunded and understaffed. This environment can make project management very challenging.

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  • January 7, 2020

    Embracing One Health for humans, animals and the environment

    Written by
    Timothy Mastro, Chief Science Officer, FHI 360
    Aubrey D. Weber, Technical Officer, Research Utilization, FHI 360

    The One Health concept calls for a worldwide approach to expanding interdisciplinary collaboration and communication on all aspects of health for humans, animals and the environment. This approach has tremendous implications for human health because an estimated sixty-one percent of human infectious diseases originate from animals. At the same time, there is a growing sense of urgency to advance One Health collaborations before more ground is lost in the fight for a healthy planet.

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  • November 19, 2019

    The darker side of development: The paradox of success

    Written by
    Patrick Fine, Chief Executive Officer, FHI 360

    We have celebrated many successes in global development, thanks in part to advocacy efforts. The billions of dollars in resources and political will mobilized to tackle global development challenges have yielded historic results, such as reducing the number of cases of HIV, cutting malaria deaths in half and increasing life expectancy rapidly, even in the poorest countries. Does the promotion of the progress made lead to complacency that could ultimately reverse the gains we now celebrate?

    In this episode, I sit down with Tom Hart, North America Executive Director for the ONE Campaign. Tom shares ONE’s approach to advocacy. We discuss the paradoxes of sharing successes and talk about how the final stretch of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals may be the hardest part of the race. We also examine the role of advocacy in development, the continued need for bipartisan political support for development work and the coalition of strange bedfellows during a divisive time.

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  • July 16, 2019

    Celebrating self-care month: Six ways FHI 360 is advancing the self-care agenda for sexual and reproductive health

    Written by
    Kate H. Rademacher, Technical Advisor, Contraceptive Technology Innovation, FHI 360
    Holly Burke, Scientist, Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child Health, FHI 360

    The full version of this post originally appeared on Medium.

    Close-up of self-administered contraceptiveSelf-management. Self-testing. Self-awareness. These are three pillars of self-care interventions that can help promote the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of women, men and youth according to new guidelines released by the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO defines self-care as “the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a healthcare provider.” Self-care as part of reproductive health is not a new concept. Throughout history, people have sought to control their fertility. However, in the context of a global shortage of trained health care workers and with an estimated 214 million women in developing countries who still have an unmet need for contraception, both new and existing SRHR self-care interventions can play a critical role in helping close the gap while at the same time empowering individuals to take control of their health.

    This July is self-care month, and FHI 360 is excited to join partners around the world in advancing strategies to meet the SRHR needs of women, men and youth through evidence-based self-care interventions. There are six ways that FHI 360 is helping advance the SRHR self-care agenda.

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  • March 21, 2019

    Engaging the private sector in the fight to end TB

    Written by
    Dr. Lisa Stevens, Senior Technical Advisor, TB and HIV, FHI 360
    Dr. Otto Chabikuli, Director of Global Health, Population and Nutrition, FHI 360

    In Cambodia, Chea Ru, a mother of five, suffered from classic tuberculosis (TB) symptoms of protracted cough, persistent fever, night sweats and profound weight loss. For more than a year, she was misdiagnosed and unsuccessfully treated by private for-profit providers, including traditional healers and doctors. Her health continued to decline and family finances suffered until, through FHI 360-supported community screening, she was finally correctly diagnosed.

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  • November 15, 2018

    What does #NextGenFP look like? Community-based injectable contraception is one answer

    Written by
    John Stanback, Scientist, FHI 360

    My first stop when I arrived in Nakasongola, Uganda, on a hot day in 2004 was the small hospital that served this rural district north of Kampala. I was paying a courtesy call to the District Medical Officer, Dr. Gerald Ssekito. He looked tired when I arrived, explaining that he and other hospital staff had not slept the night before. A pregnant woman had been brought in on the back of a motorbike in the middle of the night. She had delivered the first of her two twins the day before in her remote village, but continued laboring at home unable to birth the second. Finally, after 24 hours, her family put her on a motorbike for the long journey to the hospital, but she bled heavily and died on the way to the hospital.

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  • November 8, 2018

    #NextGenFP: Envisioning the future of family planning

    Written by
    Laneta Dorflinger, Distinguished Scientist and Director, Contraceptive Technology Innovation, FHI 360
    Kate H. Rademacher, Technical Advisor, Contraceptive Technology Innovation, FHI 360

    This week, more than 3,700 participants will gather in Kigali, Rwanda, for the fifth International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP). What is at stake? The lives and well-being of an estimated 214 million women of reproductive age in developing countries who want to avoid or delay pregnancy but are not using an effective form of modern contraception.

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  • October 18, 2018

    Preventing and responding to infectious disease outbreaks

    Written by
    Patrick Fine, Chief Executive Officer, FHI 360

    Are we prepared for the next infectious disease outbreak?

    In this episode of A Deeper Look, I speak with Dr. Jonathan Quick, Senior Fellow Emeritus at Management Sciences for Health and author of the new book, The End of Epidemics: The Looming Threat to Humanity and How to Stop It.

    A leader in epidemic prevention and control, Jonathan talks about the diseases we should worry about the most and why, the success stories and lessons learned in responding to epidemic and pandemic outbreaks, and what we need to do to be prepared for the next outbreak.

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  • August 2, 2018

    Two perspectives on the life-changing DREAMS partnership

    Written by
    Jennine Meyer, Associate Director of Communications, FHI 360

    The Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored and Safe women (DREAMS) partnership aspires to reduce HIV infections among adolescent girls and young women in 10 sub-Saharan African countries. These countries alone accounted for more than half of the HIV infections that occurred among adolescent girls and young women globally in 2015.

    DREAMS reaches beyond the health sector to address the direct and indirect factors that increase girls’ HIV risk, such as poverty, gender inequality, sexual violence and inadequate education. Interventions can include paying school fees, providing bicycles to girls who would otherwise walk long distances to school, supplying sanitary napkins for menstrual hygiene management and offering mentoring to help girls avoid early pregnancy, gender-based violence and discrimination. DREAMS is supported by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Girl Effect, Johnson & Johnson, Gilead Sciences and ViiV Healthcare.

    Two young women who participate in DREAMS projects attended FHI 360’s 2018 Gender 360 Summit and discussed how DREAMS is making a difference in their lives. Here are their stories.

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  • July 23, 2018

    New journal supplement on key populations is here!

    Written by
    Rose Wilcher, Director, Research Utilization, FHI 360

    A version of this post originally appeared on the LINKAGES blog. Reprinted with permission.

    JIAS July 2018 issue coverThe USAID– and PEPFAR-supported LINKAGES project is excited to announce the arrival of a new supplement in the Journal of the International AIDS Society (JIAS) titled Optimizing the Impact of Key Population Programming Across the HIV Cascade.

    A collaboration among LINKAGES, USAID, CDC, amfAR, and JIAS, this supplement contributes new evidence and data-driven strategies for improving programming with men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender people and people who inject drugs. It contains 14 original articles that represent a range of multidisciplinary efforts from diverse geographies to advance key population science and practice across the HIV prevention, care and treatment cascade.

    As HIV services are scaled up in pursuit of 90-90-90 targets, investments to address the epidemic among key populations must be central to these efforts. Global data indicate that gains made among key populations lag substantially behind those made in the general population. This supplement aims to accelerate progress toward controlling the epidemic by bringing visibility to new evidence and approaches that can make key population programming smarter and more effective.

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