Health

  • July 19, 2018

    A future without AIDS begins and ends with key populations

    Written by
    Hally Mahler, Project Director, LINKAGES, FHI 360
    Aubrey Weber, Technical Officer, FHI 360

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

    “We will only achieve HIV/AIDS epidemic control if we reach the UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets for all ages, genders, and at-risk groups, including key populations.”

    – Ambassador Deborah L. Birx, MD, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and U.S. Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy, June 2018

    In 2013, UNAIDS set out to establish new global targets for HIV testing, care and treatment. Stakeholder consultations were conducted at country and regional levels around the world, ultimately resulting in the creation of the ambitious 90-90-90 targets to help bring an end to the AIDS epidemic:

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  • July 18, 2018

    Achieving HIV epidemic control: Going the last mile and beyond

    Written by
    Dr. Otto Chabikuli, Director of Global Health, Population and Nutrition, FHI 360
    Dr. Timothy Mastro, Chief Science Officer, FHI 360

    The focus of the global effort to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic, now 37 years on, is epidemic control, which the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) defines as limiting the annual number of new HIV infections in a country to less than the number of deaths among people living with HIV.

    Sub-Saharan Africa, home to 26 million (70 percent) of the global total of 36.9 million people living with HIV, is where the battle must be won. To succeed and sustain the gains achieved in the past 15 years, countries in Africa will need to assume greater responsibility for managing their epidemics.

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  • May 7, 2018

    Reducing commodity costs when scaling up contraceptive implants … A classic chicken vs. egg dilemma

    Written by
    Markus J. Steiner, Senior Epidemiologist and Project Director, Sino-Implant (II)/Levoplant, FHI 360
    Kate H. Rademacher, Technical Advisor, Contraceptive Technology Innovation, FHI 360

    A version of this post originally appeared on Exchanges, the Contraceptive Technology Innovation Exchange blog. Reprinted with permission.

    Listen to an interview with Markus Steiner and Kate Rademacher on the reductions in the prices of implant commodities.

    Contraceptive implants have been available for over 30 years and are one of the most effective methods available. Until recently, however, international donors did not procure significant quantities, and use of the method in developing countries was very low. This access barrier was largely due to the high cost of implant commodities. The situation mirrored the classic, paradoxical question: which came first, the chicken or the egg? In this case, without lower commodity prices, procurements of implants would not increase in many international settings. But without higher volumes, manufacturers couldn’t lower their prices and still achieve a sustainable business model.

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  • March 23, 2018

    There’s no more time to waste: Let’s find the missing cases of TB

    Written by
    Otto Chabikuli, Director, Global Health, Population and Nutrition, FHI 360
    Robert Makombe, Technical Advisor, FHI 360

    Tuberculosis (TB) has now overtaken HIV as the world’s leading cause of mortality. There were about 10.4 million TB cases in 2016, despite the fact that TB is an old and often curable disease whose incidence declined in industrialized countries long before the introduction of the TB vaccine and anti-TB drugs. TB continues to disproportionately affect low-income countries. For those of us who work in public health, this is tragic — we ought to be moving forward at a much faster pace to end TB for good.

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  • February 12, 2018

    Building the case for contraceptive technology innovation

    Written by
    Laneta Dorflinger, Distinguished Scientist and Director, Contraceptive Technology Innovation, FHI 360

    Why do women who do not want to get pregnant choose not to use modern family planning methods? While this question is not bounded by geographies, the most recent Guttmacher Institute report, which focused on the low- and middle-income countries, is most illuminating. The two most common answers given by married women were health reasons/side effects or fear of side effects (26 percent) and claims of infrequent sex or not being sexually active (24 percent). Among unmarried women, infrequent sex (49 percent) was the top reason.

    Equally informative are recent FHI 360 findings from a user preference study in Uganda and Burkina Faso showing that 75 percent of women currently using a method would be open to trying new technologies. It quickly becomes clear that existing methods do not satisfactorily address the changing needs of women throughout their 30- to 40-year reproductive journey.

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  • January 22, 2018

    Outsmarting TB using research and collaboration

    Written by
    Carol Dukes Hamilton, Director, Scientific Affairs, FHI 360

    A version of this post originally appeared on FHI 360’s R&E Search for Evidence blog.

    Tuberculosis (TB), which in 2016 killed an estimated 1.7 million people, is an ancient disease found in the bones of mummies dug up from Peru. It has evolved with humans, and like other successful organisms, finds ways to avoid death, so it can thrive and spread to the next person. Trying to get ahead of this successful adversary requires pursuing a consistent, aggressive research agenda aided by international collaboration.

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  • December 15, 2017

    The importance of clinical trials in epidemic preparedness: Three FHI 360 experiences

    Written by
    Ted FitzGerald, Director, Global Research Services, FHI 360

    One of the biggest challenges in international development is anticipating when the next pandemic health threat will strike and how we can minimize its damage. Pandemics can be unpredictable, and it is hard to know when and where to focus attention. Having safe, effective drugs ready to use when they are needed saves lives. Clinical trials, which focus on safety and efficacy, are pivotal to the development of these drugs.

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  • November 29, 2017

    It is time for a bold approach to end the HIV epidemic

    Written by
    Otto Chabikuli, Director, Global Health, Population and Nutrition, FHI 360

    Big breakthroughs in HIV science, such as antiretroviral therapy and the “universal test and treat” policy, create hope and galvanize efforts to bring the epidemic to an end. Yet, no matter how promising the strategy, we know from experience that it is not easy to incorporate the latest approaches into poorly resourced, over-stretched health systems. Nor is it reasonable to expect that health systems can absorb the increased volume of patients that seems to go hand in hand with innovations.

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  • November 21, 2017

    My tribute to Peter Lamptey’s lifelong contributions to global health

    Written by
    Corey White, Managing Editor, R&E Search for Evidence blog, and Communications Specialist, Research and Evaluation Strategic Initiative, FHI 360

    A version of this post originally appeared on FHI 360’s R&E Search for Evidence blog.

    Known around the world, Prof. Peter Lamptey is a global health champion in any light. Many of you may know him from his early involvement in the global HIV response or from his fight to raise public awareness of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). I first heard Prof. Lamptey speak about the role of laboratory science in the NCD response at a conference plenary hosted by the African Society for Laboratory Medicine, my former employer. A compelling talk for sure, but notably his plenary was also my first significant introduction to FHI 360’s research.

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  • October 13, 2017

    Research improves handwashing programs by uncovering drivers of behavior change

    Written by
    Carolyn Moore, Secretariat Director, Global Handwashing Partnership

    A version of this post originally appeared on FHI 360’s R&E Search for Evidence blog.

    Evidence on the health and social benefits of handwashing is strong. We know that handwashing can prevent up to 40% of diarrheal diseases, and can lead to fewer school absences and increased economic productivity. However, many people don’t wash their hands at critical times, even when handwashing facilities are available. While research on behavior change has shown examples of approaches that lead to increased rates in handwashing, we’re still seeking to understand why people wash their hands, and how motivation for handwashing can be translated into programs that result in effective behavior change.

    In advance of Global Handwashing Day on October 15, USAID and the Global Handwashing Partnership – an international coalition with a Secretariat hosted by FHI 360 – organized a webinar on drivers for handwashing behavior change. The Partnership’s work focuses on promoting handwashing with soap as key to health and development, with an emphasis on connecting practitioners with research findings to inform their work. Our webinar speakers provided two examples of how research is exploring behavior change from cognitive (how we think about and understand handwashing) and automatic (how we can be unconsciously prompted to wash our hands) standpoints. In this blog post, I’ll summarize how the two examples show different ways of understanding human behavior and discuss how the findings help us understand what drives behavior change for handwashing.

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