Tagged: Treatment

  • COVID-19: We are all in this together

    As the COVID-19 pandemic expands at an exponential pace among the world’s population, it is increasingly clear that we are all in this together and need to work hard to cultivate a sense of global community. Our connected world has achieved decades of unprecedented prosperity and health gains. Through connectedness at many levels, including trade, industry, education, research, services and travel/hospitality, humanity has, indeed, become a global village. It is this same connectedness, augmented by a dramatic increase in international travel over the past decade, that facilitated the rapid spread of COVID-19 to all corners of the world. Now, we must use this same connectivity to mount a sustainable, comprehensive, global response to the pandemic.

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

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

    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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  • Fighting HIV/AIDS while strengthening the national health system: A winning combination in Zambia

    What will it take to get to zero? The search for answers to this question will be a major focus of this week’s International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa, the largest gathering of its kind on the continent. In Zambia, while we are still a long way off from zero, we have made monumental progress in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

    Since May 2009, the Zambia Prevention, Care and Treatment Partnership (ZPCT II) project, with support from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), has both strengthened and expanded access to quality HIV/AIDS services in Zambia. In close partnership with the Government of Zambia, the project operates in six provinces (Central, Copperbelt, Northwestern, Luapula, Northern and Muchinga), supporting services in 60 percent of the nation’s districts and nearly 50 percent of the government health centers in the supported provinces.

    ZPCT II provides a comprehensive package of HIV/AIDS services that is improving the health and well-being of millions of people living in Zambia. Services include HIV testing and counseling, prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV, clinical care, male circumcision and antiretroviral therapy, which are supported by strengthened laboratory and pharmaceutical systems. Nearly 40 percent of Zambians receiving antiretroviral therapy access these services at ZPCT II-supported sites. Over 2.9 million people have received counseling and testing services, and 70,000 men have been circumcised through the project. Over 870,000 pregnant women have received PMTCT services in ZPCT II-supported health facilities, which has greatly assisted the Government’s push to eliminate mother-to-child transmission.

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