Malaria
The U.N. Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is less than two weeks away, so what better way to jump into the issues than by – hmm – reading up on them?
This week, Melinda French Gates of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is blogging about the MDGs in advance of their TEDxChange event, which looks into the future of global health and development.
So far, she has posted three fantastic pieces on breastfeeding, malaria and immunization. As always, her blog posts are filled with personal stories, interesting facts and figures and a refreshing sense of optimism.
Take a look at her posts on the Foundation Blog and be sure to leave a comment. Keeping the conversation going on important global health issues like these will help ensure that extreme poverty is at the forefront of our minds.
In this blog post, Natasha Bilimoria, president of Friends of the Global Fight, discusses how the Global Fund helps boost developing countries’ good governance and self-reliance.
Eight years into its work, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has far exceeded expectations. It set out to provide significant new resources to countries in need of global health support, and it now finances two-thirds of all efforts to combat malaria and tuberculosis and one-quarter of all HIV/AIDS programs worldwide. In total, the Global Fund has allocated more than $19 billion in 145 countries around the world.
But the Global Fund and its donors are far from the only actors here. Recipient countries play the starring role in the fight for better health. From the beginning, one of the Global Fund’s fundamental principles has been to support programs that evolve from the needs of a particular country, and that is what’s happening on the ground today.
Here’s the model: Together, stakeholders in a country develop and submit a grant proposal to the Global Fund based on national priorities. This means representatives from government, nongovernmental organizations, universities and private businesses, as well as people living with the diseases, identify their country’s health problems and solutions.
Once the Global Fund awards a grant, these stakeholders are then responsible for implementing proposed programs in their country.
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Over the weekend, we saw coverage of a massive drug bust in East Africa in which more than 20,000 pounds of counterfeit medicine were seized from more than 300 sites across Uganda, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zanzibar. According to Interpol authorities, the confiscated items included anti-malaria drugs, vaccines and antibiotics.
Counterfeit medicine — defined by the WHO as any generic or brand-name product that is “deliberately and fraudulently mislabeled with respect to identity and/or source” — is a growing problem across the developing world.
For people reliant on medicines such as antiretrovirals (ARVs), anti-malarials and vaccines, counterfeiting is not just an issue of brand names and packaging — it can be a matter of life or death. Oftentimes, counterfeit drugs lack critical ingredients that make legitimate drugs function properly and effectively ward off infection.
Individuals who take such counterfeit drugs risk suffering from abnormal side effects or even prolonged illness and death. There is also a greater likelihood of fostering drug resistance, which reduces the effectiveness of legitimate drugs over time; gradually eliminates tools that are currently working well in global health; and forces new products to be developed — an important but highly expensive process.
There are many initiatives underway to both help stem the manufacture and trade of counterfeit drugs and also to flush ineffective medicines out of the markets in which they are most needed. As two diverse examples, the WHO created a task force in 2006 devoted to the fight against counterfeits; and the Center for Global Development has its own initiative focused on promoting policy solutions to combat drug resistance.
Health mechanisms have begun to come up with their own innovative programs, as well. The Global Fund — whose operations are reliant upon effective, modern medicines — acknowledge that in many markets, counterfeit or out-of-date drugs for malaria (such as chloroquine) can also be far cheaper than effective drugs, making their purchase more appealing for suppliers or consumers in need of the medicine.
To encourage the purchase of artemesinin-based combination therapy (ACTs) to treat malaria, the Global Fund established the Affordable Medicines for Malaria Facility (AMFm). Through the AMFm, the Global Fund has negotiated lower ACT prices with manufacturers and will pay a large proportion of this directly to manufacturers on behalf of buyers across the public, private for-profit and not-for-profit sectors.
Countries participating in AMFm must also implement “supporting interventions” to ensure the increased availability and safe use of ACTs, including public awareness campaigns, training and supportive supervision for ACT providers, and policy and regulatory measures. For patients who currently pay for treatment, this is expected to result in a significant ACT price reduction, from about $6-10 per treatment to about $0.20-0.50.
To support the Global Fund in this critical replenishment year, sign our petition today. And as always, stay tuned for the latest on efforts across the developing world to fight corruption and improve global health.
This month, we’ll be featuring blog posts that help illustrate the Global Fund’s effect on programs that fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria around the world — and the people suffering from these diseases.
Some stories are so good you have to share them with others. In the documentary film “The Lazarus Effect,” 11-year-old Bwalya Liteta talks a lot about her favorite school subjects, her friends and her favorite game “chicken in the den.” Bwalya is the epitome of a healthy, happy kid.
But this was not always the case. Bwalya is in fact HIV-positive. When we meet her in the film, she weighs 24 pounds, looks closer to 5 or 6 years old and is stuck at home, too sick to go to school or play with friends. Once she gains access to AIDS medication — called antiretrovirals — provided by the Global Fund, she is back to full health and back to school within three months
Bwalya is a living witness to something we call the “Lazarus effect” — lives transformed by smart solutions like those provided by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
What’s exciting is that ONE members are already sharing the news of “The Lazarus Effect” in their faith communities. Nearly 100 congregations, small groups and youth groups have signed up so far to take action this August and September to help ensure that others can experience this remarkable “Lazarus effect” from death to life.
You can still sign up your faith community to take part in the Lazarus Effect. Once you do, we’ll send you a free DVD of “The Lazarus Effect”, courtesy of our friends at (RED) for you to view with groups in your community. We’ll also include a downloadable action kit so you’ll be able to recruit others to ask President Obama to commit $6 billion to the Global Fund over the next three years.
This month, we’ve been focusing a lot of our efforts on the Global Fund and their great work in the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
So, what better way to jump into these issues than getting in on a live chat with malaria experts, social activist Derrick Ashong and –- wait for it -– singer and actress Mandy Moore?
Today Nothing But Nets and PSI will be hosting an interactive town hall discussion on their Facebook page at 2 p.m. ET. You’ll have the opportunity to directly participate in the conversation, listen to stories from the ground and most importantly, learn why the Central African Republic urgently needs life-saving bed nets.
RSVP for the event on Nothing But Nets’ Facebook page. We know it’s during office hours, but let’s be honest — you’ll be on Facebook, anyway. So, join this important discussion and show Miss Mandy (who by the way, is a PSI ambassador!) that you’re committed to ending preventable diseases like malaria for good.
Photo courtesy of ©Jenn Warren/PSI Sudan, 2009
This month, we’ll be featuring blog posts that help illustrate how the Global Fund affects programs that fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria around the world. In this article, Dr. Joia Mukherjee of Partners in Health (PIH), who participated in our ONE Haiti conference call in January, highlights the partnership between the Fund and PIH.
It is hard to believe that it has been ten years since all 191 United Nations member states agreed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Yet the lack of progress on the final one — a global partnership for development — has hampered the achievement of all others. The one shining light in such a partnership for global development is the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.
The Global Fund was partly established by activists in the developed and developing world, otherwise known as the “global North and South.” Many of these activists were living with HIV and wanted to start an organization that could help achieve universal HIV/AIDS treatment.
The Fund is a novel mechanism; it is a multilateral fund, independent of the United Nations and financed by donors from the government and private sector. Its structure has allowed even some of the poorest countries to expand treatment for HIV, tuberculosis and malaria as a basic right for free, largely through the public sector, with support from non-government organizations and the private sector.
The Fund has put more money into the public health sector than any previous initiative, and a consortium convened by the World Health Organization documented the positive synergies that this money has had not just on MDG 6 — combating AIDS, malaria and other diseases — but the health sector in general.
My organization, PIH, has been working to provide health care and improve the social determinants of health for the destitute for more than 20 years. As one of the recipients of first-round Global Fund monies in Haiti, we set out to build public sector health systems and tackle poverty as a critical component to our HIV response.
This work, supported by the Global Fund since its inception, has resulted in the rehabilitation and revitalization of 52 public facilities in ten countries around the globe. The public sector-NGO community partnership that has developed in the course of this work is poised to meet 4 and 5, the other health-related MDGs as well.
As the 2010 MDG summit approaches and the challenges to achieve the MDGs are addressed, it is critical to note the importance that dedicated funding for MDG 6 has had not only in achieving the right to HIV, TB and malaria treatment, but in improving the systems to deliver health care around the world.
For most of us, August is the slowest month of the year. It’s a time to go on vacation, leave work a little early just for the heck of it, and because of the congressional recess, stop watching the news.
But here at ONE, we’re forging ahead and actually ramping up our work. This month, we’re focusing a lot of our efforts on ensuring that President Obama commits $6 billion to the Global Fund over the next three years.
For the Global Fund, the world’s largest health financier, 2010 is a replenishment year. Come October (we told you there was no time to lose!), the fate of the Global Fund’s financing for the next three years will be set in stone – and that’s why we’re urging the president to show real American leadership for the Global Fund right now.
The Global Fund has hit some serious home runs for malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis – all preventable diseases – since it started in 2002. By providing funding for vital prevention and treatment efforts, the Global Fund has helped save a whopping 5.7 million lives – roughly 4,000 a day. In fact, the Fund provides two-thirds of all international financing to fight malaria and tuberculosis and one-quarter to HIV/AIDS.
We don’t expect the president to fund the Global Fund by himself. International donors, including African countries, and groups from the public and private sector, will help contribute to this fight against preventable diseases. An estimated $17 to $20 billion could help existing programs continue their good work and scale up at a speedy rate to meet growing demand. The more money donors invest, the better chance the Fund has to eliminate malaria deaths and ensure that no babies are born with HIV by 2015.
This August, we’ll do everything in our power to help educate you on the Global Fund. We’ve got a blog series with a chock-full of personal stories and unique voices; a question-answer session (that you’ll be able to participate in) with our resident global health expert, Todd Summers; a quiz to test your Global Fund smarts; and to end our campaign with a bang, a secret Twitter mission (more on that later).
But in turn we need you, our members, to take action alongside us. In many ways, the fate of global health progress is linked with the success of the Global Fund’s replenishment in October. This is a critical moment for the world’s poorest people, and we need your voices now more than ever.
So, stay tuned for more right here on our blog, our Facebook page and Twitter. And don’t forget to sign the petition, too.
