On 17 March 2017, SIAPS Ethiopia held a closing ceremony in Addis Ababa. Guests from partner government and non-government organizations, USAID, universities and health facilities were present at the event and expressed their appreciation for the systems strengthening work SIAPS has done in Ethiopia. SIAPS has been in Ethiopia for the last five years working … Read more
TB patients on second-line treatment experience a significant number of adverse effects. Some TB medicines result in adverse effects that, if not continuously monitored, can become serious and/or permanent and may hinder patient adherence to treatment. A number of other risk factors can also impact the safety of patients taking TB medicines, including drug interactions … Read more
The USAID-funded SIAPS Program expanded its ongoing pharmaceutical sector strengthening interventions in Sierra Leone to include Drug and Therapeutics Committees (DTCs). DTCs were officially launched in the Connaught, Ola During Children’s, Makeni Government, and PCM hospitals at an event in March 2017 in Freetown. An additional 20 hospitals throughout the country are scheduled to implement … Read more
With the introduction of new anti-tuberculosis (TB) medicines and novel TB treatment regimens in the Philippines, active pharmacovigilance is needed to ensure that both patient safety and the effectiveness of the treatment are monitored. As an important step in pharmacovigilance implementation, the Philippine Department of Health – Pharmaceutical Division (DOH-PD) has adopted the Pharmacovigilance Monitoring … Read more
A Q&A with Alan George, SIAPS technical advisor for supply chain management How does strengthening pharmaceutical systems make for stronger supply chains? And how does that translate into access to medicines? Having strong pharmaceutical systems is essential to having an efficient supply chain in the same way that having an efficient supply chain is essential … Read more
SIAPS recently transferred office equipment and household items—which the program had acquired during the previous USAID-funded Strengthening Pharmaceutical Systems project, also implemented by MSH—to the Christian Family Centre (CFC) in Windhoek. The CFC is involved in ministry, education, and support to homeless Namibians. The USAID mission in Namibia selected it as a recipient of the … Read more
An interview with Sheena Patel, technical advisor for maternal, newborn and child health activities at SIAPS The health of women and children is critical to the overall health and prosperity of a country—and the world. Can you talk a bit about why? The most obvious reason is that when women and children are healthy, they … Read more
Tuberculosis is one of the world’s deadliest diseases, and multi-drug resistant TB has contributed significantly to the growing global threat of antimicrobial resistance. Yet in many of the countries most burdened by the disease, about half of those who have TB see private medicine vendors before any other health care professional. That can compound the … Read more
By Helena Walkowiak, Principal Technical Advisor, SIAPS It’s been called the pharmaceutical sector, a drug supply or management system or the medical products building block. By any name, the part of a health system that deals with ensuring access to essential medicines, vaccines and medical products and their correct use–we call it a pharmaceutical system … Read more
