By Emily Delmotte, SIAPS Technical Advisor This has been cross-posted with the permission of Science Speaks. The text has been changed slightly for clarity. Eight years ago Busisiwe Beko was undergoing treatment for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) when, after months of waiting to see a pediatric specialist, her daughter was diagnosed with the same illness. The … Read more
The SIAPS Program, in collaboration with the Stop TB Partnership Global Drug Facility, will host a technical conference titled, “Building the Post-2015 Agenda: Novel Approaches to Improving Access to TB Medicines and Pharmaceutical Services” from March 2-6, 2015 at the Conrad Bangkok Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. Please visit the conference page for more information.
By Hailu Tadeg, SIAPS Country Project Director for Ethiopia Ethiopia’s public health system has undergone a remarkable expansion in the last five years. The number of hospitals has increased from 116 in 2009 to 156 in 2014 with an additional 123 new hospitals in the pipeline. Additionally, the number of health centers has grown from … Read more
Staff from the USAID-funded Systems for Improved Access to Pharmaceutical Services (SIAPS) Program welcomed the opportunity to meet with visiting senior government delegates from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Nepal at the MSH Arlington, VA office. The delegates were participating in a U.S. Department of State-sponsored professional exchange program to combat counterfeit and substandard medication.[i] … Read more
By Luciana Maxim, SIAPS Technical Consultant; Marie Paule Fargier, SIAPS Country Project Director; and Serigne Diagne, SIAPS Project Director Prior to 2013, Guinea’s public health facilities faced prolonged stock-outs of antimalarial medicines and health commodities. This was due in part to a shortage of products in the country, but also resulted from substandard reporting of … Read more
By Francis Aboagye-Nyame, Program Director, SIAPS On Friday, December 12, over 500 partners from the global health community will come together to commemorate the first Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day. Although marking the day is new, support for the concept has been building for several years – and momentum for it continues to grow. Dr. … Read more
Guaranteeing that patients have uninterrupted access to anti-tuberculosis (TB) treatment begins with national TB programs (NTP) making complex calculations about how many cases to expect in the future. Vigilant stock management, accurate number of cases started on each type of treatment along with forecasting the expected number of patients that will be enrolled on treatment, … Read more
Many health facilities and county-level stores in South Sudan are practically overflowing with medicines. For a young country plagued by political instability and insufficient health care infrastructure, an abundance of medical supplies may seem to be an advantage. Instead, the situation holds the potential for a public health catastrophe: many of these medicines are expired … Read more
Ensuring the Availability of Life-Saving Commodities in a Fragile State In December 2013, the fragile peace that held the newly independent country of South Sudan collapsed into renewed fighting. Since then, violence has led to massive outflows of people to nearby Ethiopia and the economy has steadily deteriorated in the absence of oil revenues. Throughout … Read more
After decades of relying on old medicines, new drugs designed specifically for the treatment of tuberculosis (TB) are finally on the market. While these medicines represent a major advancement in the fight against TB, ensuring equitable access for patients is still an enormous challenge. At the 45th Union World Conference on Lung Health, the USAID-funded … Read more
