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
Archive Blog
Adding Medicines to the UHC Equation
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
Preventing Stockouts of Essential TB Drugs: QuanTB 2.0
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
Creating Order from Disorder: De-junking Pharmaceutical Stores in South Sudan
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
Improving Health Outcomes in South Sudan: Managing Information to Maximize Resources
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
Tackling Tuberculosis: The Importance of Medicines Management
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
World Prematurity Day: Quality Medicines, Supplies, and Care for Every Little Preemie
November is Prematurity Awareness Month in the US, and the 17th is World Prematurity Day. But I never need any reminders about the importance of access to medicines and services for premature babies. Every November, I celebrate the birthday of my own little preemie. On November 30, 1997, I went into labor just after reaching 32 … Read more
World Pneumonia Day 2014: Strengthening Systems to Ensure Universal Access to Pneumonia Care
Accounting for more than one million under-five deaths each year, pneumonia is the leading killer of children under the age of five worldwide, claiming more lives than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined. This year’s World Pneumonia Day (WPD) theme is “universal access to pneumonia prevention and care”. In commemoration of WPD, child health advocates are … Read more
Helping Frontline Health Workers Improve TB Supply Chain Management in the Philippines
Edgar Almoguera, Sr., has been working as a public health nurse in Old Balara Health Center in Quezon City, Metro Manila, since 1994. Primary healthcare services such as maternal and child care and TB directly observed treatment, short-course (DOTS) are provided by the center to 14,800 families in this urban neighborhood, or barangay. As the … Read more
Auditable Pharmaceutical Transactions and Services (APTS) Selected as Key Priority for Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health
This year’s National Annual Review led by Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health (MoH) brought together more than 850 health professionals from across the country to discuss the way forward in public health for the coming year. The MoH identified eight priority areas, one of them being SIAPS/Ethiopia’s transformative APTS system—the first time a pharmacy area was selected … Read more
