By Hailu Tadeg, Getachew Ayalew and Merresa Weldegebriel St. Mary’s Hospital: A Modern Hospital in an Ancient City St. Mary’s Hospital is located in one of Ethiopia’s most historic cities—Axum. Sitting at the base of the northern mountains of Ethiopia, Axum—capital of the Aksumite Empire—is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in Africa. Today, … Read more
Archive Featured
Beating Tuberculosis Requires More Than Medicine
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
Creating Centers of Excellence in Ethiopia: Country Ownership and Sustainability
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
Improving Access to Medicines by Filling the Information Gap
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
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
