Historically, Namibia has often struggled with shortages of pharmaceutical personnel due to a reliance on a foreign-trained workforce. Before SIAPS started working in the country in 2011, approximately 90% of pharmacist positions were filled by non-Namibians working on short-term contracts. Today, the situation is dramatically different — Namibian workers now staff 76% of all public … Read more
Archive Featured
Every Breath Counts: Strengthening Pharmaceutical Systems for Better Health Outcomes with Pneumonia
By Jane Briggs, Principal Technical Advisor More than 900,000 children die of pneumonia each year (more than malaria, measles, and HIV/AIDS combined), according to the World Health Organization. Many of these cases go undiagnosed and untreated. How can this be when we know what works? A five-day, twice-daily amoxicillin regimen—in either dispersible tablet (DT) or oral … Read more
Improving Medication Adherence: It Takes a System
By Aubrey Clark, SIAPS Technical Advisor, and Mohan P. Joshi, SIAPS Principal Technical Advisor and Cluster Lead for Pharmaceutical Services “Medicines don’t work in patients who don’t take them.” – Former US Surgeon General C. Everett Koop Today, medicines exist to treat many of the world’s most pressing health threats. Deaths from HIV/AIDS have fallen by … Read more
New Approaches and Tools Help Protect Patient Safety, Increase Access to Quality Medicines in Ethiopia
The SIAPS team has helped the Ethiopian Food, Medicine, and Health Care Administration and Control Authority (FMHACA) and many health facilities in the country incorporate product quality reporting into its national adverse drug event (ADE) reporting system. This has proven to be an efficient and cost-effective measure to detect products with problems in quality and … Read more
Addressing the Challenge of Supply Coordination in DRC: SIAPS and the National Malaria Control Program in Haut-Katanga
By Dr. Jonathan Luc Matala, Moise Kazadi, and Pacifique Bwenge Supply chain management includes coordinating and collaborating with partners at all levels, who serve as links to the end users, to ensure that commodities are available when and where they are needed, thereby avoiding wastage and expiry. To strengthen DRC’s interventions and coordinate its supporting … Read more
DRC Launching Pilot Standard Therapeutic Guidelines for Hospitals and Improving Patient Care with Drug Therapeutic Committees
By Dr. Jonathan Luc Matala and Julie Mbo In 2012, DRC decided to reinforce drug therapeutic committees (DTCs) in nine hospitals that were previously installed by the Strengthening Pharmaceutical Systems (SPS) Program. DRC asked the Systems for Improved Access to Pharmaceuticals and Services (SIAPS) Program, which is funded by the US Agency for International Development … Read more
Strengthening South Sudan’s Ministry of Health Logistic Management Unit
The Strong Logistic Management Information System (LMIS) supports evidence-based procurement, quantification, supply planning, and financial decisions that are central to effective management of pharmaceuticals. The LMIS makes it easier for South Sudan’s Ministry of Health (MoH) to collect, process, and report on medicine consumption at the central level. However, as a country emerging from decades … Read more
Improving Medicine Storage at Al Sabbah Children’s Hospital in South Sudan
Dr. Bruno Jeremiah, a pharmacist at Al Sabbah Children’s Hospital in Juba, South Sudan, squats on the floor in his white coat. He selects small cartons of medicine to hand to his colleague, storekeeper Julius Leonardo. The South Sudan Ministry of Health’s medicine supply system is kit-based, meaning that medicines are packed into kits for … Read more
SIAPS Trains Health Staff in Ethiopia to Use QuanTB to Manage TB Medicines
By Kelly Sawyer, Technical Associate – TB The SIAPS program, in collaboration with the Challenge TB project in Ethiopia, organized a national forecasting and quantification training on the QuanTB tool in September in Bishoftu town, Ethiopia. QuanTB, which SIAPS developed in 2013, is a downloadable electronic tool designed to improve Tuberculosis (TB) medicines procurement processes, ordering … Read more
SIAPS Gathers Health Leaders for Strategy Meeting in Angola; Trains Health Staff on Quantimed
By Stacy Lu, SIAPS Technical Writer Based on USAID/Angola’s Gindungo Newsletter by Paul McDermott, Acting USAID/Angola Mission Director, and Gastao Figueiredo, Editor The Angolan Central Procurement Agency for Medicines and Medical Supplies (CECOMA) has developed a draft strategy to reform and strengthen the country’s pharmaceuticals system. CECOMA developed the strategy during a hree-day workshop in June … Read more
