Meike Schleiff of the Department of International Health, The JHU Bloomberg School of Public Health has explored how Burkina Faso manages to get essential medicines, including those for malaria, to the front line health services. She explains that the World Health Organization (WHO) has determined essential medicines to be, “those that satisfy the priority health… Continue reading Burkina Faso Ensures Essential Medicines Reach the Front Line
Category: Drug Quality
Verifying Malaria Medicines on Your Mobile
On their website Sproxil says that, “Sproxil actively supports Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in the fight against counterfeiting by pioneering Nigeria’s first Mobile Authentication Service.” They note further that … “On February 2, 2010, NAFDAC launched the NAFDAC MAS, putting the power of product verification right in the… Continue reading Verifying Malaria Medicines on Your Mobile
World Malaria Day 2015 Blog Postings Help #DefeatMalaria
A special World Malaria Day 2015 Blog has been established. So far nine postings are available at http://www.worldmalariaday.org/blog. Please read and share with colleagues. 1. “Investing in integrated health services to defeat malaria”BY ELAINE ROMAN, MCSP Malaria Team Lead. 2. “Fake antimalarials: how big is the problem?” BY DÉBORA MIRANDA, Technical Communications Officer, ACT Consortium… Continue reading World Malaria Day 2015 Blog Postings Help #DefeatMalaria
Registered drug shops are preferred for treating acute febrile illness in rural Uganda
The recently concluded Global Health Systems Research Symposium in Cape Town featured a number of abstracts that touched directly or indirectly on malaria. Malaria services and movement toward malaria elimination cannot be achieved in a country without a strong health system that involves both communities, program staff and policy makers. Below is an abstract by… Continue reading Registered drug shops are preferred for treating acute febrile illness in rural Uganda
Patent Medicine Vending: vendors’ perspectives on business and health
Patent medicine vendors (PMVs) , also known as medicine shop owners, are a major source of malaria medicines. This qualitative examination of how PMVs perceive their business was conducted by Kabiru Salami, Bill Brieger and Stephen Kodish. Access to high-quality, affordable medicines is a global concern but manifests in distinctly local ways. In Nigeria, patent… Continue reading Patent Medicine Vending: vendors’ perspectives on business and health
Time to Stop Selling SP in Pharmacy and Medicine Shops
The use of sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy (IPTp) has been offered in stable malaria transmission countries for over a decade. As observations continued that SP resistance was growing in children treated for malaria, SP was dropped as a recommended treatment drug in all malaria-endemic countries in Africa. Ironically SP is… Continue reading Time to Stop Selling SP in Pharmacy and Medicine Shops
AMFm – more than empty boxes?
The Affordable Medicines Facility malaria (AMFm) was aimed at ensuring high quality low cost medicines reached the public and saved lives. Nigeria was one of the biggest challenges for AMFm with having the highest burden of disease of any single country. Unfortunately the vastness of the problem seemed to work against the effort. Instead of… Continue reading AMFm – more than empty boxes?
Revisiting the AMFm Controversy
Paul Kartchner contributes this guest blog via the SBFPHC Policy Advocacy Blog.For years, a major obstacle to controlling malaria in developing countries has been the high cost of effective medications. Yet in recent years a coalition of public health agencies and organizations are targeting this problem by subsidizing the most effective medications. Called the Affordable… Continue reading Revisiting the AMFm Controversy
TB setbacks: lessons for malaria control
Tuberculosis is one of the big three receiving Global Fund support, and like HIV and malaria control efforts, the emphasis is on multiple interventions to ensure ultimate success. Compared to the other diseases, TB’s interventions have been mainly limited to immunization and directly observed treatment. Both of these interventions have recently met some major challenges… Continue reading TB setbacks: lessons for malaria control
Fakes and Fraud: another threat to malaria funds
While some countries are being praised this week for their progress in controlling malaria, Uganda seems to be suffering from a double knock out punch when it comes to malaria financing. Challenges have appeared in both the private and public sectors. In the most recent scorecard from the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA) scored poorly… Continue reading Fakes and Fraud: another threat to malaria funds