The Task Force For Global Health Inc

Programs: The health systems strengthening area includes phii (public health informatics institute); tephinet (training programs in epidemiology and public health); and african health workforce project. Phii provided direct services to the u. S. Public health system through a cooperative agreement with the cdc and funding from the de beaumont and robert wood johnson foundations. This funding supported state and local health departments in developing immunization information systems; cdc in developing an immunization information strategy; phii and its partners in providing technical assistance and online tools to state and local health departments in linking to private healthcare electronic records systems for the purpose of electronic case reporting; and phii in providing training to public health professionals in essential informatics competencies. The funding also supported the continuing development and use of a workforce deployment tool that assists african countries in allocating health workers to high-need areas in order to strengthen hiv treatment and prevention. Additionally, phii is a partner on a collaborative gates foundation-funded project that is collecting data to reduce childhood mortality across the globe; this project launched six new surveillance sites in asia and africa this year. Tephinet continued its mission of supporting field epidemiology training programs (fetps) throughout the world. Tephinet was awarded a cooperative agreement from the cdc to continue its support of fetps in countries such as pakistan, bangladesh, egypt, tanzania, and morocco, to name a few. Support was provided to fetp residents who were being trained to conduct infectious and chronic disease surveillance and to implement control and prevention efforts. Fetp residents received training in general epidemiology topics such as outbreak investigation, research and methodology, and biostatics, and training was also tailored to disease specific issues in the residents' regions. In addition, tephinet provided robust networking and continuing education opportunities for fetp residents and graduates by hosting a global scientific conference in september 2015 that was attended by over 500 public health officials from 60 countries. Workshops and abstract presentations provided the most up to date information about trends and research in epidemiology and global public health. There were two additional cdc cooperative agreements that tephinet managed over the last year. The latin america cooperative agreement implemented initiatives throughout the region to increase awareness and response to non-communicable diseases, such as heart disease and cancer. The final cooperative agreement implemented by tephinet is the national stop transmission of polio (n-stop) program, which provided technical assistance to immunization campaigns throughout pakistan. African health workforce project: countries worldwide are challenged by health worker shortages and an imbalance of skilled health professionals. Often there is an abundance of skilled workers in some regions while other communities are lacking. Regulatory agencies, charged with ensuring the quality of the education and skills of the healthcare professionals, are often underfunded and lack basic resources such as information systems, frameworks for continuous professional education and it infrastructure. Healthcare managers need adequate information about the supply and demand for healthcare workers to manage their workforce more efficiently, plan for scale up of the workforce, ensure proper regulation of professionals, and to develop effective human resource policies. However, many countries lack computerized data systems that can provide these critical data. The african health workforce project is designed to address these issues by assisting health professional regulatory agencies in development of human resource information systems, improvement of it infrastructure, and collaborative forums to assist them in strengthening regulatory functions to improve professional standards in the east, central, and southern regions of africa.

the neglected tropical disease area includes: cww (children without worms); iti (the international trachoma initiative); ntd-sc (the neglected tropical disease-support center); and mdp (the mectizan donation program). With funding from johnson & johnson (j&j) and glaxosmithkline, children without worms (cww) is developing and implementing a shared strategic vision among key soil-transmitted helminthiasis (sth) partners. In 2017, cww successfully designed and implemented model sth programming. As the sth coalition secretariat, cww leveraged the strengths of a diverse set of sth partners to strengthen preventive chemotherapy coverage among partners. Years of cww efforts to expand focus of national sth programs beyond children, namely to women of reproductive age (wra), bore fruit in 2017. In 2017, cww demonstrated the ability to provide transformative value, through the ministry of health, to the bangladesh sth program. Using a cww-developed methodology, cww and the national program conducted six district-level population-based program monitoring surveys measuring: disease levels, pc coverage, and water and sanitation coverage. In bangladesh, the increased attention toward program monitoring is an important part of a new, first-ever, national sth strategic plan which is now undergoing official review. The plan intends to operationalize programmatically the goal of eliminating sth as a public health problem. As secretariat for the sth advisory committee, the recognized technical body for sth-related issues, cww demonstrated the value of the committee again at the november 2017 meeting where participants addressed diagnostics, program monitoring, and goals-linked standard metrics to measure progress. The resulting recommendations will shape an emerging who strategy for sth control post-2020. Funded principally by the bill & melinda gates foundation and the u. S. Agency for international development, the ntd-sc aims to optimize operational research (or) to eliminate neglected tropical diseases which threaten the lives and well-being of more than one billion of people in some of the world's poorest communities. As of 2016, the ntd-sc manages a portfolio of more than 115 or projects spanning 53 countries and targeting all five neglected tropical diseases amenable to preventive chemotherapy: lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, sth, schistosomiasis and trachoma. Some of these or study products have resulted into program recommendations which the world health organization (who) has endorsed and adopted into who policy. In addition, the ntd-sc serves as the secretariat for the coalition for operational research on neglected tropical diseases (cor-ntd) yearly meeting. This meeting brings together a growing group of researchers and country program implementers working to foster important collaborations to address the challenges faced by ntd programs which prevent the shared goal of eliminating these infections. The 2-day event featured jimmy carter as keynote speaker and convened nearly four hundred individuals from more than 30 countries, translating ideas into future or projects for 2017. Iti has established a unique competitive advantage within the global trachoma community based on its singular focus on trachoma, its credibility as a neutral convener and trusted ally, its flexibility and ability to lead initiatives in support of scale-up, and its role as the sole steward of pfizer, inc. 's zithromax(r) drug donation. Iti fulfills three value-adding roles that contribute to the implementation of the who-endorsed safe strategy (surgery, antibiotic treatment, facial cleanliness, environmental improvement , namely: 1) stewardship of the zithromax(r) drug donation; 2) program delivery strengthening, through operational research, knowledge sharing, capacity building and technical backstopping; and 3) partnership development, through support to the international coalition for trachoma control (ictc), spearheading wash/ntd engagement, and mobilizing resources for trachoma. In 2017, iti organized just-in-time shipments of over 84 million doses of zithromax(r) to 26 countries, bringing the cumulative total of doses donated since its inception in 1998 to 717 million doses. Also in 2017, iti launched the zithromax(r) shipment tracker, a web-based open-access system to increase the transparency and visibility of the zithromax(r) supply chain in support of effective planning by ministries of health and partners for their distribution campaigns. Iti continued its data management support for tropical data, a free mobile phone-based service to support trachoma programs as they conduct prevalence surveys, providing them with robust data for decision making on where antibiotic treatments are needed and where they can be stopped. Iti's commitment to strong stewardship of the antibiotic donation from pfizer, coupled with its solid data management and transparent communications, have contributed to remarkable achievements by the global trachoma community in reducing the population at risk of blindness from this preventable disease from an estimated 1. 2 billion people in 2000 to 182 million in 2017. With just three years left until the world health organization's global trachoma elimination goal, iti will continue to enhance its support, improve its effectiveness, and increase its efficiencies to maximize impact. Mdp- in 2017, 210. 4 million treatments were approved for mass drug administration (mda) for river blindness elimination in 24 african countries and 2 countries in latin america. For lymphatic filariasis (lf), 254. 5 million mectizan treatments were approved for co-administration with albendazole in 23 countries. In april 2017, togo became the first country in africa to eliminate lymphatic filariasis. This was a very exciting development as togo demonstrated that the ambitious goal to eliminate lf can be achieved through dedication, determination, and commitment. From 2016 to 2017, 65 additional implementation units (iu) stopped treatment for lf. The number of people who no longer need mectizan and albendazole for lf elimination increased from 22. 4 million in 2016 to 118 million in 2017 -- a strong indicator that countries are getting closer to eliminating the disease. In some implementation units (ius) mectizan for river blindness elimination is still needed as transmission has not been interrupted. More than 23 million people continue to receive mectizan for river blindness in areas where lf transmission has been eliminated. In 2017, nigeria stopped treatment with mectizan for river blindness elimination in 13 local government areas (lgas) in nasarawa and plateau states resulting in an astounding 2. 1 million people who no longer need treatment as transmission has been interrupted in the region. This is a remarkable achievement by the people of plateau and nasarawa, nigeria's federal ministry of health and ngo partner the carter center. Achieving elimination at this scale is proof of concept that river blindness will be a distant memory in the years to come. Ethiopia also made great strides in 2017 by stopping treatment for river blindness in 6 districts in the metema focus where 838,916 people no longer need mectizan. Sudan was also able to stop treatment in the galabat focus, which borders the metema focus in ethiopia. In galabat, 254,987 people no longer need mectizan for river blindness.

in fiscal 2017, the center for vaccine equity made substantial progress in existing programs. Polio program staff supported the global polio eradication initiative in assisting 16 priority countries in transitioning financial and technical resources from polio to other health system priorities; provided technical assistance to a 6 month multi-agency polio outbreak response assessment (obra) in nigeria; published a compendium of lessons from the global polio eradication effort in a supplement to the journal of infectious diseases; hosted the us national polio containment certification committee; published in frontiers in immunology the results of a global survey on the incidence of poliovirus excretion in immunocompromised persons; and advanced development of a polio antiviral combination drug therapy. The influenza program supported 8 countries with building their national influenza vaccination programs through funding and technical assistance to expand surveillance, training, and communications, and with direct donation of >500,000 doses of vaccine among four countries. The influenza program has expanded its role in global influenza response with the establishment of a consortium of funders supporting development of a universal influenza vaccine. The center has been designated by cdc as the co-conference organizer for the 2018 national immunization conference and the international conference on emerging infectious diseases.