The Medicines, Technologies, and Pharmaceutical Services (MTaPS) Program: Our Impact

Establishing Pharmacovigilance for a New HIV Drug in Mozambique

June 15, 2020
{Photo Credit Fabrice Duhal}Photo Credit Fabrice Duhal

Monitoring patients who are taking a new medicine is critical for patient safety and an essential component of a well-functioning pharmaceutical sector. The USAID MTaPS Program is working in Mozambique to establish an active surveillance system to assess the safety of an HIV drug in HIV/TB co-infected patients, including pregnant women, that has recently been introduced in the country. The concern for pregnant women stems from earlier indications of neural tube defect in babies born to women taking the medicine and the fact that women are disproportionately affected by HIV in Mozambique.

MTaPS Expands Trainings to Contain the Spread of COVID-19 in Kenya

May 20, 2020
{Photo credit: Doris Bota/MTaPS}Participants relax after an infection prevention and control training in Kisii, Kenya.Photo credit: Doris Bota/MTaPS

Since March 18, 2020, the USAID Medicines, Technologies, and Pharmaceutical Services (MTaPS) Program has been collaborating with the Kenyan Ministry of Health (MoH) to roll out a series of training-of-trainers (ToT) courses to help the government contain and manage the COVID-19 pandemic.

MTaPS Supports USAID Efforts to Contain the COVID-19 Pandemic in Priority Countries

May 19, 2020
{Photo credit: Warren Zelman}Photo credit: Warren Zelman

The USAID MTaPS Program, led by MSH, is on the frontlines supporting USAID’s efforts to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus in high-risk countries. The program’s mandate includes advancing the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) and is, therefore, well equipped to respond to global public health emergencies such as the current outbreak.  MTaPS has formed a COVID-19 response team to assist countries in developing a rapid response action plan to manage the outbreak.

Webinar Takeaways: WHO Global Benchmarking Tool is a "Game-changer" for Regulatory Systems Strengthening

May 05, 2020
{Photo credit: Warren Zelman}Photo credit: Warren Zelman

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 1 in 10 pharmaceutical products sold globally is falsified or substandard, with deadly effects and the situation is known to be far worse in certain regions of the world; in 2013 alone, falsified malaria medicines killed more than 120,000 children in Africa.  Meanwhile, WHO surveys in 2018 estimated that only about one-third of National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) had the capacity to effectively regulate medical products in their hospitals, pharmacies, and communities, with only one of those NRAs being in Africa.The WHO

MTaPS Program Supports Kenya to Combat COVID-19

April 22, 2020
{Photo credit: MSH staff}Photo credit: MSH staff

The USAID MTaPS Program is supporting Kenya in its efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 pandemic by implementing a national strategy in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and county governments (see US Embassy in Kenya announcement).

MTaPS Program Assists the Philippines With COVID-19 Emergency Response

April 20, 2020

The USAID MTaPS Program is supporting the Philippines in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. The concerted effort is a partnership of USAID with the Philippines Department of Health (DoH), the World Health Organization (WHO), and UNICEF.  MTaPS is assisting in two technical areas critical to managing and controlling the pandemic: infection prevention and control (IPC) and supply chain management of essential emergency commodities.

MTaPS Program Assisting Bangladesh With COVID-19 Rapid Response

April 15, 2020
Photo credit: Amany AyubPhoto credit: Amany Ayub

The USAID MTaPS Program is supporting the Government of Bangladesh to manage and contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

Helping Health Care Workers Protect Patients-and Themselves-from Infection

April 06, 2020
{Photo credit: Christina Mchau}Photo credit: Christina Mchau

By Doris Lutkam, MD, MPHPreventing and controlling the spread of infectious diseases is key to protecting the health of both patients and health care workers (HCWs). This is an urgent need in Tanzania, and not only because of the threat of COVID-19, but also to make the country vigilant about stopping the spread of HIV, tuberculosis, and antimicrobial-resistant infections.

MTaPS Supports the Government of Bangladesh to Manage COVID-19 Commodities

April 03, 2020
Photo credit: MSH

The USAID Medicines, Technologies and Pharmaceutical Services (MTaPS) Program, led by MSH, is working with the Government of Bangladesh and other stakeholders to develop an online reporting system that will strengthen supply chain management for commodities needed to prevent and treat COVID-19 at health facilities.Bangladesh’s COVID-19 objectives are to increase border security to curb the entry of COVID-19 patients, identify cases early, update the country’s laboratory capacity to test for the virus, and prepare the public health system to respond to an outbreak. Following th

New Tool to Boost Efficient Equipment Use in Bangladesh Hospitals

March 04, 2020

This story was originally published on the MTaPS Program website By Dr. Zubayer Hussain, Senior Manager, MTaPS The hospital in Bangladesh does not lack for new equipment. It has a shiny new machine to deliver anesthesia, for one, and a state-of-the-art x-ray machine. There’s one catch: Much of the equipment lies unused.

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