We have made great strides in ridding the world of malaria, but there’s still work to be done—and the time is right to finish the job. New technology is helping communities around the world prevent, diagnose, and treat malaria in new and innovative ways. In Mozambique, the Malaria Consortium has developed a phone app that helps community health workers diagnose and treat malaria. In Zanzibar, Tanzania, local health facilities can use text messages to report malaria cases. And Mali uses a system called OSPSANTE [4], developed by the MSH-led, USAID-funded Systems for Improved Access to Pharmaceuticals and Services (SIAPS) project, to track the availability and use of pharmaceuticals in the fight against malaria.

Saving lives and improving health continues long after diagnosing disease or delivering medicines.

(Watch Faith tell her story [11])

Faith had been ill for months. She was 31 and had two daughters. She didn’t know what was wrong. A friend urged her to get an HIV test; it came back positive.

Faith started on antiretroviral treatment.

But, in 2013, one of her antiretroviral medicines started to work against her [10], causing misshapen fat deposits to develop on her body.

When she finally mustered the courage to speak up one year later, her doctor knew just what to do and shifted her to a different medicine.

(Medicine Movers: Kenya [11] from Management Sciences for Health [12] on Vimeo [13])

Faith didn’t know it, but her report to the doctor became part of a nationwide database that tracks adverse drug reactions, and poor quality or expired medicines.

Niranjan KonduriMotivated frontline health workers play a key role achieving global strategies to fight tuberculosis (TB), writes MSH Principal Technical Advisor Niranjan Konduri, of USAID's Systems for Improved Access to Pharmaceuticals and Services (SIAPS) Program, for The Lancet Global Health Blog [17]. Using the story of Irina Chaban, a Ukrainian TB doctor, as an example, Konduri highlights the challenges health workers in low- and middle-income countries must overcome while working to eradicate TB.

"While the transition to digital case management might seem to be a simple solution, [health workers like Chaban] are challenged by a lack of basic technologies that are taken for granted in higher-income countries," Konduri says.

In May 2015, the World Health Assembly discussed and endorsed a global action plan on antimicrobial resistance. The action plan sets five strategic objectives [27] to promote better understanding of the threat of antimicrobial resistance, and to ensure the proper use and conservation of existing antimicrobials.

Just a few months ago, the province of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, captured the world’s attention for unfortunate reasons: xenophobic attacks on foreign African nationals. This week, from June 9 to 12 in Durban, the same province is hosting the 7^th South African AIDS conference [30], a gathering expected to bring together thousands of activists from within the country, the Southern African region and, indeed, the rest of the continent and the world, to “reflect, refocus, and renew” efforts in response to HIV and AIDS.

MSH's May 2015 newsletter [34] highlights the global health impact of pharmaceutical management: Ensuring access to affordable, quality medicines saves lives (subscribe [35]).

Introduction

by Jonathan D. Quick, MD, MPH [36]

Health care is largely dependent upon essential medicines for preventing infection, reducing pain, and treating illness. The development of effective medicines, however, is only the beginning.

Quality care means getting the right medicine, in the right dose, at an affordable price, for all the people who need it.

Accessible, affordable, and properly used medicines save lives. Major childhood killers like diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria, and even HIV, are preventable or treatable with essential medicines. But for many children, where they live means the difference between life and death: some 30,000 children in developing countries die every year from diseases treatable with basic essential medicines.

Antimicrobial resistance is a major threat to the long-term security of public health and has the potential to negatively impact our society. It is a serious and growing global health security risk, which needs to be prioritised at local and international levels.

-Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi, South African Minister of Health

Last May, the World Health Assembly called for global action to address the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The Systems for Improved Access to Pharmaceuticals and Services (SIAPS) Program [41] in South Africa (SIAPS-SA), understanding the need for a coordinated national response, worked closely with the National Department of Health (NDoH) on the development of the National Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Strategy Framework 2014-2024 and the institutionalization of a self-assessment and continuous quality improvement approach to enhance infection prevention and control (IPC) programs.

In December 2013, Africa’s newest country, South Sudan, imploded with violence between government forces and a rebel opposition led by a former vice president. The violence continues today despite regional efforts at reconciliation by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and other state actors. The war, however, has not stopped South Sudan’s frontline health workers in their efforts to build a public health system, including access to medicines, from the ground up.

The US Agency for International Development [45] (USAID)-funded Systems for Improved Access to Pharmaceuticals and Services [46] (SIAPS) Program is working with our South Sudanese partners to build the institutional, technical, and organizational capacity of the country’s health system—despite the ongoing conflict.

Our approach to strengthening the health system is based around the concept of embedment—where full-time technical advisors work with their South Sudanese counterparts on a day-to-day basis. This approach strengthens the technical and managerial capacity of local leaders, ensuring sustainability, while, at the same time, getting the job done: building a strong health system.