The Hummingbird. Unitaid News – August 2019

Unitaid News

Rwanda and Unitaid to collaborate on health innovations including screen-and-treat tools to prevent cervical cancer

Kigali – The Ministry of Health of Rwanda, Unitaid and Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) launched a project aimed at preventing cervical cancer in Rwanda at an event led by the Minister of Health Dr. Diane Gashumba.

“Rwanda is a leading early adopter of innovation. Unitaid is delighted to bring affordable and innovative solutions to prevent cervical cancer cases in Rwanda, empowering girls and women to lead healthy lives,” Unitaid Executive Director Lelio Marmora said.

Unitaid recently signed a $33 million grant with CHAI to develop screen-and-treat solutions for preventing cervical cancer in low-resource settings for less than $1. Rwanda is among the first countries where these innovations are being implemented; the project complements Rwanda’s human papillomavirus vaccination efforts that have reached 93% of girls aged 12 years old.

“Cervical cancer can be prevented if caught early. The Government of Rwanda is pleased to join forces with Unitaid in bringing affordable screen-and-treat innovations to girls and women in Rwanda,” Dr. Gashumba said.

Unitaid and Rwanda’s Ministry of Health further signed an agreement to collaborate on better and more affordable health solutions for the people of Rwanda and beyond. The memorandum of understanding positioned Rwanda as a “champion of innovation acceleration in health” and provides a framework for the country to continue to increase access to affordable and effective health innovations that tackle the most pressing public health problems.

The visit to Rwanda also included a meeting with H.E. Mrs. Jeannette Kagame, First Lady of Rwanda and Chairperson of the Imbuto Foundation, where fruitful discussions were held about future collaboration.

Unitaid grants are directly supporting Rwanda’s health landscape through projects inside the country, and indirectly, through many other investments that develop health innovations and create the conditions for them to be widely introduced.

Examples:

  • Unitaid’s project with Innovative Vector Control Consortium is new-generation bed nets and insecticides to Rwanda’s fight against malaria. In 2018 alone, more than 800,000 Rwandans were protected with the new insecticides, including nearly 12,000 pregnant women and 118,000 children under five. Introduced at full scale, the new insecticides could avert more than 2 million cases of malaria in Rwanda between 2020 and 2024.
  • Unitaid’s project with Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation was the first to introduce integrated point-of-care early infant HIV diagnosis into national laboratory networks in Rwanda. The project allowed thousands of HIV-exposed infants to be tested, initiating lifesaving treatment within two days for 98 percent of those who tested positive.
  • Unitaid accelerated access to paediatric TB medicines by helping countries update their treatment policies, promoting demand, and creating incentives for drug companies to develop new products. In 2018, Rwanda began procuring the child-friendly formulations, which are now available in all 30 districts.
  • Unitaid’s investment in the Self Testing for Africa (STAR) project helped shape the first WHO guidelines on HIV self-testing in 2016. Rwanda now includes self-testing in its national guidelines.

For more examples please refer to the following URL: Rwanda impact note

For more information: Priyamvada CHUGH, chughp@unitaid.who.int

Annual report: Unitaid pushes the boundaries of global health innovation

Geneva – Unitaid is pleased to present its latest annual report, which shows the organization deepening and diversifying its work as a conduit, testing ground and refiner of the best global health ideas.

Unitaid’s portfolio reached US$ 1.3 billion in 2019, more than doubling its value in five years. The number of grants rose from 28 in 2014 to a record 48 grants.

“Every hard-earned milestone shows we can transform lives, in record time, by pooling the expertise of the right partners,” Executive Director Lelio Marmora said. “As we enter exciting new areas, we will continue convening governments, industry, international organizations and civil society to support a more strategic, coherent response.”

The number of organizations implementing Unitaid grants continued to climb, with more partners than ever based in the low- and middle-income countries Unitaid serves.

The organization is also cultivating novel kinds of partnerships that infuse its work with fresh ideas and resources. Unitaid’s new relationship with MTV Staying Alive Foundation, for example, is raising awareness of HIV self-testing, prevention and treatment through the popular African television series MTV Shuga. 

Recent work has built on Unitaid’s accomplishments in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of HIV/AIDS and its co-infections—and tuberculosis and malaria.

New projects focus on averting cervical cancer, a major cause of death for women living with HIV, and fighting malaria with new ways to control mosquitoes.

The past year also witnessed Unitaid’s push into new approaches to bring down the unacceptable, long-static death toll—about 1 million people a year—from diseases that often strike those with advanced HIV disease.

Many Unitaid projects support the fight against superbugs—microbes that are resistant to medicines—as well as malaria-carrying mosquitoes that can no longer be killed by common insecticides.

Covering 2018 to the present, this year’s report uses a colorful, interactive new style to help readers cut quickly to the core of Unitaid’s work.

 

The Hummingbird. Unitaid News – June 2019

Unitaid News_June 2019

Unitaid’s Board welcomes new leadership and acknowledges strong achievements

Seoul – The Unitaid Executive Board elected a new leadership, reflected on its midterm strategy review and discussed ways to increase impact until the end of its strategy in 2021 and beyond.

The Board’s 32nd meeting opened with remarks from Korean Vice-Minister Kim Ganglip of the Ministry of Health and Welfare and Deputy Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs Kang Jeong-sik of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

The Board thanked the outgoing Board Chair Ambassador Marta Maurás Pérez and Vice-Chair Ms. Sarah Boulton for their strategic guidance over the past years and elected its new leadership. The new Chair Ms. Marisol Touraine, former French Minister of Social Affairs, Health and Women’s Rights will lead Unitaid’s Board through an exciting new period. “The key to Unitaid’s future lies in facing up to new challenges in global health, with confidence in our capacity to rally partners around shared goals,” said Ms. Touraine. The Board also welcomed Ambassador Maria Louisa Escorel De Moraes as its new Vice-Chair. Ambassador Escorel is the Deputy Permanent Representative of Brazil to the UN and other international organizations in Geneva.

Adopting the midterm review of Unitaid’s 2017-2021 strategy, the board acknowledged that Unitaid is on track towards its mission to maximize the effectiveness of the global health response by catalyzing equitable access to better health products. The review confirmed that Unitaid’s investments support highly innovative health products such as medicines and diagnostic tools, which can save lives of millions of people and create greater impact for the global health response.

“Unitaid’s portfolio is robust and well aligned to global health priorities. Unitaid focuses on bringing highly effective innovations to those in need, which is critical to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals,” Executive Director Lelio Marmora said.

The next Board meeting will take place in Geneva on 20-21 November.

Read the Executive Board’s Resolutions and Minutes 

Read the Executive Board’s e-Resolutions

UNICEF and Unitaid join forces to improve the health of children, adolescents and mothers

Geneva – Unitaid and UNICEF will collaborate to save the lives of more children, adolescents and mothers, an agreement formalized by a memorandum of understanding signed today.

With decades of experience fighting the biggest diseases threatening children under five, adolescent girls and young women, the newly signed memorandum will align the complementary efforts of the organizations to end malaria, pneumonia, HIV, tuberculosis and cervical cancer, to expand access to innovative point-of-care diagnostics, and to improve fever management in children.

“Unitaid and UNICEF have worked together on a number of lifesaving projects. Formalizing our collaboration will make our response stronger, faster and more effective,” Unitaid Executive Director Lelio Marmora said. 

Marmora and Fore signed the agreement. 

“Partnership and innovation have been the hallmark of the UNICEF-Unitaid partnership over many years. This new memorandum builds on this legacy, bringing together our resources, expertise and products to improve health outcomes in the communities–and for the children–who need it most,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta H. Fore said.

By teaming up in the fight against major disease killers in children, adolescents and mothers, Unitaid and UNICEF will work towards the Sustainable Development Goals and universal health coverage for a better tomorrow.

Cervical cancer. Screening and treatment of pre-cancerous lesions for secondary prevention of cervical cancer

Five facts about cervical cancer and how Unitaid is battling the disease

Q&A

  • What is cervical cancer?

Cervical cancer is a common cancer in women, with about 570,000 new cases in 2018 and more than 311,000 deaths—85 percent of them in less-developed countries. Cervical cancer is caused by human papillomavirus (HPV), an extremely common sexually transmitted infection. While most HPV infections clear up on their own, and precancerous lesions resolve, some infections progress to invasive cancer.

  • What are the risk factors for cervical cancer?

Cervical cancer can develop in just 5-10 years in women with weakened immune systems, such as those living with HIV, compared to 15-20 years in women with normal immunity. Co-infection with other sexually transmitted infections like herpes simplex, chlamydia and gonorrhea also predisposes women to cervical cancer. Other risk factors include smoking, having many babies and bearing children at an early age.

  •  Why is Unitaid targeting cervical cancer?

Cervical cancer is one of the most preventable and curable cancers, if diagnosed early and managed effectively. The number of deaths due to this disease have increased by 17% since 2012. If we do not act, the death toll will rise by almost 50% by 2040. Women living in lower income countries are more than eight times more likely to develop cervical cancer than those in high-income countries. Women living with HIV are four times more likely to develop cervical cancer once infected with HPV.

Screening and treatment of precancerous lesions are the norm and have proved successful in high-income countries. However, high costs, ineffective screening methods and treatment devices that are hard to use in remote settings have held back progress.

Unitaid’s upcoming investments seek to reduce cervical cancer illness and death by expanding access to better tests and treatments that are affordable, effective and handy.

  • What will Unitaid’s first investment in cervical cancer focus on?

Unitaid’s first project in cervical cancer will be led by Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI). The US$ 33 million initiative will be implemented in India, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Zambia.

Aiming to develop US$ 1 screen-and-treat solution for cervical cancer, the project will pioneer a common cellphone application using artificial intelligence that can detect signs of cancer with more than 90% accuracy. The initiative will also expand access to affordable and portable treatment devices for precancerous lesions.

  • How does Unitaid plan to contribute to global targets for cervical cancer elimination?

Unitaid’s innovations are designed to be scaled up by partners such as the Global Fund and PEPFAR. If broadly adopted, the innovations could save the lives of hundreds of thousands of women, including those living with HIV, and empower them to lead healthy and productive lives.

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