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July 13, 2015

Global Fund provides $17M For HIV Programs

Even with all the support and money allocated to the fight against Malaria, AIDS, and Tuberculosis, The Global Fund is taking no chances and continuing to fight the deadly viruses which affect Africa and other Eastern countries. The Global Fund is going to allocate the $17 million to two organizations which are focused on the prevention and care for HIV/AIDS.

The first organization which will be receiving a budget of $11.4 million US dollars is, Key Populations – Representation, Evidence and Attitude Change for Health Impact’ (KP REACH). KP REACH will be focusing on countries which are most affected by HIV: South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, and Malawi.

The second organization to receive funding is The Kenya AIDS NGO Consortium (KANCO). The organization will be funded $5.5 million US dollars to help with research to help curb the HIV rise. 

With drug usage a major concern, and the sharing of needles leading the epidemic. The money is expected to help the spread of dirty needles, as well as deter drug usage as a whole. This initiative is The Global Fund’s attempt to finally eradicate the deadly virus. As they look to fight off Malaria, HIV/AIDS is beginning to take a more prominent role in their eyes due to the numbers of lives being lost daily.

With the recent allocation, officials are hoping to get help from the states which are being given funds to truly take advantage and understand what is at hand.

For more Global Fund information, please visit Scott Filler’s Official website.

May 26, 2015

The Global Fund Money Squandered

Corruption and greed has lost The Global Fund and the countries Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan hundreds and thousands of dollars. The Global Fund had allocated a great deal of money to the two states which were eventually used improperly costing all three parties the donation. Vesti.KG reported the story initially, “The Global Fund demanded Kyrgyzstan compensate it for a loss of over $120,000. The Global Fund believes it has proof of theft of grants by various Kyrgyz state officials. A similar story — only with slightly larger sums of theft — was reported in neighboring Tajikistan two months ago and is still being poured over by local media.”

After The Global Fund launched an investigation with the Office of Inspector General (OIG) after the Fund realized the money was not being allocated properly. After the findings of the investigation, the Inspector General uncovered the had been incorrectly spending and allocating money through the Committee for Youth, Sports and Tourism of Tajikistan. The Global Fund then blacklisted the Committee from receiving any further funding. Even though the Tajikistan Committee accused is calling the reports false, after a full audit concluded that over $120 thousand of the $300 thousand given to the Committee had been either used wrongly or distributed to another organization. The Committee apparently worked with a very unorthodox company, Komyob, which used the money to purchase “non-health products such as MP3 and DVD-players, notebooks, pens and health insurance packages with prices inflated by an average of 118% when compared to the market value of the products.“

With the missing money the Global Fund hopes to get their money back shortly so they can truly allocate it to a good cause which can save lives. For more information and news on The Global Fund, please visit Scott Filler‘s official website.

April 27, 2015

Global Fund – Progress

The fight to cure malaria has yielded some spectacular results this year, news which is welcomed by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. The results come from the phase three trial of RTS,S, a malaria vaccine candidate.

So far, RTS,S has shown a 54% reduction in cases of clinical malaria over the first year of follow-up and a 36% reduction in clinical malaria over a 48 month period among children vaccinated between 5-17 months old who received four doses of RTS,S. The five year trial involved 15,459 children and infants, and concluded in January. Overall, more than 1,700 cases of clinical malaria were averted per 1,000 children vaccinated across different trial sites on average.

Leaders of both Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Global Fund have voice their satisfaction upon hearing this results and hope that a vaccine like RTS,S can become the powerful and newest addition to the tools used to fight malaria. Yearly, malaria leads to the death of thousands of children across developing countries, in particular the sub-Saharan Africa region. The Global Fund has been one of many organizations that has mounted efforts to curb the rise of malaria.

Currently, RTS,S is being reviewed by the European Medicines Agency, which is expected to provide a scientific opinion later in the year. If the opinion of the European Medicines Agency is positive, that would give the green light for the World Health Organization to make recommendations on the use of RTS,S. Ultimately, this is the hope of the Global Fund and Gavi, who wish to add RTS,S to the current methods for combating malaria which include mosquito nets and indoor spraying.

For more news and updates on The Global Fund, please visit Scott Filler‘s official website.

March 27, 2015

$30 Million To Fight Malaria & TB

The entire globe is out on a mission, that mission is to wipe out two very deadly diseases. Australia has promised $30 million dollars to fight against Malaria and Tuberculosis. Roughly $10 million will be given immediately to support a late-stage treatment for Tuberculosis, and $10 million will also be given to help find tools to develop drugs to help fight Malaria. The other $10 million will be distributed accordingly depending on which area needs the extra funding. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop at AUSMIN meeting

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop explained the reason for funding the two diseases, “Drug resistant TB and malaria pose a threat to health security in our region and carry a high burden for our Asia-Pacific neighbours.” With the obvious concern of Malaria in developing countries in the Indo-Pacific area, Australia felt it was necessary to help out since the proximity of these nations and the potential harm it can cause if TB or Malaria makes it way to the island. Rather then take such a big risk, the best move for themselves and the world is to attempt to wipe out such deadly forces in the region. Australia has seen over 1,300 cases of TB since 2011 and the numbers of cases are slowly rising which is a major concern for the Australian government.

Every year roughly 1.2 million people die in the Indo-Pacific due to Tuberculosis, and these cases are spreading to developed countries and continents. The world is on high alert in hopes to fight and prevent the spread of these problems. The Global Fund is advocating for countries around the world to help fight since this is a global epidemic. Not only the problems of the few under developed countries.

For more updates on Malaria and The Global Fund, please visit Scott Filler‘s official website.

February 23, 2015

The Global Fund ‘All In’ To End AIDS

With AIDS the leading cause of deaths for adolescents in Africa, The Global Fund is pushing to go ‘all in’ against the deadly virus which has been declining over the past few years. The main concern for The Global Fund and African adolescents is the fact that only one in four of adolescents with AIDS are able to receive adequate treatment. The biggest concern for officials is the alarming rate of girls being affected by AIDS. According to AllAfrica.com, “Adolescent girls, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, are most affected. In South Africa in 2013, more than 860 girls became infected with HIV every week, compared to 170 boys. HIV is the leading cause of death among adolescents in Africa and young women are most affected. This is a moral injustice. I am calling on young people to lead the All In movement, alongside the United Nations, public and private partners, and countries themselves, to end the adolescent AIDS epidemic.”

Together with UNICEF and UNAIDS, The Global Fund are beginning to focus their attention on adolescents who were affected 10-15 years ago. The problem with those affected back then is they are unaware of the fact they even posses the deadly virus and could be passing it along without even knowing. Even though reaching these now adults is extremely difficult since there is no tell all sign someone has AIDS, the three groups will work in conjunction with one another to prevent the spread of the virus. They are also now reaching out and explaining the importance of getting tested to the youth of Africa. Teaching them that getting tested is important and could potentially save lives is the way to educate the youth.

All parties fully understand that getting rid of AIDS completely is unreasonable and hope to slowly knock down the number of affected and deaths. Together, all hope to receive fundings to help with the cause. This is a world problem where any donation can help.

For more updates on The Global Fund, please visit Scott Filler‘s official website.

 

December 23, 2014

Global Fund Saves US $100 Million

Ever since the origin of The Global Fund, they have been working to save lives and fight world issues that no one else seemed to work or care for. Fortunately, for the US and the rest of the world, the work of The Global Fund has been saving countless lives and money. Over the next two years, The Global Fund will be saving the US just around $100 million.

The Global Fund will be purchasing HIV/AIDS medicine for patients in the US saving the country nearly $100 million. The Chief Procurement Officer for The Global Fund, Christopher Games explained the importance of public health safety, ” Savings from the new agreement on HIV medication are equivalent to providing anti-retroviral drugs to an additional 400,000 people for two years.” The importance of saving lives is more important than saving money for the Fund, which is why they are advocating and educating countries to take this approach to have readily available medicine and vaccines, not to save that extra dollar. 

The Fund believes, spending money now will yield, their goal is to hopefully wipe out HIV/AIDS by putting so much money towards medicine and teaching patients it is okay to go get tested and get proper medicine. In another statement from Games, “As well as expanding the supply of life-saving medicines, our new approach will provide deep and sustained savings, to the benefit of people living with HIV across the world.”

Although The Global Fund is spending so much to provide medicine, many people who have HIV are aware but do not get treated due to a fear that society will shun them. Fortunately for The Global Fund, they are able to team up with local organizations around the world to have them teach and recognize patients with HIV as humans and not someone who everyone should avoid.

The Fund has mobilized over $4 billion so far and are now in over 140 countries worldwide. This growth is exactly what The Global Fund set out to do. They want to spread knowledge and understand that money needs to be spent in order to stop this deadly virus. They have also partnered up with major organizations around the world, including: World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and the Pan American World Organization. Together, they believe this is a fight they can win, and will work hard until this fight is won.

 

For more information on The Global Fund saving the US $100 million please visit: AllAfrica

November 25, 2014

Apple and Global Fund Come Together

Red, for years now The Global Fund has been teaming up with companies around the world to promote and fight HIV/AIDS. With World Aids Day approaching, The Global Fund has teamed up with Apple in a recent effort to raise money to fight the deadly disease.

Not only is Apple contributing to the cause, Starbucks, Gap, and J Crew are joining the initiative to raise awareness and money for Aids. The deadly disease claims approximately one million lives a year. The goal of this years (Red) campaign is to raise awareness and research since many infected simply do not go tested due to embarrassment. Although there is no definitive cure to HIV/AIDS, there are ways to treat the disease to a certain extent.

Apple is using their most popular iOS applications which they will donate a proceed each (Red) promoted app to The Global Fund. “Participating apps for this promotion include Clash of Clans, Clear, Djay 2 and Monument Valley. Those apps include special in-app purchases based around the Product(RED) theme that users can purchase and contribute to the fund’s work. For example, users can purchase a special theme for Clear’s to-do list, or a pack of new levels for Monument Valley.”

The Global Fund had recently received funding from the Bill Gates Foundation to help fight and eradicate the Malaria epidemic around the world. With this (Red) program which runs until the 7th of December is expected to raise close to one hundred million dollars between Thanksgiving and the 7th.

Apple and The Global Fund expect to make the most during Black Friday since they will be cutting prices on the apps which are a part of the program but not cutting the donation amount. Apple will also be rolling out the Red campaign which is similar to the app initiative, but on a much larger scale.

 

For more information about Apple and The Global Fund’s (Red) program, and to donate please visit: GeekWire

November 4, 2014

The Global Fund: New focus

In 2013 alone, 360,000 HIV positive people worldwide had passed away due to Tuberculosis (TB), a disease caused by HIV which is claimed to be preventable as well as curable. For this reason, The Global Fund has made it their mission after their funding conference on October 30, 2014. They have decided to push a new funding strategy to reduce those numbers since everyone at the Global Fund conference agreed that the rate of HIV positive deaths related to TB is way to high being there is a cure available as well as being preventable.

This new model of funding will be geared towards TB to educate the population and current HIV positive patients that there are steps and actions to TB prevention.english Attending this conference in Barcelona, Spain was, Global Fund Executive Director Mark Dybul was joined by South Africa’s Minister of Health, Aaron Motsoaledi, Blessi Kumar of the Global Coalition of TB Activists, USAID TB Senior Policy and Strategy Advisor Amy Bloom and UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé. These administers focused on developed strategies for more engagement in the community and show the importance of prevention.

Also, a majority of the panel agreed with one another that in order to get people in and treated, they must be treated patients who are patient oriented, rather then disease oriented. The reason for this is because many patients are skeptical to go into these clinics and seek the treatment due to the treatment they are facing socially. These new treatment centers and plans are designed to have the environmental feel of a regular visit to a doctors office, not make the patient feel as if they are being quarantined.

The Global Fund is hoping these actions will start to eliminate the number of deaths a year due to these very treatable and curable diseases. Blessi Kumar, the TB activist stated at the conference, “It is smart to invest in community engagement for TB. This leads to better sustainable results. We also need a sense of urgency to eliminate TB.” Everyone understood the urgency to get rid of this disease and the best way to do that is to make sure everyone is aware and willing to seek treatment.

September 27, 2014

The Latest SlideShare from Scott Filler

May 13, 2014

Senegal and Malaria

scottfiller_senegalSenegal, which is situated on the western coast of Africa, has become a place that sets the example for the rest of Africa on how to keep malaria from ravaging a community of people.  Malaria will claim over 600,000 victims before the end of 2014 and most of them are young African children.  A small town in Senegal, known for its sugar cane fields, is battling the devastating disease because the sugar cane fields are an ideal breeding ground for millions of mosquitos.  The Ministry of Health and World Health Organization are doing something about it.  Both organizations are making sure that effective treatments are available nearby and health facilities with abilities to run rapid tests have also been made available.  With these efforts, malaria has almost been wiped out in the community.

With the successes of this small town those who have seen their world improved with the MOH and the WHO want to see these results around the entire country.  The Global Fund article explains that this long-term goal cannot be done overnight and it will require a partnership from various organizations like The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, the Gates Foundation, and the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative with the Senegalese Government.

And Senegal hopes to avoid what has happened in other countries across Africa.  In countries that have decreased their efforts towards combating malaria through reduced transmissions, since 1930, 75 resurgences have taken place.  This sparked the Cost of Inaction to produce a report that stated they expect 196,000 more people would die from the disease and over 430 million people would be sickened by malaria each year.  The worry is that the rest of the world is not a tiny town in Senegal.  It will take immense amount of resources and with no vaccine there is no end in sight.