COVID-19: Responding to the Pandemic: Blog Posts

Distributing PPE to Protect Health Workers in Malawi

July 02, 2020
[VillageReach van delivers PPE to hard-to-reach areas in Malawi.]

Until recently, “PPE” was an obscure acronym for many people, but now it has become a vital global commodity. Today, with the realities of COVID-19, health workers around the world are experiencing a troubling shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)—a mix of items including gloves, mask, aprons, and goggles that can help prevent disease transmission in health care settings. This shortage puts health workers in harm's way while trying to respond to the unrelenting COVID-19 pandemic.

Addressing the Challenge of COVID-19 in Malawi and Kenya

June 11, 2020
{Photo credit: Mark Tuschman}

Swift and effective action to address the COVID-19 pandemic has required countries to engage in an all hands on deck approach. We recently asked our colleagues on the frontlines in Malawi and Kenya, Dr. Ann Phoya and Dr. Ndinda Kusu, to share how their teams are working with all sectors of society to scale up preparedness and response measures, strengthen capacities and systems to meet the challenge of COVID-19, and help maintain uninterrupted essential health services.

Promoting appropriate use of medicines is critical to an effective COVID-19 response

June 03, 2020
{A medicines management supervisor visits pharmacy staff in Uganda. Photo credit: MSH staff}

Pandemics challenge the efficacy and resiliency of many systems, including the pharmaceutical system—how medicines and other medical products are managed in health systems.

Nigeria’s response to COVID-19: How unity of purpose can combat our common enemy

May 21, 2020
{A lab scientist at a general hospital in northern Nigeria. Photo Credit: MSH Staff}

Nwando Mba is the Director of Public Health Laboratory Services at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), a sub-recipient to the Resilient and Sustainable Systems for Health (RSSH) project, funded by the Global Fund and managed by MSH. A medical laboratory scientist by profession, Mba started her career over 30 years ago in Nigeria’s Vaccine Production Laboratory at Yaba, Lagos. Mba discusses Nigeria’s efforts to increase the country’s testing capacity for coronavirus.

Sound the alarm: people left behind in decision-making on COVID-19

May 08, 2020
{Asther Zabibu, an MDR-TB survivor sits outside the TB treatment centre at Mulago National Referral Hospital in Uganda. where she now provides psycho-social support to other patients and counsels them on adherence. Photo Credit: Sarah Lagot}

Read this blog on the CSEM websiteAs COVID-19 infiltrates the physical, mental, social, economic and geographical landscapes we all inhabit, citizens around the world are forced to obey new national laws and policies on social isolation, lockdowns, and movement restrictions.For some groups of particularly vulnerable people - the elderly, disabled, those suffering from physical and mental ill-health or those at risk of violence and abuse - the restrictive measures have a significant and negative effect. These people’s health and wellbeing, in all senses, are being corroded.

COVID-19: A "testing ground" for health system resilience

April 28, 2020
{The USAID MTaPS Program is supporting the Philippines in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuring the availability of quality health commodities in communities. Photo credit: MTaPS staff}

Andre Zagorski of the MSH-led, USAID-funded MTaPS Program talks about the program's urgent work to help contain the virus in more than a dozen countries.Andre ZagorskiHow did you and MTaPS rally to support USAID’s call for a rapid response to COVID-19 in a dozen countries? What were the challenges? MTaPS is the USAID Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) go-to program for infection prevention and control (IPC), and we have been implementing activities to strengthen health systems for stronger IPC programs in 10 countries since the MTaPS award in 2018.

A new threat and an opportunity: What COVID-19 means for malaria control efforts

April 21, 2020
{Retsilake, a community health volunteer in Madagascar, uses a mobile app to carry out epidemiological surveillance of malaria and other diseases at the community level. Photo Credit: Samy Rakotoniaina/MSH}

A conversation with Dr. Bernard Nahlen, Director of the Eck Institute for Global Health at the University of Notre Dame and member of the MSH Board of Directors  Dr. Bernard NahlenSome countries are entering peak malaria transmission season over the next few months, overlapping with the COVID-19 pandemic. How might the crisis affect ongoing malaria eradication efforts? One issue is case management. As a reminder, there were more deaths due to malaria than to Ebola in West Africa in 2014, because people were reluctant to go to clinics for treatment for fevers and aches.

Fighting COVID-19 from Bangladesh’s Control Room

April 02, 2020
{Raian Amzad in the Control Room. Photo credit: MSH}

Raian Amzad, a technical advisor with the DFID-funded Better Health in Bangladesh (BHB) project, and her colleagues took time away from their regular work to help Bangladesh’s central response to COVID-19. Here’s how the project and the country are handling the pandemic threat. Can you tell me about your recent work assignment related to COVID-19? What did your typical day look like?On March 17, the Directorate General of Health Services opened a temporary Integrated Control Room for COVID-19 response. Fifteen different groups are working there.