Opinion
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In a camp in Darfur, an infant develops a fever. All too often, the cause is malaria, a disease that flourishes in the chaos of conflict. If the family can access prompt diagnosis and treatment, the child is unlikely to develop a severe case of the d... -
19 March 2026A New Front Line: How AI and Other Innovations are Transforming the Fight Against TB
By Peter Sands, Executive Director
There’s no shortage of hype about AI in health care, but in the fight against tuberculosis (TB), AI is already powering a revolution. Handheld digital X-ray devices use AI to stabilize the image. AI analysis of X-ray results enable high volume, high-... -
21 January 2026From Pilots to Scale: Three Principles for Sustainable Digital Health
By Peter Sands, Executive Director
In April 2025, Rwanda’s Ministry of Health unveiled its new Health Intelligence Centre. This impressive technological and operational achievement is already helping the government to identify the drivers of maternal mortality, direct HIV prevention r... -
04 December 2025Statement by Peter Sands on the World Malaria Report 2025
By Peter Sands, Executive Director of The Global Fund
The World Malaria Report lays bare two truths: when we invest, we save lives — and when we falter, malaria surges back. This year’s Report, capturing the numbers from 2024, shows a stalling of overall progress and highlights serious concerns, but it ... -
28 November 2025Eswatini: The Small Kingdom Setting A Big Example On HIV Prevention
By Peter Sands, Executive Director of The Global Fund
When I walked into Eswatini’s Central Medical Stores that morning, the first thing I saw were the boxes. They were stacked neatly in tall, orderly columns on pallet racks in the middle of the warehouse — plain cardboard, carefully labelled, indisting... -
The last two decades have seen extraordinary progress in global health: tens of millions of lives saved, sharp reductions in mortality, and dramatic increases in life expectancy in even the poorest countries. Yet the context has changed. Donors are c... -
Young people stand to benefit the most from a world free of HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria. The World Bank projects that the number of young people globally could increase to nearly 1.3 billion by 2030, up from 1.2 billion in 2015. Yet, despite t... -
When I was four years old, I lost my father to malaria. Since then, I’ve lost my baby niece, I almost lost my mother, and I came close to death myself. All because of malaria. -
10 July 2025How AI Is Accelerating the Fight Against an Ancient Killer
By Peter Sands, Executive Director
Tuberculosis (TB) remains the world’s deadliest infectious disease – an ancient killer that still claims over a million lives each year, mostly among the world’s poorest and hardest-to-reach. Yet we are on the brink of a new era of progress in the fi... -
09 July 2025The First Generation Without AIDS Is Within Reach If We Refuse to Settle
By Peter Sands, Executive Director
We stand at the edge of an extraordinary possibility: to end the AIDS pandemic, eliminating HIV as a public health threat. Over the last few decades, more than 40 million people have died of AIDS and there are another 39 million people living with HI... -
I was 18 when I was diagnosed with HIV. The months leading up to my diagnosis were filled with fear and confusion. I wanted to donate blood, to do something good – but what followed was a series of healthcare missteps and poor communication. Eventual... -
I was pregnant with my first child when I was diagnosed with drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB). I’d already suffered years of misdiagnosis. In an instant, all the joy I felt as an expectant mother turned to fear and anxiety. -
23 April 2025Ending Malaria Makes Everyone Healthier, Safer and More Prosperous
By Peter Sands, Executive Director
A few months ago, alarm bells rang across global health networks as a mysterious disease emerged in a remote corner of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The outbreak seemed to defy easy explanation — it was circulating in the remote parts of th... -
24 March 2025Long Seen as the “Pandemic of the Poor”, TB is a Threat to us All
By Peter Sands, Executive Director
Despite being preventable and curable, tuberculosis (TB) has regained its position as the number 1 infectious disease killer worldwide, causing 1.25 million deaths in 2023. As a respiratory infection prone to drug resistance, TB poses a looming threa... -
Many of the countries most affected by malaria are also on the front lines of climate change. In sub-Saharan Africa, where a child dies of malaria every minute, shifting weather patterns – from intense rainfall to extreme heatwaves and prolonged drou...
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Twenty years ago, beating back HIV seemed an almost impossible dream. The disease was ravaging communities across the world, taking a huge toll on lives and societies. Since then, we have come an extraordinarily long way and seen great leaps in preve... -
14 November 2024Why Health Should Be at the Heart of the Climate Agenda at COP29
By Peter Sands, Executive Director
When I visited Dhaka in July this year, the city was wrapped in the thick humidity and heat of the monsoon season. The air felt heavy and warm as I walked with a community health worker through the winding, makeshift neighborhoods of one of the huge ... -
13 November 2024From Berlin to Dakar: Making Young People’s Voices Resonate at the Highest Levels of the Global Health Ecosystem
By Farida Tiemtore, founder of Héroines du Faso, Voix EssentiELLES of Burkina Faso and member of the Global Fund Youth Council
Youth were at the forefront of a series of dynamic and inspiring global health events that took place in October 2024. As a member of Burkina Faso’s Voix EssentiELLES and the Global Fund’s Youth Council, I had the opportunity to attend the 2024 World... -
29 October 2024
If We Act Decisively, We Can End TB
The big message to take from this year’s Global Tuberculosis Report is that if we act decisively, we can end tuberculosis (TB). We have momentum, we have tools, and we have leadership, but we do need more money – and we also need to dismantle the hum... -
19 September 2024
UNGA: Progress in Global Health Shows the Path to a Safer, More Secure World
By Peter Sands, Executive Director
As the world gathers for the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week, the focus on the interconnected crises the world faces underscores a critical truth: Today’s challenges are inextricably linked to global health. Many of the General ...