Opinion
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01 December 2023We Must Not Let Climate Change Derail The Fight Against Malaria
By Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria
The world is at a defining moment in the fight against malaria. After years of rapid advances against the disease, progress stalled around 2015. Since then, the malaria community has faced a cascade of challenges, including drug and insecticide resis... -
The French association Élus Locaux Contre le Paludisme (ELCP) is sounding the alarm about the increased risk of malaria on the African continent due to climate change. The group is calling for international solidarity and urging France to step up its... -
17 November 2023As the Climate Crisis Escalates, Building Resilient Health Systems Is Imperative
By Hon. Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda, MP, Minister of Health, Malawi
When torrential rains from Cyclone Freddy unleashed a flood in Malawi earlier this year, the extreme weather event claimed more than 1,000 lives and upended the livelihoods of millions of people. The floods also swept away a wealth of essential healt... -
10 November 2023To Prevent the Next Pandemic, Follow the Science
By Marisa Peyre, Co-founder and Global Science Adviser, PREZODE, Justin Vaïsse, Founder and Director General, Paris Peace Forum, and Peter Sands, Executive Director, The Global Fund
The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the critical role of evidence-based policies in addressing global health crises. It has also highlighted the need for flexible strategies, equitable health care, and multidisciplinary approaches that bridge the g... -
07 November 2023In the Fight to End Tuberculosis, This Is the Moment for Progress
By Peter Sands, Executive Director, The Global Fund
Tuberculosis is rarely in the spotlight. But behind the scenes it’s one of the top infectious killers in the world. In 2022 alone, TB killed over 1.3 million people, including 167,000 people with HIV — that’s a staggering 25,000 deaths every week. De... -
07 November 2023Taking a Smart Approach to Making Medicines in Africa Will Save Lives
By Peter Sands, Executive Director, The Global Fund
COVID-19 shone a harsh light on global health inequities. Africa was last in the queue for all the lifesaving tools needed to defeat the new virus, including vaccines, tests, oxygen and personal protective equipment. Yet this is not a new phenomenon... -
21 September 2023Stopping Malaria From Killing Children is a Matter of Urgency
By Peter Sands, Executive Director, The Global Fund
I was in Kano, an ancient city in the north of Nigeria recently, visiting health facilities with Nigeria’s impressive new health minister professor Muhammad Ali Pate. This week I’ll be in New York, along with the leaders of nearly 200 countries and m... -
19 September 2023For the Fight Against HIV, TB and Malaria, a Moment of Reckoning
By Peter Sands, Executive Director, The Global Fund
The heads of state and government from nearly 200 countries gathering this week in New York for the United Nations General Assembly must confront the stark reality that the Sustainable Development Goals are in dire jeopardy. This year marks the midpo... -
29 August 2023India and the Global Fund: A strategic partnership with a national, regional, and global future
By Lady Roslyn Morauta, Chair of the Board
How the global fight against HIV, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria is an opportunity for India’s pharmaceutical industry and other private-sector companies. -
14 July 2023Japan’s Fight Against TB Can Be a Roadmap for Pandemic Preparedness
By Peter Sands, Executive Director, The Global Fund
In March this year, I visited Japan for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. Although I have been to the country several times before, every time I walk Tokyo’s vibrant streets I am still struck by the sheer volume of people who live, work and... -
29 June 2023Pop-Up Booths to the Rescue in the Fight Against TB in Kenya
By Peter Sands, Executive Director, The Global Fund
In August 2022 Josphat Muoki, a father of four from Nairobi, Kenya, discovered he had TB when he stopped at a pop-up screening station on a busy pedestrian bridge over Nairobi Central Railway Station. The bridge links the city and the industrial zone... -
16 June 2023It’s Time to Overcome Gender Inequality in the Fight Against HIV
By Peter Sands, Executive Director, The Global Fund
Last year I met a woman called Shani Ally in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Shani leads a full life as a mother, wife and small-business owner. She has also been on HIV treatment for more than 20 years. That treatment has kept her alive and prevented the t... -
25 May 2023One Mozambican Woman’s Fight Against Malaria – “the Devil” That Took Her Husband’s Life
By Peter Sands, Executive Director, The Global Fund
“Malaria is the devil that came to my house,” Celina Tembe says softly, her hand touching the head of her 3-year-old daughter, Manuela Manuel. In August last year, her 35-year-old husband, Manuel Maxaieie, came home late from work as a machine operat... -
In February 2020, just before COVID-19 made such trips impossible, I visited a village in the Kongo Central province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and talked to a community health worker, called François Mvueki. Looking at his daily logbook... -
05 May 2023Felled by a Warming World: Will Malaria Be the Next Pandemic?
By Peter Sands, Executive Director, The Global Fund
The next global health crisis might not be another pandemic caused by a novel respiratory infection. Instead, we could see climate change dramatically increasing the threat from an existing infectious disease–for example, malaria, a disease that kill... -
24 March 2023Fighting Tuberculosis Will Protect Us From the Next Global Health Threat
By Eliud Wandwalo, Head of Tuberculosis, the Global Fund
One of the best ways to prepare for future pandemics is to turbocharge the fight against tuberculosis and stop considering it the “pandemic of the poor”, writes Dr. Eliud Wandwalo, head of TB at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria... -
TB will likely kill more people in low- and middle- income countries in 2023 than COVID-19. Yet it attracts a tiny fraction of the political attention and financial resources we’ve deployed against the new virus. -
01 March 2023In Côte d’Ivoire, Sex Workers Team Up With Police to Fight Stigma and HIV
By Deborah Guehi
I had been working as a sex worker for almost ten years when, in 2009, a client encouraged me to organize sex workers in our town and fight for our rights. “Together you have power,” he assured me. He made this suggestion after I told him how utterly... -
09 December 2022A Hotline Operator’s Tireless Efforts to Keep People on Drug Treatment Despite War in Ukraine
By Mikhailo Degtyarev, Operator at the Trust and Hope Hotline
A giant explosion that shattered a neighboring building’s windows announced the arrival of the war on February 24, 2022. The next days and weeks were surreal. -
01 December 2022The Best Way to Prepare for the Next Pandemic Is Not What You Think
By Peter Sands and Winnie Byanyima
The fight against HIV needs new impetus. As we feared when COVID-19 first emerged, the pandemic has had a devastating impact on progress against HIV and AIDS. But even before COVID-19, we were behind our targets for reducing new infections and deaths...