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Lecture The M-Pesa Story now online!

May 21, 2013

On 4 April 2013 Les Baillie told the M-Pesa Story in Amsterdam - Watch lecture online!

PharmAccess, the Amsterdam Medical Center and the Amsterdam Insitute for Global Health and Development (AIGHD) recently invited Les Baillie, Executive Director of the M-PESA Foundation, to tell the M-PESA success story to a crowd of partners, students and representatives from charitable organizations in Amsterdam. On April 4th, he delivered a riveting tale of how this mobile money service came into being in 2007 and how ...

Current state of the HIV epidemic

May 21, 2013

In Current HIV/AIDS Reports, AIGHD’s Deputy Director, Science, Catherine Hankins, writes that future trends in the global HIV epidemic will be determined by the actions of individuals, couples, and communities. Dr. Hankins explains: “Ultimately, it will be policy makers, implementers, civil society, and funders that will be held accountable. They have to choose, implement, and evaluate prevention packages that are tailored to specific epidemic circumstances while they push forward to scale up antiretroviral treatment. It has proven prevention ...

Tuberculosis and migration in Vietnam

May 16, 2013

Increasing Tuberculosis Notification Rates Among Young Adults are Not Associated with Migration in Da Nang, Vietnam. 

In this paper Edine Tiemersma, epidemiologist with KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation and AIGHD, investigates the role of migration in the recent increase in tuberculosis (TB) case rates among young adults in Vietnam. Together with researchers from Vietnam she did a case-control study of TB patients in public TB clinics in Danang, Vietnam's third largest city. Recent rural-to-urban migration appeared not to be a risk ...

Article J Infectious Diseases

May 16, 2013

Tuberculosis Relapse in Vietnam Is Significantly Associated With Mycobacterium tuberculosis Beijing Genotype Infections.

In this paper PhD student May Nguyet Thu Huyen presents a molecular epidemiology study of the effects of Mycobacterium tuberculosis genotype on tuberculosis relapse rates in Vietnam. She finds that patients infected with the Beijing genotype, which constitutes one third of all circulating M. tuberculosis strains in Vietnam and has been associated with multidrug resistant tuberculosis in various studies, have an increased risk of tuberculosis relapse during ...

Viewpoint paper Lancet Inf Diseases

May 16, 2013

Alignment of new tuberculosis drug regimens and drug susceptibility testing: a framework for action

This viewpoint paper addresses new priorities for drug susceptibility testing (DST) and surveillance now that new tuberculosis drug regimens are likely to be introduced in the coming years. It is a summary of the conclusions of an expert meeting held in October 2012 by the TB Diagnostic Forum (supported by the US National Institutes of Health and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation), and at which ...