Resources

Regional manufacturing for timely, affordable, and quality-assured diagnostics across the continentAfrica carries nearly a quarter of the global disease burden yet, remains overwhelmingly dependent on imports for essential health products. Today, 95 percent of active pharmaceutical ingredients, 70 percent of medicines, and almost all diagnostics are sourced outside the continent. This dependency drives up costs, slows access, and leaves countries at risk of global supply chain disruptions. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the weaknesses in Africa’s health supply chains.The gap is especially acute in diagnostics. Despite Africa accounting for the highest burden of diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV, most diagnostic tools used to detect these conditions are produced elsewhere. Limited regional manufacturing undermines timely access and constrains Africa’s ability to control and ultimately eliminate these diseases.PATH, supported by Unitaid and a coalition of African and global partners, has launched the Manufacturing to Accelerate Diagnostic Excellence (MADE) in Africa project to address this imbalance. Over the next four years, MADE will work to strengthen and expand Africa’s diagnostic manufacturing ecosystem by:Providing technical expertise to align production with international quality standards.Developing analyses and strategies for climate friendly diagnostics production.Increasing access to financing and investment for African manufacturers.Supporting an existing R&D ecosystem in Africa for diagnostics that will thrive long after the MADE project ends.Driving market-shaping strategies to secure sustainable demand and scale production.By embedding high-quality, affordable diagnostics into regional supply chains, MADE will help meet everyday health needs, strengthen health systems, and build a resilient manufacturing base that can rapidly pivot to produce critical tools during future health emergencies.Ultimately, MADE is about ensuring Africa can rely on its own innovation and capacity to protect the health of its people, independently, affordably, and sustainably.

The malaria parasite develops both in humans and in the female Anopheles mosquitoes. The size and genetic complexity of the parasite mean that each infection presents thousands of antigens (proteins) to the human immune system. The parasite changes through several life stages even while in the human host, presenting different antigens at different stages of its life cycle. Malaria vaccines have the potential to disrupt this life cycle at various stages. The currently available malaria vaccines are pre-erythrocytic vaccines and target the liver stage. Transmission-blocking and blood-stage vaccine candidates are currently under development.This one-page infographic provides an illustration of the malaria parasite life cycle, alongside a step-by-step narrative explaining each stage and where the different types of malaria vaccines target the life cycle. A separate, high-resolution image file of the illustration alone is also available to download.This malaria life cycle graphic may be freely used and copied for educational and other noncommercial purposes, provided that any reproduction is accompanied by the following acknowledgment line: "Reproduced from PATH's website at www.path.org, 2025."

The project ‘Accelerating access and uptake of HIV self-testing (HIVST) in India’ was launched in February 2020 to demonstrate the feasibility and acceptability of HIVST among different key populations (KPs) and other high-risk groups. The overall goal was to increase the demand for and access to HIVST, as well as subsequent treatment and prevention services, thereby contributing to further reduction in the number of new HIV infections and averting deaths due to HIV infection. This report details the approach, methodology, findings, and recommendations from the study.

Digital Square is partnering with Wellcome, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and World Health Organization (WHO) Climate and Health Joint Programme to support the development of DPI and digital public goods (DPGs) aimed at enhancing climate- and health-informed data systems. By leveraging cross-sectoral foundational DPI and DPGs, the consortium seeks to advance the operationalization of a shared implementation plan to integrate climate and health data and improve global health resilience to the increasing threats posed by climate change.The following resources pertain to our efforts under this initiative, Digital Public Infrastructure for Climate Health.

The following resources from Digital Square at PATH and our partners focus on digital health innovation, digital transformation of health systems, and global goods for health.