Resources

The world is off track to achieve most of the targets defined in the globally agreed upon Global Vaccine Action Plan. The United States government—one of the largest contributors to global immunization efforts—has not yet articulated its strategy for meeting these globally agreed upon goals. This new policy report includes PATH’s recommendations for catalyzing US government leadership and maximizing impact in global immunization.

The goal of PATH’s Healthy Household Initiative (HHI) is to increase the accessibility, affordability, and use of health products by households in low-resource settings. In 2014, PATH worked with distribution partner Sakhi Unique Rural Enterprise (SURE) and financing partner Sakhi Samudaya Kosh (SSK) to pilot an HHI model in two districts of Maharashtra, India. The results of the pilot are outlined in this fact sheet.

The first issue in a multipart publication series that leverages PATH’s Installed Base and Forecasting Model to assess the global market for cold chain equipment innovations, this forecast focuses on passive freeze-safe vaccine carriers that can reduce vaccine product exposure to freezing temperatures during transportation and outreach in low-resource settings.

This fact sheet describes PATH’s work with partners and countries to address and improve menstrual health in low-resource settings by identifying affordable and appropriate menstrual care products, increasing education and awareness, and advocating for further investment.

These guidelines are designed for policymakers and program planners wishing to implement a quality assurance program for serological tests detecting IgG4 antibodies specific to the Ov16 antigen from Onchocerca volvulus. They describe some important basic principles and the main practical aspects of a quality assurance program. The objectives of a quality assurance program are discussed in this document. It is now widely accepted that quality assurance, quality control, and quality assessment constitute an essential part of testing programs and of diagnostic testing in general.The availability of Ov16 rapid tests does not automatically guarantee high-quality results. Many steps are involved between selecting a test, how and when testing will occur, conducting the test, reporting results, and how the results are used to inform control and elimination programs. At each step in the process, there is the potential that something can go wrong. Therefore, onchocerciasis control and elimination programs should ensure that sufficient support is made available to provide a suitable program to monitor and, if necessary, improve the quality of testing. A well-functioning program is an important step toward achieving highquality testing results and eventual elimination of onchocerciasis.As of the publication date of this document, only one rapid test serology for detection of IgG4 antibodies specific to Ov16 antigen exists: Alere SD BIOLINE Onchocerciasis IgG4 Rapid Test.