RESULTS works with AusAID to tackle diseases of poverty

LAST week RESULTS had the ear of the Executive Director of the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), Mr. Peter Baxter.

Maree Nutt and Rachel Achterstraat from RESULTS, along with Rob Lake, Executive Director of the Australian Federation for AIDS Organisations, met with Peter Baxter in Canberra to talk Global Fund and TB-HIV.

The meeting began with an energetic debate on Australia’s commitments to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. The Global Fund is one of the world’s most successful instruments in the fight against the diseases of poverty. This was noted in our discussions and also reflected in the Australian Multilateral Assessment of the Fund (release April 2012), in which it was ranked strongly on impact but below average on some aspects of organizational behavior.

Since the Assessment was performed, the Global Fund has made significant progress in its reforms. Over coming months RESULTS will be keen to monitor and promote further progress with its members and their Parliamentarians to enable future Australian funding for the Global Fund to increase with renewed confidence.

Also raised in discussions was an issue very close to RESULTS heart – that of tuberculosis (TB). RESULTS volunteers have worked for years to raise the profile of TB amongst Australian and international decision makers – a disease that all in the meeting agreed was a major concern in our region and which required greater attention.

Acknowledging the efforts of RESULTS members to speak on behalf of people suffering from TB, Mr. Baxter suggested that we work together to further shine the light on this often overlooked disease.

An area for further discussion was the concept of a regional stakeholder meeting on tuberculosis in 2013. RESULTS would welcome working with AusAID on any initiative that has the potential to raise the profile of the disease and improve outcomes for people living with or at risk of contracting TB especially in the Asia Pacific region.

With the need to appoint a new Australian AIDS Ambassador in the near future, RESULTS may also look to support the broadening of this role to encompass both TB and Malaria. This would further demonstrate recognition of the combined impact these diseases on people living in poverty and their significance in Australia’s aid efforts.

Well done to our RESULTS members for your passion and determination to speak on behalf of the families, individuals and communities who needlessly battle against TB each day. Your advocacy over the years is inspirational in meetings such as these.

Speed up testing for TB to save lives

LAST Friday, June 8, the Ministry of Health in China released a report stating that the nation is facing a "serious epidemic" of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).

Using World Health Organisation figures as a basis for comparison, the report found that China has the highest annual number of cases of MDR-TB in the world, with a prevalence of 5.7 per cent amongst TB patients. That’s nearly twice the global average.

Another shocking piece of new information was that one in 10 Chinese patients recently treated for TB, actually had a drug-resistant strain of the highly contagious lung disease. These people would have suffered the cost and side-effects of the TB drug treatment, without any real hope of recovery.

The reason for this gross diagnostic oversight is that the current technology being used for TB diagnosis is inadequate. ‘Smear microscopy’ fails to diagnose TB in 1.8 million people every year, especially cases among women, children, and people living with HIV. In a nutshell, we are failing to detect TB amongst those who are most vulnerable, at a global level.

But there is a solution.

In December 2010, the World Health Organisation endorsed a new tool to diagnose TB: Xpert MTB/RIF (Xpert). Instead of using a microscope, this revolutionary tool uses DNA technology to rapidly identify TB bacteria in less than two hours.

By diagnosing patients correctly and in hours rather than in weeks, Xpert allows patients to immediately know their status (and form of TB contracted), helping them to receive treatment earlier, stop the spread of disease in their communities and lead healthier, more productive lives.

Xpert could be a game changer for TB control in China and globally. With the technology now available, it would be unethical to deny people access to an accurate diagnosis of their illness; a luxury that we in Australia take so much for granted.

Check out this photo blog which shows how Xpert has dramatically improved MDR-TB control in India.

One year on: GAVI Alliance on track to save 4 million lives

ONE year ago today, international donors pledged to invest $4.3 billion to immunise 250 million children and save an estimated 3.9 million lives.


At the Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) pledging conference last year, the total pledged surpassed even GAVI's own target of $3.7 billion.

With strong advocacy from RESULTS volunteers, the Australian Government more than tripled its contribution to $200 million over the period 2011-13.


And GAVI is delivering on its side of the bargain. A first-year ‘report card’ shows the Alliance is delivering on its promise to immunise 250 million children by 2015 -- and in the process save four million lives.


Some of the key milestones include:
- Routine immunisation rates across all GAVI-supported countries averaging over 80 per cent;
pentavalent vaccine introduced in 65 countries;
- Developing countries rolling out new vaccines against the major causes of the two biggest childhood killers in the world: pneumonia and severe diarrhoea.
- The first-ever GAVI funding windows for vaccines against human papillomavirus and rubella;
- Reductions in price of rotavirus and HPV vaccines for GAVI-supported programmes.
Vaccines provide a proven, cost effective intervention for saving the lives of children everywhere, particularly the world's poorest children. In a time of financial austerity and with international aid spending coming under increased scrutiny, the GAVI Alliance is a clear example of good aid in action.


RESULTS urges the GAVI Alliance to put equity front and centre of immunisation strategies in the next decade. By expanding coverage without addressing inequalities, gaps between rich and poor will widen.


One year on RESULTS congratulates the amazing achievements of the GAVI Alliance, and continues to champion the potential for immunisation to reduce poverty - urging greater efforts to reach the final 20 per cent of children around the world still left without access to vaccines.