Global Health Solutions

The International Trachoma Initiative (ITI) works tirelessly for a world free from trachoma, even in the midst of a global pandemic. ITI contributes to the ultimate elimination of trachoma by stewarding Pfizer's donation of Zithromax(R) to treat and prevent the condition; building and strengthening partnerships to accelerate progress; and developing innovative tools to share data. One of the many highlights of 2020 involved ITI delivering the country of Nauru its first-ever Zithromax(R) shipment; from Brussels to Singapore to Brisbane to Nauru, the shipment included 14,448 treatments with a total distance of 12,451 miles. Nauru conducted its first trachoma mass drug administration (MDA) in May 2020 and wrapped up MDAs in June 2020. Between September 2019 to August 2020, ITI also organized just-in-time shipments of 29,754,936 million treatments for trachoma shipped to be distributed at MDAs in 15 countries. In the first nine months of 2020, more than 9 million people no longer needed Zithromax(R) for trachoma treatment (as of August 25, 2020). As of August 2020, ITI has shipped more than 905 million treatments to trachoma endemic countries since 1999. ITI continued its data management support for Tropical Data, a free mobile phone-based service to support trachoma programs as they conduct prevalence surveys, providing them with robust data for decision making on where antibiotic treatments are needed and where they can be stopped. As a key player in the global trachoma community, there have been tremendous achievements in reducing the population at risk of blindness from trachoma from an estimated 1.2 billion people in 2000 to 136.9 million in May 2020 according to the World Health Organization's (WHO) Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER). ITI will continue to work smarter so that the dream of a trachoma free world becomes a reality.

The Partnership for Influenza Vaccine Introduction (PIVI) is a public/private program that works in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Ministries of Health, corporate partners and others to create sustainable, seasonal influenza vaccination programs in low- and middle-income countries. PIVI donated 18,500 influenza vaccines during the FY (to Macedonia and Cote d'Ivoire), and awarded 10 sub-awards including: Albania (communications, capacity building for flu fighters); Bhutan (multi-year award - communications materials, capacity building for health workers); Cote d'Ivoire (operational costs for vaccinating health workers); Kenya (assess introduction of flu program on EPI rates); Laos (multi-year award - estimate cost of flu illness outpatient/inpatient, conduct iPIE to estimate cost of flu program); Kyrgyzstan (multi-year - NITAG training, economic burden study); Mongolia (KAP, communications materials); North Macedonia (communications materials, health worker training, improve cold chain, increase accessibility of flu vaccine); SECID (multi-year - analysis of joint procurement, training on flu vaccination), Vietnam (multi-year - 3 regional workshops and AEFI surveillance). Ready2Respond (R2R) is a global collaboration of partners from the public, private and non-profit sectors committed to augmenting low- and middle-income countries' readiness to respond against influenza and emerging respiratory viral pandemics. In March 2020, Vaccine published the March 2019 R2R conference report: Shaping meeting to explore the value of a coordinated work plan for epidemic and pandemic influenza vaccine preparedness. R2R engaged the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota to conduct a survey, of public health officials in low- and middle-income countries in the Fall of 2019 to gain country-specific perspectives on critical barriers and activities for initiating, expanding, or maintaining seasonal influenza vaccination programs. Input from the survey helped inform the creation of the R2R draft strategic plan which was present to the full membership in August 2020. R2R engaged Porter Novelli to support the writing and pitching of opinion-editorials on the importance of seasonal influenza. R2R held virtual meetings for the full membership on February 21, June 5 and August 6. The Global Funders Consortium for Universal Influenza Vaccine Development is a mechanism to bring together major funders of research and development of universal influenza vaccines along with key stakeholders to accelerate progress in the field through creating a common landscape, identifying critical gaps, and coordinating around a common vision. During FY20 the Consortium convened its third annual in-person meeting (November 2019) to review work done and plan for the coming year. During this meeting, the Consortium conducted its first industry engagement meeting which was attended by 14 manufacturers and several funders and provided an open discussion on universal influenza development from the industry perspective. Progress over the past FY included: creating a mechanism for sharing data and activities - including meeting, calls, web-site, peer-reviewed papers, industry engagement, annual meetings and reports; initiating work on tools for stakeholders including - Influenza Vaccine Roadmap; Technology Landscape; Protocol Sharing Platform; a meeting on Modelling for Investment Case for Universal Influenza Vaccine; and facilitating co-funding opportunities including - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Flu Lab Grand Challenges; European Union / Indian Collaboration; Innovation working Group; Sabin-Aspen Vaccine & Policy Group; and the Industry Engagement Work Group.

In 2020, Mectizan Donation Program(MDP) approved 433 million treatments including 371.5 million treatments in countries where LF and onchocerciasis are co-endemic and 61.5 million treatments in IDA countries and actively contributed in the promotion of the new WHO NTD road map and participated in many virtual meetings. At country level, because of the pandemic, the 2020 MDAs were cancelled in part of or in all endemic districts in many African countries like Nigeria which received 48% of the 749.8 million tablets shipped in 2020. Part of the 2020 budget surplus was reallocated in a special grant announced by Merck to support countries through the partner NGO in their effort to prevent SARS-Cov2 contamination when resuming MDA in countries. As of December 31, 2020, seven grants were disbursed including two to The Carter Center for Ethiopia and Nigeria, two to Christian Blind Mission for CAR and South Sudan, three to Helen Keller International for Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria. The remaining have been carried over to be issued in 2021.