Using malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) in registered drug shops in a highly endemic region in Uganda substantially reduced over diagnosis of malaria, improving the use of valuable malaria drugs, according to a new study published in PLOS ONE.

Most of the 15,000 patients that visited drug shops with a fever chose to buy an RDT when offered one by the trained vendors taking part in the study. Once they performed the test, results showed that less than 60% of the patients had, in fact, malaria. The vendors usually complied with the test results, reducing over prescription of malaria drugs by 73%.

The researchers from the Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy (ACT) Consortium at the Ministry of Health in Uganda and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in the UK carried out the study because up to 80% of malaria cases in Uganda are treated in the private sector.

The private sector is a common source of treatment in many other malaria-endemic areas, especially where there is poor access to public health facilities. Patients buy antimalarial drugs in shops to medicate themselves, although malaria is not always the cause of their fever, and thus inappropriate treatment is very common.

Prof. Anthony Mbonye from the Ugandan Ministry of Health and lead author of the study, said: “Our findings show that it is feasible to collaborate with the private health sector and introduce malaria RDTs in drug shops. The next step is to refine the strategy and understand the cost implications of scaling it up in Uganda. Our long term aim is to provide evidence to help the World Health Organization develop guidance to improve malaria treatment in the private sector.”

Dr Sian Clarke from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, also a principal investigator in the research, said: “This study shows that RDTs can improve the use of ACTs – the most effective treatment for malaria – in drug shops, but it’s not without its challenges. These tests alone will not improve the treatment of other diseases. We now need to continue working with the Ministry of Health to investigate how to improve our approach and expand it to other common illnesses.”

At present, drug shop vendors usually treat patients based on their signs and symptoms without testing their blood for the presence of malaria parasites, as recommended by the World Health Organization. This can result in patients with a fever being over diagnosed with malaria and purchasing an ACT which they don’t need.

Microscopy is a method that requires laboratory equipment and qualified staff, while RDTs are alternative, simple tools that require minimal training to diagnose malaria. These rapid tests can help health workers and vendors in remote locations to prescribe the correct treatment for malaria.

An investigation conducted alongside the trial, published in Critical Public Health, found that despite their popularity, malaria tests were not a simple fix in the private sector. Patients welcomed the RDTs as well as government involvement in improving drug shops, and vendors “felt big” and more akin to qualified health workers in the public sector for being allowed to test blood. But researchers warn that this could give a false impression of vendors’ other skills and services, and regulation by authorities is needed.

The team has recently received a new grant to investigate the feasibility of training and equipping registered drug shops to manage three key childhood diseases: malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea.

The ACT Consortium is funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

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Sub-Saharan Africa will need to create an average of 15-20 million new jobs per year over the next three decades to meet the current growth – GE Africa Future of Work White Paper

NAIROBI, Kenya, July 23, 2015/ — Today, ahead of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi, announced a series of new commitments aimed at addressing some of the most critical health challenges in East Africa through a sustained focus on skills development and capacity building. Among the investments, GE announced:

The establishment of the GE Healthcare Skills and Training Institute in Kenya, GE’s first-ever dedicated healthcare skills advancement center in Africa and 1.7 US dollar M GE Foundation grant for Biomedical Equipment Training and Safe Surgery programs in Ethiopia.

As outlined in the GE Africa Future of Work White Paper, launched today, entitled, Building Strong Workforces to Power Africa’s Growth, Sub-Saharan Africa will need to create an average of 15-20 million new jobs per year over the next three decades to meet the current growth, presenting a considerable challenge to the labor market given the low rates of formal employment.

Moreover, the global health sector, especially in developing markets, is facing critical workforce shortages. Africa is ranking the lowest in the availability of health personnel with 12 percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of the world’s burden of diseases, Sub-Saharan Africa has only 3 percent of the world’s health workforce.

According to the White Paper, the African urbanization story underscores the need for governments and their partners to invest aggressively in enhancing skills.

Farid Fezoua, President & CEO of GE healthcare Africa said, “Investing in the training and education of healthcare professionals to strengthen capability building is one of the greatest enablers for sustainable healthcare development.

GE healthcare’s education strategy integrates technology and localization in the design and deployment of tailored education solutions including the establishment of new healthcare training centers, locally configured curricula and a range of education partnerships with leading regional academic institutions and global partners.

As a major force for change, we aim to increase access to localized education, training and skills development programs for more healthcare workers across Africa.”

GE Healthcare Skills and Training Institute, Kenya

Selected in February 2015 as a key technology and solutions partner by the Kenyan Ministry of Health (MoH) as part of its ~USD 420 million healthcare transformation plan, GE is committed to supporting knowledge-sharing and capacity building in Kenya and across East Africa. As a cornerstone of the mega-modernization program, GE will launch the new GE Healthcare Skills and Training Institute in Kenya, representing a long-term investment of at least $13 million over the next 10 years.

With specialized GE healthcare training facilities across the globe, the centre is set to become GE’s first dedicated skills development facility in Africa when inaugurated in Nairobi later in Q4 2015 that will serve Kenya and the wider East Africa.

The GE healthcare Skills and Training Institute will initially offer biomedical and clinical applications training courses and over the longer-term will be expanded to offer leadership, technical and clinical education courses, working with the MoH, private healthcare providers and other educational partners, with the goal to train over 1,000 healthcare professionals over the next three years.

In East Africa, where there is a significant shortage of qualified healthcare professionals, the localization of vocational and leadership training courses aims to support the development of a pipeline of future biomedical engineers, radiologists and technicians, helping to reduce the skills gap, improve job prospects and build a solid national healthcare system and private healthcare sector.

The Kenya training center is part of GE Healthcare’s global commitment to invest over $1 billion in the development and delivery of localized offerings for the healthcare sector, including a new class of technology-enabled training solutions by 2020. Moreover, as part of this commitment, GE Healthcare aims to deliver enhanced training for over two million health professionals globally that is expected to help healthcare systems drive better patient outcomes and benefit more than 350 million patients worldwide by 2020.

Ethiopia Biomedical Equipment Training (BMET) Center of Excellence

GE Foundation’s first Biomedical Equipment Training (BMET) program in Ethiopia responds to the shortage of skilled healthcare workers and functional medical equipment. The BMET Center of Excellence (COE) builds on the success of prior BMET programming in Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Honduras and Cambodia and expands the commitment by creating a COE within a hospital setting to translate learning to actual work processes.

The COE “workshop” will set a benchmark for hands-on training and process replication, further strengthening healthcare systems. Training participants will benefit from a well-rounded curriculum including professional management and customer service skills, in-hospital clinical application, asset management and financial reporting skills and professional development.

This three-year program grant will help fund the development of the training to educate biomedical technicians in Ethiopia to respond to the shortage of functional medical equipment, by focusing on repairing – not replacing – equipment using available resources. Programs such as these can help local hospitals increase availability of medical equipment – such as incubators for infants – by up to 43% in some cases.

Safe Surgery Program in Ethiopia

With a significant training component, the GE Foundation commitment to improving safe surgery in Ethiopia will be delivered through a new partnership with Lifebox, a non-governmental organization focused on implementation of the WHO Safe Surgical Checklist. This program aims to standardize safe surgery by increasing access to and quality of surgery, reducing surgical complications, and preventing patient deaths in the region.

In collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the program will help develop a surgical operating standards program to serve as a pilot for a country-wide intervention, with local champions from surgical, anesthesia, and nursing backgrounds serving as program leaders. The program will also provide guidance, and help coordinate the implementation of safe surgical standards with a focus on localization. The ultimate goal of the partnership is to expand country-wide through collaboration with local partners including ministries, NGOs, professional societies, teaching institutions, and peer-to-peer networks.

“Safe Surgery has long been a neglected area of global health, and universal access to an essential set of surgical procedures would prevent 1.5 million deaths around the world every year,” said Dr. David Barash, Executive Director, Global Health Portfolio, and Chief Medical Officer, GE Foundation.

Adding “It’s tragic that millions of people are dying from common, easily treated conditions like appendicitis, fractures or obstructed labor because they do not have access to proper surgical care.We are especially pleased to launch this partnership focused on access to safe surgery with Lifebox, given their success implementing the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist, leading to a nearly 60% reduction in the total number of preoperative complications in low-resource settings.”

This program grant will be delivered over 18 months, focusing on a Center of Excellence for health worker training, leadership development, improvement in Safe Surgery Standards compliance, and create guidelines for measuring surgical site infections, postoperative mortality, and other complications.

Earlier this year, the GE Foundation participated in the launch of a major new Commission on safe surgery published in The Lancet.

The Commission notes that five billion people worldwide do not have access to safe and affordable surgery and anesthesia when they need it, and access is worst in low- and lower-middle income countries, where as many as nine out of ten people cannot access basic surgical care. The GE Foundation Biomedical Equipment Technician (BMET) training program was highlighted in the Commission as a “best in class” model for sustainable training.

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