The Task Force for Global Health

Greater collaboration is needed among stakeholders to ensure all countries have the capacity to respond effectively to disease outbreaks. That was the consensus of a June meeting of global health leaders who met at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center in Italy to develop a roadmap for building global field epidemiology capacity. The Task Force for… Read More

​ In Kenya, the African Health Workforce Project (AHWP) has assisted the ministry of health in the development and implementation of human resource information systems (rHRIS) to strengthen management of the country’s 80,000 healthcare workers. In this video, AHWP Director Martha Rogers, MD, discusses how these systems could potentially transform health systems in countries throughout… Read More

By Joseph J. Amon and David G. Addiss On a hot, humid summer evening in Haiti many years ago, a young woman sought care for her swollen leg. Scientists from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tested her blood for the presumed cause of the swelling – a parasitic disease known as… Read More

Task Force Trachoma Program Celebrates 20 years of Progress When The Task Force’s International Trachoma Initiative (ITI) began in 1998, there were large knowledge gaps in the transmission and control of the disease. ITI knew that people were going blind from an ancient scourge; that simple public health interventions could prevent blindness from trachoma; and that it… Read More

​ The Task Force program ​MedSurplus Alliance (MSA) enables organizations to ensure that medical products donated to help countries during a natural disaster ​are useful and usable. For instance, during the recent earthquake and volcanic eruption in Guatemala, MSA worked with partners to get respiratory masks and medical equipment to affected areas. “Avoiding the second disaster… Read More

When Ahlam Awad Mohammed was awarded the Hilton Prize Coalition Fellowship through The Task Force for Global Health (TFGH), it was at a point in her career when she had decided to switch gears. Although she had just obtained her Master’s degree in public health, most of her public health experience had focused on research in… Read More

A promising new treatment strategy to accelerate elimination of the disfiguring neglected tropical disease lymphatic filariasis (LF) is expected to roll out later this year in Kenya – and possibly, three other countries – due to the concerted efforts of The Task Force for Global Health and its partners. LF is a parasitic disease spread… Read More

The Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) Network aims to reduce childhood mortality around the world by identifying what exactly is killing children under five years of age. The Task Force’s Public Health Informatics Institute (PHII) is a partner of this ambitious initiative, and is responsible for developing the data transportation process and managing… Read More

By Joseph Bresee The development of a universal influenza vaccine has long been a public health goal, but it has thus far proven elusive. The April announcement of a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Page Family (Larry Page, co-founder of Google) $12-million funding opportunity for innovative approaches to the development of a “universal”… Read More

By David Addiss On a hot August morning along a dusty road near Leogane, Haiti, a farmer approached us, holding his sick infant daughter in his arms. His eyes met mine as he pleaded for help. The little girl was suffering from severe diarrhea. As a physician, I could see that she needed urgent hospital… Read More