The Task Force for Global Health

The Hilton Prize Coalition’s Leading Thoughts series provides a glimpse into the approaches driving recipients of the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize. In this video, Task Force President and Chief Executive Officer Dave Ross, ScD, reflects on the importance of health systems strengthening to creating lasting change. See the video here.

By Meg Farrell, MPH, Polio Eradication Support, The Task Force for Global Health I recently had the opportunity to travel to Nigeria to help assess the country’s ongoing response to a polio outbreak. In my role, I am posted to UNICEF where I support the multi-partner Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). Nigeria has had a… Read More

Building on the success of the first-ever massive online course (MOOC) on trachoma elimination, The Task Force’s International Trachoma Initiative (ITI) and partners are now providing another opportunity for public health professionals to learn about strategies for eliminating the bacterial disease. Nearly 2,800 public health professionals in 64 countries took part in the first MOOC… Read More

A universal influenza vaccine has long been the Holy Grail of protection against the disease and the threat of a pandemic, but progress has been slow in its development. Now a new initiative is being launched at The Task Force for Global Health to accelerate the development of a vaccine that could provide long-term protection… Read More

By Dave Ross, Paul Emerson, Rubina Imtiaz, Eric Ottesen and Yao Sodahlon This article originally appeared in The Huffington Post. Neglected tropical diseases, or NTDs, take an enormous toll on the more than 1 billion people they afflict. Left untreated, these infections can lead to blindness, impaired cognitive development, decreased mobility, debilitating stigma, and even… Read More

With support from The Mectizan Donation Program (MDP) at The Task Force, Togo is now the first country in Africa to eliminate lymphatic filariasis (LF) as a public health problem. LF is a debilitating infection caused by a parasite transmitted by mosquitoes. An estimated 120 million people in 73 countries live with the disease, which… Read More

In order to bring greater transparency to the global trachoma elimination program, the International Trachoma Initiative (ITI), a program of The Task Force for Global Health, has developed a new online system called the Zithromax® Shipment Tracker to monitor shipments of this antibiotic from manufacturing facilities to program distribution sites. ITI manages Pfizer’s donation of… Read More

As Pakistan enters the ‘last mile’ of polio eradication, The Task Force is supporting efforts to ensure all children in the country are immunized against the disease. With only two cases of polio reported so far in 2017, Pakistan is on the cusp of interrupting transmission of the disease. In recent years, the National Stop… Read More

On April 16, the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, or DFID, announced a $12.5-million grant to The Task Force’s Neglected Tropical Diseases Support Center to expand operational research studies focused on controlling and eliminating neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in countries where these diseases are endemic. The new funding will support the collaborative activities of… Read More

By Dave Ross, ScD, President and Chief Executive Officer for The Task Force for Global Health Most people in the world do not have access to medicines available to people in the United States and Europe. As many as 6 billion people cannot afford drugs that we take for granted in the United States such… Read More