Ukraine is facing extraordinary challenges to its health system amidst the Russian invasion, including attacks on Ukrainian medical facilities and infrastructure. To restore and maintain critical health services to Ukraine’s dispersed population, the Ministry of Health is strengthening its capacity to offer medical consultations via telemedicine. This two-page Progress Update describes LHSS technical assistance for the effort and results as of January 2023.

LHSS is supporting local government institutions in Bangladesh’s densely populated Rajshahi and Sylhet Divisions to expand access to primary health services and reduce out-of-pocket expenditures for low-income urban residents. 

2022 marked Vietnam's 10-year journey to sustain its HIV response with domestic financing (2013 – 2022).  The country now stands out as a global example for sustainability and domestic resource mobilization for its HIV program.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused many doctors to leave the country, compromised patients’ safety when seeking care, and displaced large portions of the population away from their primary health care providers. A strong national telemedicine system will be key to assuring access to health services for Ukrainians, now and in the future. Experiences from other conflict/disaster areas may provide insights, helping Ukraine assess and implement its own telemedicine response.

Ukraine prioritizes telemedicine as part of its comprehensive health reform to increase transparency of health service provision, expand access to quality health services, and enhance efficiency in the health sector.

The Vietnam government transitions funding of TB treatment to the SHI fund with support from LHSS. This transition marks a critical milestone, ensuring uninterrupted access to life-saving treatment.

LHSS features four poster presentations at 24th International AIDS Conference.

This brief highlights learnings from working with local government leaders of two city corporations and ten district-level municipalities from the Rajshahi and Sylhet divisions in Bangladesh.

In Bangladesh, LHSS has built relationships with ministries, departments, and development partners to support its objective of assisting urban primary health care delivery. This newsletter provides detailed information about the latest news, updates, and activities in Bangladesh.

Vietnam is one of the 30 countries with the highest burden of TB and drug-resistant TB in the world, with more than 172,000 cases and 10,400 deaths from TB in Vietnam in 2020 (WHO).  On July 1, TB treatment facilities nationwide started providing TB drugs to patients through social health insurance, marking an important milestone for financial sustainability.

This report presents findings from LHSS Vietnam's international review of diagnosis-related group contracts and provides a series of evaluations and recommendations.

Both Ghana and Bangladesh have implemented health budget accountability mechanisms. Their experiences offer practical lessons that other countries can adapt to their own budget execution needs. 

This rapid assessment aimed to determine which health facilities in seven high-TB burden provinces of Vietnam meet social health insurance (SHI) requirements for TB service provision and for reimbursement of TB services through the SHI scheme.

This report provides a review of international experience to draw out practical and scientific approaches for both the Ministry of Health (MOH) and Vietnam Social Security (VSS) to consider. Conclusions and recommendations are provided.

This report describes key private sector players and their types of engagement in malaria programming in Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, and Uganda.