Closing pandemic health gaps

Advancing equity, policy and person-centred approaches

This interdisciplinary working group focuses in particular on HIV, COVID-19 and equitable health policies. It works at the nexus of targeted interventions for specific population groups regarding access to prevention, diagnostics and treatment services (community and facility-based) and informing and improving pandemic policies, also in Germany and at the European level. 

Guided by the sustainable_development_framework and the pandemic_treaty, research is conducted globally (in LMICs in cooperation with local partners as well as in Germany/Europe) and contributes to closing the gap in achieving epidemic control. With the US Government withdrawing the bulk of its health funding for LMICs, the situation for ending AIDS by 2030 is severely threatened and will call for co-designing new and creative measures. The group will also engage in optimizing an integrated person-centred approach to improve the health of population groups increasingly affected by syndemics. 

We employ a variety of methodologies, including mixed methods approaches, human-centred design-thinking and document research to generate evidence-based insights with the aim to enhance the appropriateness of pandemic interventions, to leave no one behind and to do no harm.

Present research includes the following study areas:

HIV

• The felt impact of the US funding cuts in Sub-Saharan Africa (several countries)
• Tailored HIV service delivery for men who have sex with women (Malawi)
• Stakeholders’ understanding of Undetectable=Untransmissible (Malawi)
• Ageing population’s acceptance of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) (South Africa)

 

COVID-19

• Lessons learnt from COVID-19 and the role of Germany’s public health institute (Germany)
• Children’s and families’ experiences of COVID-19 measures in Germany

 

TB

• How to close the diagnostic gaps in Germany - an exploratory study 

 

EU and GLOBAL HEALTH

• Exploring the EU’s pharmaceutical policies in addressing antimicrobial resistance globally
• Equitable Global Health approaches in EU policies, frameworks and pandemic preparedness