Djesika Amendah

African| Researcher| PhD Health Economics| Views are my own| Work: African Constituencies Bureau - For the Global Fund | Accountability for health resources

[World Health Organization (WHO) @WHO]

Today is #SickleCell Awareness Day 🩸

40% more people are living with sickle cell disease today than in 2000. It is a growing health challenge, affecting around 7.7 million people in the world today.

This means more health workers – incl. maternity providers - need to know how to manage the disease.

WHO consolidated guidelines for the management of common childhood illness: management of sickle-cell disease in children and adolescents https://t.co/74zNhcz7xD

[Djesika Amendah @damendah]

Another way to add dignity can also be to add the West African or Muslim custom of holding remembrance ceremonies or prayers a while after the burial. It can be at the end of the outbreak, 3 or 6 months after (Muslims hold the prayer 40 days later), either way after it is safe to gather.

[WHO African Region @WHOAFRO]

Bodies of people who have died from #Ebola can still infect you with the virus. Safe and dignified burials are critical to stem the outbreak.

Find out more ⬇️

#ViralFactsAfrica
@viralfacts

[Djesika Amendah @damendah]

Congrats to this country What does it take to eradicate mother-to-child-transmission?

West and central Africa want to learn and apply it.

[Winnie Byanyima @Winnie_Byanyima]

👏🏾👏🏾 Congratulations to 🇹🇨 on becoming the 13th country in the Caribbean certified by @WHO for eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV! #UnitedToEndAIDS

[Djesika Amendah @damendah]

The challenge is not finding policies or interventions that benefit the majority.
It's overcoming the tendency to favor the few at the expense of the many.
Democracy was supposed to be a solution for this kind of problems. In our context, sadly, it is not!

[Dr. Catherine Kyobutungi Muzukulu wa Bityo @CKyobutungi]

We are poor country that can't afford to pay a whole 2000 interns the very huge sum of $3200 per year (each).
We are also a poor country that has enough money to spend on all sorts of useless things.
We are also a poor country in common sense
#PayAllInterns
#PayMedicalInterns
#InternsNotSlaves

[Djesika Amendah @damendah]

Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision protects them and women too! Win-win

[GlobalHIVPreventionCoalition @GPCoalition]

Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision is a safe one-time procedure with up to 60% HIV risk reduction.

By 2024, more than 650 000 new HIV infections were averted.

To keep VMMC impactful -
✅Combine services & shift tasks to trained providers
✅Target high-incidence districts

[Kalipso Chalkidou @kchalkidou]

"systems strengthening should involve evidence-based prioritization of country-level resources, based on local needs and cost-effectiveness; supporting the transition to more cost-effective policies; and generating evidence which often directly leads to systems strengthening." https://t.co/FYkoJpKwUY

[PATA @teampata]

#InternationalChildrensDay Children & adolescents remain under-prioritised in HIV policy & financing conversations. As the HIV response evolves, it is critical that children are not lost in wider discussions on financing and health systems reform.
➡️ https://t.co/sdUW35axLr

[Children and HIV @childrenandHIV]

Today on #InternationalChildrensDay, we reaffirm our commitment to ensuring children & adolescents remain visible, prioritised & funded within the HIV response. Decisions made now will shape the future of HIV care for the next generation. Read the blog: https://t.co/JY8YHGv3ZQ

[Djesika Amendah @damendah]

Can our countries realistically allocate 15% of public spending to health while also meeting commitments to agriculture, education, infrastructure and other sectors?
That said, we can and should do much better than the current 5–7% average spent on health.

And when we do spend more, let's not devote most of it to hospitals and curative care. Prevention, primary health care, and community systems deliver far greater value.

[Fredros Okumu @Fredros_Inc]

@yodifiji 100%

[Unitaid @UNITAID]

When health innovations are scaled effectively and made accessible, their impact multiplies.

For 20 years, we have worked to close the gap between innovation and access.

150+ innovations. 320M people reached annually. 46:1 return on investment.

[Igor Buinevici @Igor_Buinevici]

Stop paying thousands for AI courses right now.

Here are the top 10 free AI learning platforms.

Sharing this great compilation from Andreas Horn.

1. Anthropic

🔗 https://t.co/ZMePmXQCbd

2️. Google

🔗 https://t.co/maJjbyRjNj

3. Meta

🔗 https://t.co/jktVXlKSv5

4️. NVIDIA

🔗 https://t.co/EU5vpQIxfw

5️. Microsoft

🔗 https://t.co/qYKD6Sjr51

6️. OpenAI

🔗 https://t.co/UUhvJ4cuda

7️. IBM

🔗 https://t.co/ipo07rF8rn

8️. AWS

🔗 https://t.co/fd64Z6hTxA

9️. DeepLearningAI

🔗 https://t.co/C8SYgxu0Lt

10. Hugging Face

🔗 https://t.co/6h5ADwJ5a2

You can build strong AI skills without spending money.

What matters most is your learning system:

→ Choose one focused learning path
→ Study consistently for 30 to 45 minutes daily
→ Apply knowledge while learning
→ Share progress publicly
→ Repeat for 90 days

This approach beats passive learning without execution.

Paid courses are not always bad.

Many people buy confidence instead of real capability.

Consistency and execution matter more than expensive courses.

Building in public accelerates real skill development.

P.S. Which learning habit will you commit to today?

♻️ Repost this for those investing wisely in AI skills.

——

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[Djesika Amendah @damendah]

Great and all true, single dose, easy to administer and preferably would not need cold chain

[Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) @MedsforMalaria]

As #malaria becomes more complex, we need simpler tools.

#Innovations like single-dose cures & long-acting injectables can accelerate elimination in complex settings.

Because the best innovations are the ones people actually use. That’s what makes them elimination accelerators.

[African Constituency Bureau @acb4gf]

Stakeholders from ESA & WCA are invited to a Constituency Call on Global Fund GC8 Strategic Shifts: Community, Rights & Gender in GC8
📅 29 May 2026
🕙 10:00 GMT / 1:00 EAT
📍 Zoom: https://t.co/IsjjN4eH44
Join the conversation shaping GC8!

[Kalipso Chalkidou @kchalkidou]

“A well-designed reform that is poorly implemented will not save lives. Donor-funded systems that are not anchored in national institutions will not outlast the funding.” https://t.co/Ql78e5xQUq

[Dr. Misheck Ruwende @drruwende]

Today, Africa day, allow me to celebrate our own, 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗭𝗶𝗺𝗯𝗮𝗯𝘄𝗲

Prof. Christopher J. Chetsanga, 90 years, (PhD Univ. of Toronto, 1969; postdoc fellow, Harvard Univ., 1969-72) is prof. of Biochemistry at the Univ. of Zimbabwe, Harare since 1983, a prominent Zimbabwean scientist who is a member of the African Academy of Sciences and The World Academy of Sciences.

Prof. Chetsanga has discovered two enzymes involved in the repair of damaged DNA: (𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒊𝒕
) firstly, formamidopyrimidine DNA glycosylase, which removes damaged 7-methylguanine from DNA (1979) and secondly, purine imidazole-ring cyclase, which re-closes imidazole rings of guanine and adenine damaged by x-irradiation (1985).

Professor Chetsanga is a UNESCO Gold Medal Award winner and former UNESCO Executive Board member among others

[Unitaid @UNITAID]

Health innovation doesn’t automatically reach the people who need it.

We work between development and scale to fix the barriers—pricing, supply insecurity, fragmented demand, and limited manufacturing capacity.

The goal: get innovations to people faster and more affordably.

[Djesika Amendah @damendah]

It is a matter of priority. Children and their mothers are not considered priority or key populations to use the appropriate terminology.
We can´t be surprised by the results.

[Children and HIV @childrenandHIV]

Ending pediatric HIV and mother-to-child transmission is no longer a scientific question - it is a delivery and a health systems question. Read the article in @voxdotcom from @EGPAF #reachallchildren

[IDEA TV @ideatelevision]

GLOBAL RESEARCH REVIEW ON IDEA TV
The new African Journal of Health Economics, Systems & Policy (AJHESP) is leading the conversation on self-reliance and health sovereignty.

Watch the full review → https://t.co/hYunEyJSq8

@AfricaCDC @EdwineBarasa @seyeabimbola

[Djesika Amendah @damendah]

@Hanouamendah

[Dr. M.F. Khan @Dr_TheHistories]

Instead of hiding his daughter with Down syndrome, Charles de Gaulle raised her proudly and she became the heart of his life....

When Charles de Gaulle died in 1970, he made a quiet request that surprised many. He did not want a grand state funeral in Paris. He asked to be buried in the small village of Colombey les Deux Églises, beside his daughter Anne. For him, that resting place mattered more than any monument.

Anne was born on New Year’s Day in 1928, youngest of three children. She had Down syndrome, a condition surrounded by fear and misinformation at the time. Doctors and society often blamed parents and urged families to hide children like her from public view. For families of power and status, sending such children away was considered normal. Charles and his wife Yvonne refused. They raised Anne at home with her brother Philippe and sister Élisabeth. There was no secrecy, no shame, no separation. She was simply their daughter.

To the world, de Gaulle was distant and unyielding. A leader shaped by war, discipline, and command. But inside his home, Anne revealed a side few ever saw. With her, he laughed freely. He sang songs, told stories, and played games. Friends noticed that the man who rarely showed emotion softened completely in her presence. He called her my joy. Anne asked nothing of him except love, and in that simplicity, he found peace. She was never treated as fragile or inferior. She was respected fully, included always, and loved without condition.

That love did not end within the family. After the war, Charles and Yvonne founded the Fondation Anne de Gaulle. They turned a château into a home for young women with intellectual disabilities, many of whom had been abandoned. At a time when support barely existed, they chose action over silence.

Anne’s life was short. She died of pneumonia in 1948, just after turning twenty, in her father’s arms. In his grief, de Gaulle whispered that now she was like the others, finally free from the limits the world had placed on her.

After her death, he carried her photograph everywhere. He believed her presence protected him, even during an assassination attempt years later. Whether faith or fate, he never doubted her importance in his life.

Charles de Gaulle found his deepest calm not in leadership or victory, but in loving a child the world did not understand. His family showed that dignity is not about ability. It is about how fiercely we choose to care.

© Soul Whisper

#drthehistories

[Djesika Amendah @damendah]

Even for medications and other health commodities like mosquito nets, we do not conduct post market surveillance.

We court disaster!

[Dr. Catherine Kyobutungi Muzukulu wa Bityo @CKyobutungi]

-In Africa, the problem is made worse by a regulatory vacuum. Many countries have no mandatory safety testing before hair products reach shelves. Ingredient labels are mostly incomplete or absent with no legal obligation for manufacturers to disclose formulations.
#HealthEquity