Role of Public-Private Partnerships in Meeting Healthcare Challenges in Africa: A Perspective From the Public Sector.

Abstract

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) align public and private needs around mutual goals to move vital projects forward. When PPPs work to strengthen the critical link in the healthcare system, such aslaboratorynetworks,as demonstrated inthissupplementbyauthors from the International Laboratory Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in-country officials from therespectiveCDCandMinistriesofHealth,implementingpartners, and Becton, Dickinson, and Company (BD), they significantly change the landscape of healthcare and patient outcomes. The laboratory networks in African countries supported by a PPP between BD and US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief are achieving a positive transformation. Over the years, thePPPhasdemonstratedsignificantcontributionsindeveloping a more competent laboratory workforce, reinforced laboratory systems, and improved treatment efficiencies by significantly reducing turnaround time to provide accurate laboratory results to patients afflicted by deadly diseases, such as multidrug resistant tuberculosis and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This PPP has not just improved efficiencies in the countries where they exist, it has also provided a successful model for other low-income countries to consider. The effort needed to meet the UNAIDS 90-90-90 treatment goals to help end the AIDS epidemic by 2020 is tremendous, and neither governments nor the private sector can do it alone. These goals, which state that, by 2020, all people living with HIV will know their HIV status, 90% of all people with diagnosed HIV infection will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy, and 90% of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression, are being significantly advanced as a result of this collaboration. We encourage more entities—public, private, health ministries, and nongovernmental organizations— to consider PPPs as an opportunity to efficiently and synergistically meet the needs of people living with HIV/AIDS and of their caregivers.