"Integrating prevention and care: diabetes/tuberculosis and diabetes/HIV to strengthen health systems", conference co-organized on January 25, 2023 by Santé Diabète, the World Diabetes Foundation (WDF) and the AFD group (Agence française de développement).

On January 25, 2023, the conference "Integrating prevention and care : diabetes/tuberculosis and diabetes/HIV to strengthen health systems",  co-organized by Santé Diabète, the World Diabetes Foundation (WDF) and the AFD group (Agence française de développement), including Expertise France/L'Initiative, was held in Paris.

The objective of the conference was to contribute to the reflection, through the interventions of international organizations and international and field experts, around how to best integrate the prevention and management of diabetes / HIV and diabetes / TB comorbidities, to help strengthen health systems and improve people's access to health.

The conference, moderated by the scientific journalist Stéphany Gardier, took place in several phases, which successively made it possible to approach the international perspectives, and the perspectives in the field, and was punctuated by two times of Q&A with the audience, both in the room and online.

 

The opening speech by the Director of Partnerships at the French Development Agency (AFD), Anne de Soucy, was followed successively by the general introduction of Dr Slim Slama from the Department of Non-Communicable Diseases at the World Organization of Health (WHO), then by Sandra Irbe, from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM), and by Agnès Soucat (from a distance), Director of the Health and Social Protection Division at the French Development Agency (AFD), around the question: why is it important to integrate diabetes/HIV and diabetes/TB comorbidities to contribute to the strengthening of health systems?

To a question posed by one of the hundred participants connected online who asked to redefine the notion of integration, Dr Slim Slama defined it as follows: "The most important thing is to see where there is a complementarity in a person-oriented perspective. A person is not compartments or segments, but a continuity that has physical and psychological needs at different stages of life. Integration also means being able, in a health system, to meet these needs, throughout life, by ensuring, particularly in the management of chronic diseases, that there is continuity who can relate to healthcare providers.".

Secondly, the first panel addressed the international dimension around the integration of the prevention and management of Non-Communicable Diseases and infectious diseases from a dual perspective: strengthening health systems and providing health services truly centered on the needs of individuals and populations. There followed :  Sanne Frost Helt , Director of Programmes, Policies and Partnerships at the World Diabetes Foundation (WDF), Eric Fleutelot (Technical Director in the Health Department, Major Pandemics Division - AFD Group Expertise France/L’Initiative) and Dr Malick Anne (Head of the Division for the Fight against Non-Communicable Diseases, Ministry of Health of Senegal).

The second panel presented concrete examples of implementation in the countries, in particular through Dr. Kaushik Ramayia, around the experience of Tanzania in the integration of the management of comorbidities diabetes TB / Diabetes HIV; Stéphane Besançon, director of Santé Diabète, on the experience of Mali, Burkina, Comoros in the integration of Diabetes / TB and Diabetes / HIV; by Gabrièle Laborde-balen, around the experience of the VIHeillir project, which aims to improve the health of people living with HIV by integrating management of the most frequent comorbidities into HIV services for PLHIV and finally to Dr Lisa Huang from Expertise France, through the experience of the Success project, which aims to strengthen secondary prevention by preventing the development of cancer in women infected with the human papillomavirus (HPV).

 

The conference can be watched on our YouTube channel and at this link :

 

The conference brochure, with the full program and speaker biographies, can be downloaded here.