Optimizing HIV Treatment Access

The Optimizing HIV Treatment Access (OHTA) Initiative (2012—2017), funded by Sweden and Norway through UNICEF, supported the scale-up of lifelong antiretroviral therapy (ART) for pregnant and breastfeeding women living with HIV. The project focused on four countries with a high HIV burden: Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi and Uganda. OHTA aimed to strengthen health systems to deliver lifelong treatment (also known as ‘Option B+’) for pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers living with HIV.

The three objectives of OHTA were:

  1. More effective delivery of treatment for pregnant women and mothers living with HIV by strengthening the capacity of the primary health-care system;
  2. Increase demand timely utilization and retention rates in prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) services;
  3. Strengthening monitoring and evaluation (M&E) efforts to improve health service delivery for pregnant and breastfeeding women living with HIV and their children.


PROMISING PRACTICES FROM THE OHTA INITIATIVE

Innovative Approaches for Eliminating Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV

In 2018, OHTA released a report documenting several promising practices focused on community engagement for PMTCT based on experiences in Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, and Uganda.

In an effort to strengthen cross-country learning about effective community engagement activities and inform future PMTCT programming, the Innovative Approaches for Eliminating Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV report includes implementation details, outcomes, factors for success, and considerations for scale-up and sustainability based on the OHTA Initiative’s experiences. The information and data included in this report were collected by project staff in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) through a desk review of existing OHTA Initiative documents, including annual reports, partner reports, and presentations. CCP and project staff also made site visits to each country to conduct interviews and focus group discussions with the implementing organisations, programme participants, and Ministries of Health (MOHs).

Five promising practices for the elimination of mother-to-child transmission were identified based on the collective experiences in all four countries. The following reports provide a detailed description of each promising practice, including similarities and differences with implementation in each country, outcomes of the promising practice, factors for success, and essential programme elements.

Community Client Tracing

Health Advisory Committees (HACs)

Male Engagement

Community Mentor Mothers

Rationalization of Implementing Partners and Services

 

    Elimination Mother-to-Child Transmission off HIV and Syphilis

    This guidance document provides standardized processes and consensus-developed criteria to validate EMTCT of HIV and syphilis, and to recognize high-HIV burden countries that have made significant progress on the path to elimination. The guidance places strong emphasis on country-led accountability, rigorous analysis, intensive programme assessment and multilevel collaboration, including the involvement of communities of women living with HIV. It provides guidance to evaluate the country’s EMTCT programme, the quality and accuracy of its laboratory and data collection mechanisms, as well as its efforts to uphold human rights and equality of women living with HIV, and their involvement in decision-making processes.

    Elimination Mother-to-Child Transmission off HIV and Syphilis Guidance

    Assurance qualité - doucment

     

    Assurance qualité

    Un système de contrôle de la qualité robuste est crucial pour garantir l’exactitude et la précision des résultats de tests produits à l’aide de techniques de diagnostic sur le lieu de soins. Le CQ des tests utilisables sur le lieu de soins comporte de nombreux éléments, notamment le contrôle de la qualité interne, l’assurance de la qualité externe, la connectivité des données ainsi qu’une supervision et un encadrement rigoureux.

    Quality Assurance Costing Tool

     

    Quality Assurance Costing Tool

     

    This excel-based tool is designed to help countries model the cost of a comprehensive quality assurance (QA) program. It is composed of eight approaches to providing QA for diagnostic equipment. These include internal controls; mentorship; external quality control proficiency testing (international and national); duplicate testing; data management through connectivity; paper-based external quality assurance; and e-modules. 

    Author: CHAI
    Year: 2017

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