New Project Uses Data and Determination to Expand Key HIV Services in Eastern Uganda

A health worker at Jinja Regional Referral Hospital in Uganda takes a blood sample for an HIV test. Photo by Tommy Trenchard for IntraHealth International.November 30, 2017IntraHealth International ’s newest project in Uganda—the USAID Regional Health Integration to Enhance Services in Eastern Uganda Activity (or USAID RHITES-E)—developed a 60-day strategy to help the Eastern Uganda region achieve and surpass some of its annual HIV service goals.Some 1.4 million adults and children are living with HIV in Uganda. The adultprevalence rate is 6.4%, and 28,000 Ugandans died due to AIDS-related causes in 2016. But the government hasfast-tracked the country ’s fight toward an AIDS-free generation and is making significant progress. NewHIV infections in adults dropped from 135,000 in 2010 to about 60,000 in 2016.Expanding voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) services and viral load monitoring are two of the country ’s key prevention and treatment strategies. VMMC can reduce a man’s risk of acquiring HIV through heterosexual intercourse by 60%.But at the end of July, with just two months before the end of the fiscal year, the Eastern Uganda region had reached only 77% of its 2016-2017 year-end goal of providing 9,362 men with VMMC services, and only 40% of eligible HIV-positive clients had received viral load tests.USAID RHITES-E —which began on May 22, 2017—developed a plan focused on the power of community health teams and data to help the region get back on t...
Source: IntraHealth International - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Source Type: news