New Project Will Bring High-Quality HIV Services to the People Who Need Them Most in Five Central American Countries

August 07, 2018​IntraHealth International will expand its HIV prevention, care, and treatment efforts in Central America with a new $15 million award from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The Strengthening Care and Treatment Cascade Project will help El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama improve the quality and reach of their HIV services and allocate more resources where they are most needed.While the overall HIV prevalence is low in these countries, the epidemic is concentrated among key groups, including men who have sex with men, transgender women, and female sex workers. Despite these realities, health policy and practice have continued to prioritize testing and treatment for the general population and pregnant women over these groups.IntraHealth and our partners will focus on reaching these clients with high-quality, stigma-free services and work together to enroll and retain as many people living with HIV as possible on treatment. The project will also prioritize identifying and treating common HIV comorbidities, including tuberculosis.Every client —regardless of background, gender, or status—must be able to expect and receive respectful, high-quality health services, without bias. All five countries support the UNAIDS 90-90-90 goals (90% of HIV-positive people knowing their status, 90% of people diagnosed with HIV on antiretroviral therapy (ART), and 90% of clients on ART achieving viral load suppression by 2020). Among the proje...
Source: IntraHealth International - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Source Type: news