In Central America, Health Workers Keep HIV Services Available despite Dual Disasters

By Claudia Guzm án Photo by Trevor Snapp in El Salvador for IntraHealth International.December 01, 2020The COVID-19 pandemic has created plenty of barriers for people living with HIV who need to continue their care and treatment. But when hurricanes Eta and Iota hit Central America in November, the barriers multiplied.Pounding Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, and Guatemala for days, these two hurricanes brought heavy rains that led to flooding and landslides that devastated communities and affected millions.In the face of these dual crises, health workers in Central America demonstrated strong leadership and commitment to their clients, using person-centered strategies to continue providing HIV/AIDS services. They knew they needed to maintain direct contact with their clients. They also knew this would be difficult, as the storms forced many to leave their homes.When HIV clients move, the services must followWhile work, discrimination, and long distances to health services are usually the reasons people travel to neighboring countries for health care, COVID-19 and the two hurricanes have also influenced many Central Americans’ movements and forced many health facilities to close. Many HIV clients could no longer go to their usual places for care.​ "Our objective during COVID-19 is to keep working. "So IntraHealth International ' s HIV Care and Treatment Project (HCTP) adapted its existing alert system alerTAR, to help find clients on t...
Source: IntraHealth International - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: HIV & AIDS COVID-19 Digital Health World AIDS Day Source Type: news