For Stronger HIV Services in South Sudan, This Team Looks to the Data

By Alfred Okiria, Project director, South Sudan ; Katherine Seaton, Communications writer/editor, IntraHealth International A nurse draws blood to test for HIV and begins counseling a client at the Saint Bakhita Health Centre in Yei, South Sudan. Photo by Trevor Snapp for IntraHealth International.October 21, 2021What does it take to keep HIV services available despite limited resources, political unrest and violence, and a pandemic?For Alfred Okiria, IntraHealth International’s project director for theStrengthening National Capacity for Integrated HIV/AIDS Health Data Collection, Use, and Dissemination in Support of an Evidence-based Response in South Sudan project, and his team inSouth Sudan, the answer is data.Okiria and his team have been supporting the use of strategic information to improve health services in South Sudan for over a decade, moving from email-based information sharing to a scaled-up, more efficient, and stronger data infrastructure for HIV services, local health facilities, and national COVID-19 response throughDistrict Health Information Software 2 (DHIS2), an open-source web-based health management information system.We sat down with Okiria to find out how they’ve achieved their results and what he sees ahead for the future of HIV services in the country. 1. What are the biggest challenges in making HIV services available in South Sudan?Data reporting is affected because of the insecurity and internal conflicts. Take Tambura, fo...
Source: IntraHealth International - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: HIV & AIDS Digital Health Measurement Analytics Source Type: news