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External Evaluation of the Programme of Integrated HIV Care for Tuberculosis Patients living with HIV/AIDS (IHC), Phase 2
Financer:
European Commission (EC)
Country:
Zimbabwe, The Democratic Republic of The Congo
Field of Expertise:
Health Service Delivery; Communicable diseases (CD); Malaria - HIV/AIDS - TB
Narrative description of project:
IHC-2 was an operational research programme on tuberculosis and HIV of The Union funded by the European Commission. It was a continuation of a programme that started in a first phase in Benin and in the provinces of Bas Congo and Nord Kivu in the DRC. In the second phase, the programme continued in Nord Kivu, and started in two municipalities of Zimbabwe.
The objective of IHC-2 was to test and develop approaches to decentralised nurse-managed HIV care at the primary health care level. IHC-2 initially used the tuberculosis clinic as the point of entry for HIV care, but it gradually widened the scope, especially in Zimbabwe where the IHC pilot sites provided treatment services to all people living with HIV.
The approach achieved high coverage and treatment adherence rates for first-line anti-retroviral therapy even in difficult environments. It explored the use of dry blood spots for the viral load testing in primary care environments in a study that has since been published.
Description of services provided:
hera conducted the final evaluation of the project. The evaluation findings were presented and discussed with the municipal governments in Zimbabwe, the Ministry of Public Health in the DRC, and with programme partners in both countries, and they were presented to a meeting of international partners in Paris.
