Reports Series
In Ethiopia, ensuring a sufficient and sustainable supply of infection prevention and patient safety (IPPS) commodities is an important strategy to combat the high risk of transmission of health care–associated infections. However, there is a lack of awareness on the proper utilization of IPPS commodities by health care workers, and a lack of accurate data on the quantity of essential IPPS commodities needed by the health care system to adequately protect workers, patients, and the community from health care-associated infections. This assessment used a consultative approach to develop a national standardized and prioritized list of IPPS commodities for all levels of health care facilities, and quantified the annual need of IPPS commodities for the four levels of health care facilities in Ethiopia. This report summarizes the findings of the assessment.
Healthcare-acquired infections lead to death, disability, and excess medical costs. Infection prevention and control (IPC) measures maximize patient outcomes and are essential to providing effective, efficient, and quality health care services. In Ethiopia, AIDSTAR-One provides supportive supervision including observation, discussion, support, and guidance of IPC program management, standard practices, equipment, supplies, and infrastructure. Based on the national IPC guidelines in Ethiopia, a standard supportive supervision checklist that addresses a comprehensive IPC program was developed and used for data collection in three rounds. This report summarizes the results of the assessment.
In April 2011, AIDSTAR-One, with support from the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH), piloted a training curriculum in Ethiopia that aims to address water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) issues at health facilities to improve the quality of life of people living with HIV and their families. This report summarizes the results of that assessment.
In 2011, AIDSTAR-One conducted a rapid assessment of pediatric HIV treatment scale-up in Zambia to better understand the barriers to providing and/or expanding high quality pediatric HIV care and treatment services.
In guidelines released in 2010, the World Health Organization recommends that health facilities integrate prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) with maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) services to improve patient follow-up and adherence. This report describes the results of an assessment conducted across 70 randomly sampled PMTCT facilities in 14 regions of Tanzania, and the effect of integration on health quality.
In February 2011, AIDSTAR-One, with support from the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation (MOPHS), piloted a training curriculum in Kenya that aims to address water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) issues at health facilities to improve the quality of life of people living with HIV and their families. This report summarizes the results of that assessment.
HIV and mental illness are significant global public health concerns in Zimbabwe. A coordinated and comprehensive response, particularly between HIV treatment, care, and support services and mental health care can improve health outcomes among people living with HIV. In collaboration with the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief Care and Support and Treatment Technical Working Groups, AIDSTAR-One is implementing a pilot activity that will integrate mental health and harmful substance use screening, counseling, and referral into HIV treatment and care sites in Zimbabwe. This country situational analysis was conducted as a first step in the pilot activity.
This document provides key findings for guiding programming for most-at-risk populations in mixed epidemic settings.
This study, conducted in six states in Nigeria, explores community perceptions of PMTCT and safe male circumcision (SMC) services and identifies barriers to uptake of services. In addition, the study explores attitudes and barriers regarding male partner involvement, which increases women’s participation in and adherence to PMTCT services and improves infant health outcomes. The study will inform the development of behavior change communication messages to promote PMTCT and SMC in a few states that can later be replicated across Nigeria.
This report uses case studies to review HIV treatment programming during complex emergencies that are both short- and long-term in nature and the result of both natural and man-made disasters. The goal of the report is to identify steps that can be taken before, during, and after an emergency to help ensure the continuity of HIV treatment.
While there is emerging literature on the gender-related needs of MARPs, how programs are addressing these needs or integrating gender strategies into their activities is not well documented or disseminated. AIDSTAR-One developed nine case studies that expand on the Integrating Gender into Programs with Most-at-Risk Populations technical brief, providing an in-depth look at HIV programs working with and for MARPs in South and Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. AIDSTAR-One also developed a report, featured below, that includes findings and recommendations that apply across all nine case studies.
Because gender-based violence (GBV) is widely recognized as both a cause and a consequence of HIV infection, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has identified reducing GBV as one of its five high-priority gender strategies. As part of this effort, AIDSTAR-One conducted case studies in three countries where GBV services were available: Swaziland, Vietnam, and Ecuador. The case studies and this accompanying findings report aim to identify and share promising programmatic approaches and disseminate key elements of success for replication and scale-up.
Community-based early childhood development (ECD) centers can be an important focal point for delivering comprehensive services to young children while enhancing the capacity of caregivers, families, and communities to support young children's development. When done well, these programs can be sustainable because of their emphasis on fostering community ownership. This issue paper is intended to provide OVC program managers with examples of best practices in community-based ECD center programming to best meet the children they serve.
This literature review assesses the existing evidence base on integrated models for HIV-positive women and their HIV-positive/-exposed infants. It focuses on health and social services necessary to provide comprehensive care for HIV-positive mothers and their HIV-positive/-exposed children over time.
AIDSTAR-One conducted this baseline assessment of injection safety in five USAID priority states: Bauchi, Benue, Cross River, Lagos, and Sokoto. Using an adaptation of the Revised Injection Safety Assessment Tool (Tool C-Revised) developed by the World Health Organization, AIDSTAR-One's assessment covered all injection and blood drawing procedures in 80 public sector health care settings and laboratories. Findings from this study will be used to set priorities for project interventions in public sector health care settings and laboratories across the five states.
A growing body of epidemiological and social science research links alcohol consumption with sexual behaviors that put people at risk for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. To better understand this connection, AIDSTAR-One is conducting a 2-year demonstration project in Namibia—a country with high HIV prevalence and heavy alcohol use. To inform project design, AIDSTAR-One undertook formative research to understand how bar owners, staff, patrons, and community members perceive the risks and benefits of alcohol consumption and to solicit ideas about approaches for mitigating the negative effects of alcohol. The results of the formative research are reported here.
Despite increased understanding of the link between gender and HIV and, more recently, the value of using multiple gender strategies to mitigate women’s and men’s vulnerability, little is known about how HIV programs are applying these insights to improve programs and services. This findings and recommendations report reviews how five programs in Africa are combining strategies and identifies gaps, lessons learned, common experiences, and recommendations for future work.
This report, Equipping Parents and Health Providers to Address the Psychological and Social Challenges of Caring for Children Living with HIV in Africa, provides information to better understand the psychological and social challenges faced in Africa by perinatally-infected children (aged 0-12 years), their parents/caregivers, and their health providers. It explores factors that contribute to the ability of children living with HIV to cope and thrive, and identifies the tools and approaches being used to help parents/caregivers and health providers provide psychosocial support (PSS) to these children.
This technical report examines a nutritional assessment, counseling, and support (NACS) program in Uganda that uses a quality improvement approach to services.
An assessment was conducted in Kenya in October 2009 in order to examine the national Food by Prescription (FBP) program, study program strengths and challenges, and document lessons learned and promising practices. AIDSTAR-One conducted the assessment at the request of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) Care and Support Technical Working Group (TWG) and with the participation of the USAID Mission in Kenya, the National AIDS and STI Control Programme (NASCOP) and Academy for Educational Development (AED).
The following tables are the product of a focused effort to collect and present information on hospice and palliative care drugs included in the list of medicines compiled by the International Association of Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC) for 11 PEPFAR countries: Botswana, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
This effort was undertaken by a consultant to AIDSTAR-One at the request of the PEPFAR Care and Support Technical Working Group (TWG). The deliverable described in the scope of work (SOW) is a brief summary report, consisting mostly of tables, of country-specific characteristics of the medicines included in the IAHPC list.
This document is intended to explore strategies to protect children orphaned or made vulnerable by HIV (OVC) from abuse, exploitation, violence, and neglect. The report draws from lessons learned by OVC program managers, designers, and policy developers—particularly those associated with the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEFPAR).
July 2010 - At the request of PEPFAR’s Technical Working Group and USAID, AIDSTAR-One facilitated its first south-to-south (S2S) exchange of technical assistance (TA) in support of Swaziland’s pilot of home-based HIV testing and counseling (HBHTC). Expert trainers well-versed in HBHTC from The AIDS Support Organization in Uganda (TASO) conducted HBHTC training and provided technical guidance. As a result, Swaziland launched a six-month HBHTC pilot project to determine feasibility and acceptability for potential national scale-up.
In 2007, Cambodia initiated “Healthcare Provider-Initiated Testing and Counseling,” in which health care providers in specialty clinics would recommend routine referral for HIV testing at a voluntary confidential counseling and testing site. The approach varied from WHO guidelines in that it offered routine “referral” and not routine “testing.” AIDSTAR-One conducted a rapid assessment of Cambodia’s approach to identify the following: 1) promising practices in HIV testing and counseling; 2) challenges experienced implementing routine referrals; 3) opportunities and barriers to the WHO PITC approach; and 4) opportunities to address unmet needs. Included in this report are recommendations that define activities aimed to fill current gaps and could lay groundwork for implementing the WHO’s PITC approach in Cambodia.
With the scale-up of HIV treatment programs, substantial funding has been committed to guarantee an uninterrupted supply of co-trimoxazole for persons living with HIV (PLHIV), but access to this key intervention remains inconsistent. This technical report provides a summary of key challenges and innovations arising from 15 countries.
This technical report discusses the many services needed throughout the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) and infant care services continuum and identifies potential barriers to service coverage, access, and utilization. AIDSTAR-One provides examples of evidence-based and emerging practices to mitigate these barriers.
The countries of Central Asia are witnessing one of the fastest growing HIV epidemics in the world. AIDSTAR-One, at the request of USAID/Central Asia, conducted a mapping exercise of HIV services in selected oblasts in Kyrgyzstan. The report presents critical findings and makes recommendations for addressing gaps based upon input from public and NGO service providers and clients. The report includes the interviewer's and moderator's guides used in the HIV mapping activity.
Although Thailand has made significant improvement in mitigating its HIV epidemic, it has not effectively reached men who have sex with men (MSM), who account for a significant proportion of those affected by HIV.
AIDSTAR-One conducted a situational analysis in Thailand that focused on addressing issues affecting uptake of HIV testing and counseling (HTC) services for MSM.