Mapping an HIV Treatment Program to Identify Barriers to Linkage in HIV Care in Resource Limited Settings

Billingsley, Katherine; Achieng, Loice; Ombegoh, Edwin; Musangi, Helen; Mwangi, Caroline; Mwiindi, Jonathan; Keiser, Philip

doi:10.9734/ijtdh/2014/9758

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Recently, the World Health Organization has called for increased operational research to evaluate the HIV care process and further improve linkage to care, retention and adherence [ 11 ]. Current evidence suggests that HHTC is an economically sensible, acceptable and effective strategy for increasing HIV awareness [ 12 , 13 ] as it eliminates barriers associated with facility based testing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time taken to link newly identified HIV positive clients to care following a home-base index case HIV testing: Experience from two provinces in Zimbabwe

Tafuma¹,

Mahachi²,

Dziwa³

et al. 2018

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundHomebased index case HIV testing (HHTC) has shown higher uptake and good yield than traditional HIV testing methods. World Health Organization has called for increased operational research to evaluate HIV care processes particularly linkage to care. In this paper, we present project results of the time taken to link newly identified PLHIV to care after HHTC in the Manicaland and Midlands provinces of Zimbabwe.MethodsWe retrospectively reviewed community-facility referral data from the Zimbabwe HIV Care and Treatment project for newly diagnosed PLHIV for the period March–September 2016. A referral slip was given to a client after receiving a positive HIV results and was presented and filed upon reaching a health facility. In July 2016, the project started working with trained expert clients to assist with linkage to care. Data was entered in a spreadsheet and then imported for descriptive statistical analysis with EpiInfoTM Version 7.2.0.1. Odd ratios were used to identify factors associated with linkage to care within seven days.ResultsOut of 1004 newly identified PLHIV between March and September 2016, 650 (64.7%) were linked to care. The median time taken to be linked to care was four days (Interquartile range 19 days). Overall, 63.1% (410) of PLHIV were linked to care within seven days of diagnosis and 85% within 30 days. PLHIV were more likely to be linked to care within seven days of diagnosis between July and September 2016 (OR = 4.1; p< 0.001), a period when ZHCT started working with expert clients to support linkage to care.ConclusionHHTC resulted in almost 63% of newly diagnosed PLHIV being linked into care within seven days, and 85% within 30 days. Linkage to care within seven days was significantly associated with the period of engaging expert clients in the project. We recommend community based HIV testing programs to work with expert clients to ensure timely linkages of new PLHIV.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%