Representatives from MHRP’s PEPFAR program convened in Kisumu, Kenya 13-15 July 2010 to review the collective progress made over the past year and to plan for the upcoming year.
Representatives from MHRP’s PEPFAR program convened in Kisumu, Kenya 13-15 July 2010 to review the collective progress made over the past year and to plan for the upcoming year. PEPFAR staff from Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria and MHRP staff from Maryland, USA participated in this annual gathering.
Dr. Tiffany Hamm, Deputy Director for PEPFAR at MHRP, presented an overview of the PEPFAR achievements to date. As of March 2010, the program had provided antiretroviral therapy to 100,000 patients. Future plans for the program include increased access to existing interventions such as Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission and Medical Male Circumcision.
Representatives from each country shared the progress made over the past year. Despite flat funding, services have continued to expand. Each country program has created a strong network of service providers rapidly expanding the provision of prevention, care and treatment in their region. Other ongoing activities included training health workers and refurbishing facilities.
Additionally, country representatives reported innovative strategies including house-to-house HIV testing, linkages with research activities including the use of demographic surveillance to evaluate interventions, and the integration of HIV and TB services.
Improving the quality of care will be a focus for the upcoming year. The PEPFAR group adopted the theme, “Quality, Sustainability and Efficiency.” To achieve this, the sites will work to improve data quality, analysis and use to create an evidence base for decision making, adopt quality improvement models such as CQI, and identify best practices and lessons learned to share program-wide.