HFDI Participates In Adolescents and Children HIV Incidence Reduction, Empowerment and Virus Elimination Health Training
By Titilola Olaniyan,
Hope For Family Development Initiative HFDI participated in the five day training organised by PACT in partnership with CCCRN with the sole objectives of building the capacity of CSOs, MDAs, health care providers to provide quality care to beneficiaries (CALHIV) at the community level in the new quarter of the THRIVE project in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
The training which had participants like Government representatives from Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Bayelsa States, linkage facilitators, Radiographers with CCCRN, Care and Support Officers from CBOs and PMTCT specialists across the 3 states, held at Luton Park Hotel, Uyo.
In her remarks, the Director of programmes, Dr. Ann Ajonye shared the background on the THRIVE project in Nigeria, the streams and life saving activities that the project will be covering. She emphasized that the project will only focus on children and adolescents living with HIV, highly exposed infants, and pregnant adolescents which is different from the just concluded ICHSSA 1 project due to Trump’s policies and cut down on fundings.
She added that the project is a five years project in partnership with the Nigerian government, Project Hope, Heartland alliance. It will incorporate 34 organisations, cover four south south states, one south west state, one north central state, 5 north western states and 5 North eastern states.
She further stated that the project is designed to improve health and wellbeing of CALHIV and reduce HIV related risk among uninfected children, adolescents and young people. The project will collaborate strongly with ministry of health in all the implementing states to ensure targets are met.
In the session by Dr. Seyi Peters, he shared the background, epidemiology, and history of HIV,described AHD-Advanced HIV Disease to indicate severe immunosuppression and a high risk of opportunistic infections and mortality, stating that it is getting increased in the country and hence, continuum care in the community is necessary.
Highlighting Life saving services to include essential, immediate interventions that prevents mortality and severe morbidity among vulnerable populations, he emphasised that they are not optional interventions, but include nutrition screening and therapeutic referrals, HIV testing and treatment, PMTCT services, access to ART and adherence support, Management of acute malnutrition, TB screening and preventive therapy.
Dr. Peters also outlined the key intervention percentage of target population according to UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets, namely:
1. First 95: 95% of all people living with HIV know their HIV status.
2. Second 95: 95% of all people diagnosed with HIV receive sustained antiretroviral therapy (ART).
3. Third 95: 95% of all people receiving ART achieve viral suppression.
He further stated that henceforth, random testing has been scrapped out, patients are to be taken to the facility for test and categories of general population to be tested includes:
• Individuals at higher risk of HIV
• Pregnant adolescents (PMTCT)
• Healthcare workers
• Siblings of index CALHIV.
He further elucidated why we need to undertake such testing as
• Early diagnosis
• Risk reduction
• Tx linkage
He added that principles according to WHO should be followed strictly; consent, confidentiality, counseling, correct diagnosis and connection.
Before commencing on community testing the following should be done: community mapping, community engagement or advocacy, implementation, post testing counseling, referral and linkage to facility.
According to him, using the right test kits is also important, and he added that enhanced adherence counseling as a structured counseling intervention with the aim to support patients to achieve viral suppression. And how community (OVC) partners can offer adherence counseling which includes, must be embraced.
In her session, Selyia the Nutrition Specialist stated that the nutrition cluster coordination seeks to leverage on community- based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) sites to generate a comprehensive database of existing health infrastructure, service delivery points and nutrition intervention to solve nutrition issues.
She opined that the THRIVE project seeks to enhance the effectiveness of nutrition interventions, strengthen health systems and improve collaboration among key actors, adding that nutrition stakeholders include both service delivery and policy – level actors. And that GPS coordinates can be populated using data from the Nigerian health facility registry (HFR) or partners like UNICEF/ACF.
Ifeyinwa Okereke who addressed referral management and issues surrounding it for effective coordinating and referrals across multiple sectors, said this helps a beneficiary through a service provider for a specific need while linkage means after directing the beneficiary for a certain need, a follow up is done to ensure the person accessed the full services.
She listed the types of referrals in the OVC project to include; direct referral where it is supported by funds and initiated by service providers such as CCCRN. While linkage is a broader and continuous process and feedback is important, adding that CALHIV should be referred to the facility for ARV pickups, viral load monitoring, Dry blood sampling, enhanced adherence counseling for unsuppressed children in the facility, and all assisted referrals should be documented. Including self-referral, to help track which CALHIV will be a defaulter.
Dr. Chukwuemeka, speaking on an overview of Tuberculosis, TB in children and how to screen for TB, defined Tuberculosis as a disease caused by Mycobacterium. It is an airborne disease transmitted via coughs, sneezes or speeches. It affects mainly the lungs but can spread to other parts of the body.
He stated that TB & HIV are among the ten leading causes of death in Nigeria and Africa at large, he added that TB is the first sign of undiagnosed HIV. The transmission is affected by infectiousness of the patient, environmental conditions, duration of exposure, immune status of the exposed person, malnutrition.
He said persons with HIV have the highest risk for developing TB disease. A presumptive TB case is a person who shows symptoms and signs suggestive of TB such as cough, fever, weight loss and drenching night sweats, shortness of breathe, chest pain, coughing up blood (Haemoptysis). While Extrapulmonary TB (EPTB) occurs when bacteria spread outside the lings and cause disease in other parts of the body.
He urged anyone who develop one of the listed signs to be referred to facility for TB screening using gene xpert. Once negative should commence TPT but if positive, TB drugs should be administered with immediate effect.
The Director of programmes, Dr. Anne concluded by expressing appreciation participants for their active engagement throughout the training, and she applauded the dedication of the CBOs, Government stakeholders, CCCRN team, and organizers PACT towards improving the lives of children, adolescents, and young people living with or affected by HIV in the country.