CDC-Atlanta Maternal Child HIV Branch and International Lab Branch, in collaboration with partners, have developed tools to support health care workers and laboratorians to provide services to HIV-exposed infants, including infant virologic testing.

Care of the HIV-Exposed Infant Flipchart

Intended audience:
Health care workers or lay health workers who counsel the caregivers of HEIs.

Summary:
The purpose of this flipchart is to facilitate comprehensive, high quality counseling about the care needs of mothers and HIV-exposed infants to prevent vertical HIV transmission and improve infant health.  The flipchart addresses the importance of maternal health and ART adherence, as well as care and testing for the HIV-exposed infant until the infant’s final HIV diagnosis after the end of breastfeeding.

This flipchart should be printed in large format (A3 or similar), spiral bound and laminated for durable use in health clinics. There are 12 counseling cards total – each card has one side with images for the mother/caregiver and the other side with notes for the counsellor.

Topics include: basics of vertical HIV transmission, maternal health during pregnancy and breastfeeding, safe delivery, infant testing, infant medications – cotrimoxazole and ARV prophylaxis, routine infant care -- growth monitoring and immunizations, infant feeding, family planning, signs of acute child illness, and planning for mother and infant follow up.

In follow-up to the 2017 Continental Summit in October 2017, Pediatric-Adolescent Treatment Africa (PATA) released a summary report with key highlights and recommendations from the meeting. Towards an AIDS Free Africa – Delivering on the frontline was the focus of the 2017 Summit, which brought together over 200 delegates across 15 sub-Saharan African countries along with programme implementers and policy-makers from across the globe. The recommendations provided are centred around three pillars – FIND, TREAT and CARE – that support the UNAIDS superfast-track framework. Attending health facility teams drafted new quality improvement plans and will be commencing 53 projects improving service delivery at the frontline in 2018.

UNICEF Learning Collaborative,Summary of Selected Research Articles
January - March 2018

Key Considerations for Introducing New HIV Point-of-Care Diagnostic Technologies in National Health Systems, and the HIV Point-of-Care Diagnostics Toolkit

Key Considerations for Introducing New HIV Point-of-Care Diagnostic Technologies in National Health Systems, and the HIV Point-of-Care Diagnostics Toolkit

The starting point for this guideline is the point at which a woman has learnt that she is living with HIV, and it therefore covers key issues for providing comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights-related services and support for women living with HIV. As women living with HIV face unique challenges and human rights violations related to their sexuality and reproduction within their families and communities, as well as from the health-care institutions where they seek care, particular emphasis is placed on the creation of an enabling environment to support more effective health interventions and better health outcomes.

This guideline is meant to help countries to more effectively and efficiently plan, develop and monitor programmes and services that promote gender equality and human rights and hence are more acceptable and appropriate for women living with HIV, taking into account the national and local epidemiological context. It discusses implementation issues that health interventions and service delivery must address to achieve gender equality and support human rights.

‘Walking in our shoes; Perspectives of pregnant and breastfeeding women living with HIV on access to and retention in care in Malawi, Uganda and Zambia’ highlights the key factors that facilitate retention in care for women living with HIV and calls for increased focus on rights and dignity in care.

The report, presents the findings of community-led research related to the viewpoints and experiences of women who were initiated on antiretroviral treatment during pregnancy or breastfeeding and explores their perspectives on factors that have enabled them to successfully adhere to their treatment and retain in care.