World AIDS Day 2007—IntraHealth Responds To The Crisis

On December 1, 1988, the World Health Organization launched World AIDS Day to call for social tolerance and improved information on the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Since then each World AIDS Day has drawn attention to the need to address the challenges this disease brings to people, communities and health care systems. IntraHealth, an organization dedicated to meeting the health care needs of developing countries, is working to address the many-faceted problems raised by HIV/AIDS.

The large numbers of AIDS cases threaten to overwhelm many health care systems, affecting the availability of health care resources for HIV/AIDS diagnosis and treatment as well as for other key services. Developing countries are often hardest hit, with sub-Saharan Africa hosting the world’s highest HIV infection rates and most severe shortages of health workers. In some areas the medical needs of high risk populations are not well-addressed and in others the stigma of interacting with HIV-infected patients drives medical professionals away from health care systems that cannot afford to lose them.

In sub-Saharan Africa, IntraHealth is collaborating with health sector leaders to assess and build their human resources for health through several innovative programs. Kenya’s Emergency Hiring Plan expanded access to HIV/AIDS treatment and care through the rapid hiring, training and deployment of 830 health workers . IntraHealth has strengthened human resources information systems in Kenya, Lesotho, Namibia, Rwanda, Southern Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, and Uganda. These systems are improving the ability of the countries’ health care leaders to assess the full extent of their human resources for health and make fact-based decisions to address gaps and project future needs. In Tanzania, IntraHealth is strengthening the country’s capacity to provide HIV testing and counseling, with the aim of dramatically increasing the number of people who know their HIV status and can receive treatment if infected [link]. In Southern Sudan, IntraHealth is working with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army to curb the spread of HIV by establishing HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment programs. IntraHealth leads major initiatives in Ethiopia  and Rwanda  to increase the accessibility and use of comprehensive prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV services.

IntraHealth is also addressing HIV/AIDS-related challenges in other parts of the world. In India, IntraHealth recently finished working with Population Services International on a project to increase the diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted infections among high-risk populations. In Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama, IntraHealth is working to improve health care workers’ education on HIV treatment and care, with special attention to reducing stigma and discrimination against HIV-positive patients in health establishments.

As IntraHealth works with people around to world to develop innovative and effective ways of managing HIV/AIDS and related health care issues, a wealth of information is being produced. Through the Capacity Project’s HRH Global Resource Center, IntraHealth is sharing new ways of helping people address HIV/AIDS and human resources for health from a wide variety of sources, including: 

• Help Wanted: Confronting the Health Care Worker Crisis to Expand Access to HIV/AIDS treatment: MSF Experience in Southern Africa (http://www.hrhresourcecenter.org/node/1353)
• Using Nurses to Identify HAART Eligible Patients in the Republic of Mozambique: results of a Time Series Analysis: (http://www.hrhresourcecenter.org/node/1259)
• Mitigating the Plight of HIV Infected and Affected Nurses in Zambia: (http://www.hrhresourcecenter.org/node/1695)
• Integrating Family Planning with Antiretroviral Therapy Services in Uganda (http://www.hrhresourcecenter.org/node/1479)