Speed up, Scale-up: Strategies, tools and policies to get the best HIV treatment to more people, sooner

This report outlines some of the strategies, tools and policies that have supported the scaling up of treatment during the past decade as well as those that can address persistent or new challenges. The results are presented from a 23-country survey of how consistently these strategies are being implemented. (See Annex 1) The findings demonstrate encouraging progress by some health ministries in adopting many of the enabling policies needed to facilitate scale-up and improve care. Nevertheless, the adoption and implementation of these strategies, tools and policies are lagging in some countries. The survey results provide a mixed picture: 11 of 23 countries have reached antiretroviral therapy coverage of 60% or more. Some countries have already made or are making strides towards their own national targets of reaching 80% of people in need with antiretroviral therapy. On the other side of the spectrum, six countries are still only reaching one third of the people in need or less. As the international norms for HIV move towards better and earlier treatment and technological advancements in diagnostics are becoming available, it is important to shore up and strengthen the remaining key success factors that risk being compromised: political and financial support dedicated to addressing and reversing the epidemic.