Phakama Digest April 2022
Date:
2022-05-01
By:
Health Systems Trust
Page Content
Dear colleagues,
Welcome to the sixth edition of Health Systems Trust’s Phakama Digest, which profiles our programme work through in-depth perspectives of implementation activities in the field.
Community-based HIV services are the focus of this April 2022 edition of the Digest, featuring a demonstration project which applies the ‘Delivery Optimization for Antiretroviral Therapy’ (DO ART) model in a real-life setting to evaluate its efficacy in various contexts.
Interventions that enhance decentralised ART initiation, monitoring and continuity of care towards viral suppression for people living with HIV are of increasing value for implementers seeking to achieve epidemic control. The DO ART model devolves, streamlines and modifies HIV services to serve the needs of individual PLHIV where they are. This can reinforce and complement clinic-based efforts, thereby decongesting facilities and easing strain on health system resources. Scaling up this model can reach and serve people who have limited access to health facilities.
We approach this topic from the following angles:
- Provision of ART services in communities: what it entails and why it is important (page 2)
HST’s roll-out of the DO ART Demonstration Project (page 3)
Voices from the ground – five implementers share their experiences (page 6)
A view from CDC South Africa – insights on the value of community-based ART services (page 8)
A perspective from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (page 9)
The Editorial Team