The Partnership for HIV-Free Survival (PHFS) was designed to use basic quality improvement practices to reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV and increase child survival through improvements in (1) antiretroviral therapy uptake and retention among HIV-positive pregnant women and mothers, (2) breastfeeding practices, and (3) overall mother-baby care. PHFS was implemented between 2012–2016 in six countries in Eastern and Southern Africa: Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda.
The goal of the AIDSFree Zimbabwe quality management/quality improvement (QM/QI) technical assistance activity was to use QI strategies to improve the survival and quality of life of HIV-positive persons through early identification, initiation, and retention on antiretroviral therapy (ART). Although the scope of work for the project was much broader, this assessment focuses on two key activities: creation of an enabling environment for QI; and building health care workers' (HCWs’) skills in QM/QI implementation.
Botswana has one of the most comprehensive and successful public sector HIV treatment programs in Africa, with 534 health facilities providing outreach and antiretroviral therapy (ART) at static sites, thereby enabling 87% of those tested and eligible for treatment to receive it. HIV transmission from infected mothers to their babies has been reduced to just 2.2%. However, Botswana’s adult HIV prevalence of 24.8% is the second highest in the world after Swaziland.
As HIV treatment programs are scaled-up, monitoring the quality of care that patients receive and their clinical outcomes is increasingly important.
