A summary of the key achievements between January and March 2016 is provided below:

• Scale-up of integrated HIV services had reached the following number of sites:

  • 724 static (579 within, 145 outside of health facilities) and 188 outreach HTC sites

  • 724 (static) ART sites

  • 631 PMTCT sites (Option B+, all included in ART sites above)

  • 661 Pre-ART sites

  • 653 sites with HIV-exposed child follow-up

• 862,157 persons were tested for HIV and received their results; 270,252 (31%) accessed HTC for the first time; 591,905 (69%) were repeat testers and 30,048 (5%) of these received confirmatory testing (after having tested positive in the past). 41,901 (5%) clients received a positive result for the first time.

• 22,727 (97%) of 23,335 blood units collected were screened for (at least) HIV, hepatitis B and syphilis.

• 147,765 (95%) of 156,222 women at ANC had their HIV status ascertained; 11,567 (9%) of these were HIV positive. 120,777 (98%) of 123,203 women at maternity had their HIV status ascertained 9,408 (8%) of these were HIV positive.

• 28,052 patients started ART this quarter.

• 611,031 patients were alive and on ART by end of March 2016. This means that 62% of the estimated 979,000 HIV positive population was on ART. 1 ART coverage was 61% (49,672 / 81,000) for children and 63% (561,359 / 898,000) for adults.

• 76% of adults and 74% of children were retained alive on ART at 12 months after initiation. Actual retention rates are thought to be about 10% higher due to misclassification of ‘silent transfers’ as defaulters in clinic-based survival/retention analysis. (see section 15.4)

• 532,156 (93%) of 599,315 patients on first line adult ART were on regimen 5A (TDF/3TC/EFV).

• 11,715 3 (87%) of an estimated 13,500 HIV infected pregnant women in Malawi were on ART this quarter. 7,074 (60%) of these were already on ART when getting pregnant and 4,641 (40%) started ART during pregnancy/delivery.

• An additional 1,864 breastfeeding women started ART due to Option B+ (in WHO stage 1/2)

• 75%, 69%, 66% and 65% of women started under Option B+ were retained on ART at 6, 12, 24 and 36 months after initiation, respectively.

• 8,784 (8%) of infants discharged alive from maternity were known to be HIV exposed, 8,332 (95%) of these received ARV prophylaxis (nevirapine). 8,329 (95%) were enrolled in exposed child follow-up before age 2 months.

• 12,296 HIV exposed children and 7,047 pre-ART patients were enrolled for follow-up in HIV Care Clinics (HCC) during this quarter.