A summary of the key achievements between July and September 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

  • 732 (static) ART sites; 639 of these had started at least one pregnant or breastfeeding woman this quarter

  • 369 sites with patients in pre-ART follow-up

  • 669 sites with HIV-exposed children in follow-up

• 872,393 persons were tested for HIV and received their results; 252,930 (29%) accessed HIV testing for the first time; 619,463 (71%) were repeat testers and 40,384 (7%) of these received confirmatory testing (after having tested positive in the past). 36,253 (4%) clients received a positive result for the first time.

• 17,337 (98%) of 17,765 blood units collected were screened for (at least) HIV, hepatitis B and syphilis.

• 146,596 (96%) of 151,941 women at ANC had their HIV status ascertained; 11,183 (7%) of these were HIV positive. 130,260 (99%) of 132,451 women at maternity had their HIV status ascertained 9,690 (7%) of these were HIV positive.

• 41,994 patients started ART this quarter; 53% of these were classified as asymptomatic / in WHO stage 1 and started under the new “Test & Treat” policy.

• 662,788 patients were alive and on ART by end of September 2016. This means that 68% of the estimated 979,000 HIV positive population was on ART. 1 ART coverage was 65% (52,721 / 81,000) for children2 and 68% (610,067 / 898,000) for adults.

• 76% of adults and 79% 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)

• 575,763 (93%) of 620,164 patients on first line adult ART were on TDF/3TC/EFV.

• 12,083 3 (89%) of an estimated 13,500 HIV infected pregnant women in Malawi were on ART this quarter. 7,555 (63%) of these were already on ART when getting pregnant and 4,483 (37%) started ART during pregnancy/delivery.

• An additional 1,284 breastfeeding women started ART due to Option B+ (in WHO stage 1/2)

• 77%, 71%, 65% and 65% of women started under Option B+ were retained on ART at 6, 12, 24 and 36 months after initiation, respectively.

• 8,880 (7%) of infants discharged alive from maternity were known to be HIV exposed, 8,683 (94%) of these received ARV prophylaxis (nevirapine). 8,065 (93%) were enrolled in exposed child follow-up before age 2 months.

• 11,362 HIV exposed children and 1,818 pre-ART patients were enrolled for follow-up in HIV Care Clinics (HCC) during this quarter.