Malawi Integrated HIV Program Report 2011 Q4

This is the second quarterly HIV Program report after implementation of the 2011 Integrated Clinical HIV Guidelines1 in July 2011. A summary of the key achievements between October and December 2011 is provided below:

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

  • 806 HTC sites (565 within and 241 outside of health facilities)

  • 554 (static) ART sites

  • 479 PMTCT sites (Option B+)

  • 402 Pre-ART sites

  • 401 sites with HIV-exposed child follow-up

• 299,017 persons tested and counselled for HIV and 29,745 (10%) were HIV positive; 129,928 (43%) people tested for the first time.

• 134,909 (81%) of 166,697 women at ANC had their HIV status ascertained; 11,350 (8%) of these were HIV positive and 8,695 (77%) of these received ARVs.

• 108,660 (86%) of 126,273 women at maternity had their HIV status ascertained; 9,397 (9%) of these were HIV positive and 7,830 (83%) of these received ARVs during labour.

• 8,455 (8%) of infants discharged alive from maternity were known to be HIV exposed, 7,808 (92%) of these received ARV prophylaxis. 14,017 women started ART under Option B+: 7,218 (51%) were pregnant and 6,799 (49%) were breastfeeding.

• 34,727 patients started ART during this quarter; this represents almost a doubling of the quarterly number of ART initiations compared with the period before implementation of the 2011 guidelines. 78% of adults and 77% of children were retained alive on ART 12 months after ART initiation.

• 323,638 patients were alive and on ART by end of December 2011; 25,161 (8%) were on ART regimen 5A (tenofovir / lamivudine / efavirenz)

• 10,865 HIV exposed children and 14,609 pre-ART patients enrolled for follow-up in HIV Care Clinics (HCC)

• 839 health workers were trained in the new integrated PMTCT/ART curriculum during Q4, bringing the total number of health workers re-trained in the new guidelines to 4,205. The HIV Clinical Mentoring Program was launched with the initial training of 306 mentors during Q4 2011. All training details were captured in the new national HIV training data base (TrainSMART) at MOH.

• 105 new HTC providers were trained during Q4 and 99 passed their exit exam and qualified as HTC providers.