Ethiopia
Total Treatment Sites:		1
Treatment Site Location(s):		Addis Ababa
Patients on ART:		704
Patient Enrolled:		1,494
Report in PDF Format:		Ethiopia Country Report

Background & HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia

Ethiopia’s Human Development Index ranking is extremely low – 169th out of 177 countries.  Of the 500,000 Ethiopian children under five who die each year, 72% die of preventable causes such as malnutrition (57%).  The adult HIV prevalence rate in 2007 was about 2.1% and 60% of the 890,000 individuals living with HIV/AIDS by the end of 2007 were adult women (UNAIDS, 2008).  According to Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health, only 5% of adults have ever accessed counseling and testing services and only 37.7% of people living with HIV are on ART.

The Federal HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office (HAPCO) leads Ethiopia’s response to the epidemic and in 2006 launched the “Millennium AIDS Campaign” to move towards universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support by 2010.  However, UNAIDS found that as of 2007, in general, HIV incidence is leveling off after declining over the last few years and many programs are lagging behind their targets despite very quick scale-up.  Challenges include insufficient human resources, weak health infrastructure, inadequate transportation and general systems, and low levels of knowledge of HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS, 2008).

AHF Activities in Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, AHF works in partnership with Worldwide Orphans Foundation (WWO), supporting the AHF-WWO family clinic that provides treatment and care for children and adults with HIV/AIDS.  AHF supports the adult treatment component to complement the pediatric WWO services, establishing a family model approach.  Here both adults and children access counseling and testing, treatment, adherence support, laboratory services, and follow-up for clients not eligible for ART and provision of prophylaxis.

For AHF’s Mass Testing Initiative, which was launched to mobilize and bring together large numbers of people in order to provide HIV testing, AHF and its partners performed 500,000 HIV tests at events organized around World AIDS Day 2008, and provided treatment referrals to those who tested positive (3.99%).

Model(s) of Care

Technical Assistance & Supervision