 |
Uganda |
|
| |
|
|
| Total Treatment Sites: |
12 |
| Treatment Site Location(s): |
| Gombe |
Kakuuto |
Kalisizo |
| Lyantonde |
Maddu |
Masaka |
| Mbale |
Nkozi |
Rakai |
| Soroti |
|
| Kampala Nakawa Marketplace |
| St. Balikuddembe Marketplace | |
| Patients on ART: |
16,859 |
| Patient Enrolled: |
40,025 |
| Report in PDF Format: |
Uganda Country Report |
| |
Background & HIV/AIDS in Uganda
A small country in East Africa, Uganda is roughly the size of the state of Oregon. The principal languages are English, Luganda, and Swahili. Its economy is primarily related to agriculture (coffee is the main export) and most of the population live in rural areas.
Uganda is one of the few African countries where rates of HIV infection have declined, and it is seen as a rare example of success in a continent facing a severe AIDS crisis. Uganda's policies are credited with helping to bring adult HIV prevalence down from around 15% in the early 1990s to around 5.4% in 2007. HIV prevalence rates are higher in urban areas and amongst women, who make up 59% of those with HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS, 2008).
Even though HIV prevalence rates in Uganda have been greatly reduced, they still remain high, and AIDS continues to claim tens of thousands of lives each year. The WHO estimates that 77,000 adults and children died of AIDS in 2007. The government has provided free antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) since 2004 but of the estimated 350,000 who need immediate access to ARVs, only 33% are receiving them. The extreme mortality of AIDS has had an effect on this figure, which would otherwise be higher. As another consequence of AIDS, life expectancy in Uganda is only around 50 years.
Such a severe epidemic has a considerable social and economic impact. As AIDS usually kills young adults, it depletes a country's labor force and weakens educational and health services. Deaths among young adults also leave behind thousands of orphaned children (in 2007, there were 1.2 million living Ugandan children under the age of 17, orphaned by AIDS) placing an additional burden on the community or the state.
AHF Activities in Uganda
AHF Uganda Cares is a partnership between AHF and the Uganda Ministry of Health (MOH). The first Uganda Cares clinic opened in Masaka in February 2002 and was the first organization to provide antiretroviral therapy (ART) outside the capital city of Kampala. Uganda Cares has since become one of the country’s largest providers of AIDS treatment. The project was identified by the World Health Organization and UNAIDS as a best practice model for ART in 2003. Because of intensive adherence support and follow-up by community-based organizations, patients have a 98% treatment adherence rate.
In the Uganda Cares model, the Ugandan MOH provides the physical clinic sites on the grounds of district hospitals, as well as some staffing, laboratory and sub-specialty support. AHF operates the programs, including all clinical management and staffing, and provides significant operational support.
In 2004, AHF developed the “HIV Medic” program, an innovative response to the shortage of healthcare workers in resource-constrained settings. Through this 12-week didactic and practical training course, laypeople gain the skills to become paraprofessional extenders of treatment who provide basic triage and intensive adherence support, and assist in the provision of ART. The HIV Medics are thus able to take on counseling, clinical, and administrative responsibilities that allow the clinical team to care for and treat larger numbers of patients in less time. Piloted in Uganda, AHF has since brought this WHO-cited “best practice” task-shifting program to other countries in Africa and Asia.
Additionally, AHF Uganda Cares entered into a partnership with Development Initiatives International (DII) in 2006 to provide care in urban markets in Kampala. The Market Vendors Project clinic is an innovative program that allows market vendors and their families to access care without losing important, productive work hours.
Uganda Cares has seen hundreds of patients become well enough to work but whose productivity is limited by a lack of resources. Recognizing this, AHF developed and in 2009 began its pilot Socio-Economic Empowerment Project (SEEP) that provides financial training and micro-loans to people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA).
For its HIV Routine Counseling and Testing project, AHF Uganda Cares partners with RTI and runs an HIV Mass Testing program in partnership with districts, NGOs, the MOH and the Uganda AIDS Commission.
Models of Care
Direct Care
Technical Assistance & Supervision
