Meeting with PEPFAR Interministerial Headquarters on Innovative HIV Testing Models

On September 24, 2018, a technical support visit of the PEPFAR interagency team (the Interagency Collaborative for Program Improvement) on innovative HIV testing models was launched. This event was conducted in the framework of the project “Access of Communities to HIV Care and Treatment through Strengthening the Healthcare System, ACCESS Pro” that is implemented by “100% of Life” with the support from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention within the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in Ukraine, as well as in order to develop effective models and approaches for identifying HIV patients and engaging them in HIV treatment.

The main task of the visit is to assess peculiarities of available in the country models of HIV testing initiated by healthcare workers and testing partners of HIV-positive persons.

During a stakeholder meeting with the representatives of PEPFAR, USAID, PHC and the Alliance for Public Health, the experts of “100% of Life” shared their experience from the HealthLink project that is related to innovative approaches to HIV testing.

“This year, we not only managed to successfully launch all HIV testing models but also gather and analyze all the data received. This allowed us to find barriers and problems while implementing the project and to quickly develop new recommendations that were already being used in the framework of the HealthLink project,” comments Olga Petrash, the technical director of the HealthLink project and the leading officer of the “100% of Life’s” Innovative Program Team. We’d like to remind that more than 48 000 Ukrainians will be tested for HIV in the framework of the HealthLink project by the end of 2018.

The visit of the PEPFAR interagency team will last until September 28, 2018. As part of the evens, it is planned to visit HIV testing and counseling sites, as well as training sessions devoted to various aspects of HIV testing.