Towards Zero New infections

Hope HIV testing: everyone should know they HIV state Humana People to People entered into partnership with FHI360 on the Advancing Partnership and Communities project (APC) from month of September 2015, to move forward the UNAIDS 90-90-90 vision. The idea behind the 90-90-90 strategy is to prevent any new HIV infections. Everybody must know their HIV status and they should initiate ARV treatment, when their viral load goes up and their CD4 goes below 500. Those on treatment must remain on ARV treatment. When this is achieved, it will be evident that there are very few new HIV infections.

HOPE Humana South East, HOPE Humana Kanye and HOPE Humana Goodhope are implementing this partnership. Humana People to People has been able to scale up the following HOPE Humana activities:

Health Services:

Community based and focused HIV rapid testing, prioritising people in high risk and families where a person is living positively with HIV. (In 90-90-90: to ensure that all people who are HIV infected, know their HIV status).
Refer and ensure that all HIV positive persons achieve a CD4 test and register on the ARV treatment program
People testing HIV positive receive screening for tuberculosis and sputum testing if they can’t reach to the health facility
Condom distribution

Opinion forming activities

Several sessions of HIV prevention discussions and elaborating risk reduction plans (PES)
Gender norms and gender based violence discussions over five sessions.

The main target for these outreach activities is the youth below age 24, focusing mostly on vulnerable adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in the age of 10-24 years of age.

Outreach

Support to and referral of people with cases of gender based violence to professional counselling
Follow up that people received Tuberculosis sputum testing
Community TB care: Patients on a TB treatment regime are supported at a daily basis as the treatment must be extremely strictly followed.

Handing out Condoms at a local sport event. HPP collaborates closely with all local health facilities, government programs, schools and churches and also refers patients to Botswana Network of People living with HIV and the Baylor Children’s Clinic for paediatric care as they work to form support groups and HIV treatment adherence groups in these three districts have been out sourced in this partnership to these partners.

The program started during the last quarter of 2015. People are receiving the Community Heath Workers very well. The gender norm discussions are very useful for people, as gender based violence is fuelling the eidemic. When people see us in white HIV testing coats in their remote village, they are grateful that we reach out to them and we succeed to mobilise them to finally test for HIV.

But it takes very good strategising for the home testing to target the hotspots of the epidemic. It takes lots of follow up in the field to ensure all who are eligible get checks and on treatment.