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Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Medical research experts have expressed the need for the integration of HIV/AIDs prevention and management service providers. This they say will ensure equal distribution of the available resources.
Dr. Sylvia Kushemerirwe, a scientist at the Medical Research Council-MRC prefers that the different service providers in HIV prevention and management establish a direct collaboration to enable them evenly spread across the country, other than operating in isolation which sometimes leads to duplication of services.
Currently, the country has several actors offering HIV/AIDs prevention and management services that include testing and care, delivery of anti-retroviral drug supplies, managing of other opportunistic infections, supply of prevention implements such as condoms, pre and post-exposure prophylaxis drugs, carrying out research among other interventions all aimed at neutralizing the virus to end its spread in the community.
However, due to limited technical capacity, financial and structural constraints, some service providers according to Dr. Kushemerirwe cannot afford to provide a complete package of the required HIV prevention and management interventions, which retards efforts to eliminate the virus spread in the country.
She observes that others tend to have a high concentration in common geographical locations, leaving the similar demands for services in other areas less or even not even attended to, which creates a semblance of regional imbalances in the delivery of lifesaving services.
She explains that besides easing access to HIV-related services and improving the level of adherence to treatment by clients, the integration will also prevent the duplication of services by different service providers, which also leads to unnecessary wastage of the limited funds.
According to Kushemerirwe, a similar methodology has previously been studied and proven to be effective in the treatment of non-communicable diseases alongside HIV care, and the integration once adopted has the potential of fighting stigma and discrimination associated with the virus.
Dr. Faith Nakiyemba, the Masaka District Health Officer indicates that owing to the bad experiences of the Covid-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdown which caused serious interferences in the HIV care and management systems, when some clients failed to access service providers for routine medical assessment and drug refills, the integration of service providers would provide a solution.
She says that because the country committed itself to the 2030 target of eliminating the new spread of HIV, there is a need for the government to explore every opportunity that can support it to realize the dream, especially by adopting interventions that improve community access to services.
Dr. Nakiyimba has implored the Ministry of Health to interest itself in the recommendation and accordingly sanction a study to establish its efficacy.
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