HIV/AIDS

The issue of The Manager focuses on designing and improving a package of HIV-related services using a conceptual framework called the Functional Service Delivery Point. The framework can help managers to identify the characteristics that make HIV-related services functional and to deliver these services with strong community and management support. [from editor]

Countries in Africa are facing a public health meltdown as hundreds of public health workers succumb to the AIDS pandemic or are fleeing the region in search of better pay. As well, the healthcare infrastructure is well below the required standard with rural communities in some nations struggling to cope. [from article]

This study documents the contribution made by religion and religious entities to the struggle for health and wellbeing in Zambia and Lesotho, in a context dominated by poverty, stressed public health systems and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. By mapping and understanding these Religious Health Assets (RHAs), the study calls for a greater appreciation of the potential they have for the struggle against HIV/AIDS and for universal access and offers recommendations for action by both public health and religious leaders at all levels. Through respectful engagement these assets have the potential to increase in strength and value and become more effective in the long-term sustainability, recovery and resilience of individuals, families and communities. [publisher’s description]

Very little information is available on the extent to which the private health sector is involved in clinical management of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria. This study assessed the potentials and existing capacity of 15 private health facilities in Nassarawa state for clinical management of HIV/AIDS. [from abstract]

This study examines the attitudes of nursing students toward caring for HIV/AIDS patients and their knowledge and perceptions about the disease. Findings revealed a very positive outlook of the nursing students in regards to caring for HIV/AIDS patients. Although most of them expressed their willingness to take any job offer concerning caring for HIV/AIDS patients, 34.3% apprehended resistance from their family members in this regard. However, they also considered that it would be possible for them to overcome the resistance. Although 100% of the students had heard of HIV/AIDS, a number of them had misconceptions about various aspects of the disease.

This report describes highlights from the Doctors We Trust Project in St. Petersburg and the Together We Are Stronger Project in Kaliningrad. Both projects focused onthe limitations of health care for vulnerable groups in St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad. The key strategy was to build cooperative links between government agencies and NGOs, uniting those who control public medical facilities and those who work most closely with vulnerable populations. The goal was to strengthen the NGOs’ capacity to provide care, while helping the governmental sector and medical personnel better understand and respond to the needs of people living with HIV and AIDS (PLHA) and other vulnerable groups.

The 2005 Barbados HIV/AIDS Service Provision Assessment (Barbados HSPA) survey report provides baseline information on the capacity of the formal public health sector in Barbados to provide both basic and advanced level HIV and AIDS services and the availability of recordkeeping systems for monitoring HIV and AIDS care and support. Within the Caribbean region, there is a concern for the recent training of health professionals who provide HIV and AIDS services, for health worker attitudes towards people living with HIV (PLHIV) and for patient movement within the region. The Barbados HSPA captured information on these region-specific indicators in addition to the standard HSPA indicators.

Tanzania’s government has developed various policies and guidelines to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic, including a five-year commitment to provide anti-retroviral therapy (ART) to 500,000 Tanzanians. This program faces many HRH-related challenges and constraints. This report discusses the implementation of a home-based care (HBC) model to support older caregivers for Tanzanians living with HIV/AIDS. [adapted from report]

The shortage of trained health professionals is among the main obstacles to strengthening low-income countries health systems and to scaling up HIV/AIDS control efforts. Traditional health practitioners are increasingly depicted as key resources to HIV/AIDS prevention and care. An appropriate and effective response to the HIV/AIDS crisis requires reconsideration of the collaboration between traditional and biomedical health providers (THPs and BHPs). The aim of this paper is to explore biomedical and traditional health practitioners experiences of and attitudes towards collaboration and to identify obstacles and potential opportunities for them to collaborate regarding care for patients with sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV/AIDS. [author’s description]

This Praxis Note provides an overview of the impact of HIV/AIDS on the Malawi health care system and on the organisational capacity of Mulanje Mission Hospital. It describes the experiences and lessons learnt from a capacity building program designed to address capacity deficits and erosion caused by HIV/AIDS attrition. Less emphasis was placed on external training courses and increasing attention given to short-course inputs and distance learning. [from introduction]

This presentation was given as part of the Christian Health Association’s Conference: CHAs at a Crossroad Towards Achieving Health Millennium Development Goals. It provides an excellent overview of the challenges of Malaria and HIV/AIDS ; discusses the human resource needs in light of these challenges; and how to build and maintain capacity. [from author’s description]

This article reflects on the state of the art in providing a safe working environment for HCWs and to consider a future path towards equitable access to its basic elements. [author’s description]

What effect does the increased number of Malawians living with HIV/AIDS have on the public health sector? To address this question, the Commonwealth Regional Health Community Secretariat (CRHCS) and Malawian researchers from the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development, Bureau for Africa, undertook an assessment to explore the effects of HIV/AIDS on the health workforce. [author’s description]

Chapter 19 of this report discusses “Palliative Care in Resource-Poor Settings.”

Palliative care is crucial in every care setting, rich or poor, for it is a philosophy of care that centers on improving quality of life for patients and their families. In this chapter, we focus attention on the need to integrate palliative care into national government strategies in order to address the pandemic in resource-poor settings, which includes many developing countries and low-income areas in some industrialized countries. [author’s description]

This presentation presents some of the issues concerning the effect of HIV/AIDS on the nursing and midwifery professions in the Commonwealth countries of east, central and southern Africa.


To view this presentation, you must have either Microsoft PowerPoint or download the free PowerPoint Viewer.

Given the very limited health infrastructure and resources and the need to provide a palliative care service to about one percent of the population each year, community and home-based care is viewed as the key to responding to these needs. Some countries have already developed strong home-based care networks in coordination with the PHC system to respond to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Palliative care, as part of the continuum of care of HIV/AIDS, cancer and other chronic conditions can be integrated into this existing network. [author’s description]

This pre-tested and peer-reviewed curriculum focuses on the knowledge and skills necessary for providing holistic CHBC for people living with HIV/AIDS, transferring knowledge and skills to caregivers and CHBC clients, and mobilizing communities around HIV/AIDS prevention, care, treatment, and support. The trainer’s guide includes comprehensive units that cover topics from HIV basics, communication skills, nursing care, nutrition, positive living, family planning, HIV prevention, ART, to community mobilization.


The illustrated handbook provides community health workers with a practical user-friendly tool that can be used as reference material and for skills transfer to clients and caregivers. [publisher’s description]

The integration of HIV-prevention activities into care has received little attention within or outside formal healthcare settings. The contribution of community home-based care services in facilitating disclosure of HIV status and reducing stigma have also not been described. This study examines the community impact of an integrated community home-based care (ICHC) programme on HIV-prevention efforts and disclosure of status. Quantitative data was collected from 363 people living with HIV (PLHIV) and 1 028 members of their micro-communities. [from abstract]

This document presents estimates of the number and proportion of children who will lose one or both parents in 23 countries heavily affected by HIV/AIDS. The report also presents the view that solutions can be found only through coordinated efforts to support, strengthen, and multiply coping strategies among the families and communities on the front lines of the pandemic. The COPE (Community-based Options for Protection and Empowerment) program is a promising example of how this can be done. Human resources challenges are also addressed. [adapted from author]

This issue of the HST Update covers topics such as: care from within the community; the Khayelihle example; and the role of organizations outside the government in community-based care.

The emphasis of the COPHIA program is the provision of home-based care and support services by multi-purpose community-based health workers to vulnerable households in the geographic focus areas that are coping with the burden of caring for seriously ill family members or caring for orphans and vulnerable children. The COPHIA community-based health workers, with the support of clinical and non-clinical supervisors, provide the direct physical and emotional care and support services to PLWHA and orphans and vulnerable children in the project catchment area with the support of trained primary caregivers.

Partners for Health Reformplus conducted a comprehensive assessment of the public health sector in Côte d’Ivoire to quantify HR available and what is needed to maintain basic health services while scaling up HIV/AIDS services to reach targets at the national level and at the global level through initiatives such as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the World Health Organization’s 3 by 5 Initiative, and the Millennium Development Goals. [from abstract]

This document evaluates the Continuum of Care service delivery model established to address the problem of proving care and ART treatment to those suffering with HIV. The study documents the elements of the service delivery model including the focus on linkages between clinicians and the community and details the district-based success of the program.

These guidelines aim to increase and improve the active and meaningful involvement of the community sector in the development, implementation and monitoring of coordinated national AIDS responses. They aim to provide practical options from which stakeholders can select those options that are most appropriate and useful to their own contexts and they promote a set of universal principles, such as human rights and gender equality, that are relevant to all countries and contexts. [adapted from abstract]

Despite their high level of training and medical knowledge, health professionals remain a population that is vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. AIDS-related mortality has been recognized as a significant factor in the loss of trained health staff in high prevalence countries, but little empirical research has been done to quantify the damage. In this study, we applied a case/comparison methodology to estimate the costs of HIV infection in the professional workforce at three Zambian healthcare institutions: Lusaka District Health Management Team, University Teaching Hospital (the national tertiary care hospital) and Kasama District Hospital and Health Management Team. Deaths or medical retirements among professional staff were analyzed wherever the complete personnel records were available, with the exclusion of cases resulting from violence, accident or disease of sudden onset. 108 cases were identified over a three-year period ending in October 2003. Each case was matched with two comparisons of similar age, sex and professional training. Data were collected for both cases and comparisons on absenteeism, compensation and medical care and reimbursement. Data were also collected on death and retirement benefits paid, or owed, to the cases. [author’s description]

In response to increased global public health funding initiatives to HIV/AIDS care in Africa, this study aimed to describe practice models, strategies and challenges to delivering end-of-life care in sub-Saharan Africa. A survey end-of-life care programs was conducted, addressing the domains of service aims and configuration, barriers to pain control, governmental endorsement and strategies, funding, monitoring and evaluation, and research. Both closed and qualitative responses were sought. [author’s description]

Preparing health workers to confront the HIV/AIDS epidemic is an urgent challenge in Haiti. There is a critical shortage of doctors, leaving nurses as the primary care providers for much of the population. Haiti’s nurses play a leading role in HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment. However, they do not receive sufficient training at the pre-service level to carry out this important work. The Ministry of Health and Population collaborated with the International Training and Education Center on HIV to create a competency-based HIV/AIDS curriculum to be integrated into the the national schools

These guidelines are meant to assist health planners in different countries to
analyze the nursing needs as related to HIV infection, to establish consistent
nursing service policy and to help them assess the initial needs for an HIV -
informed nursing workforce. [from preface]

This assessment evalutes the RACHA program in Cambodia which was intended to strengthen the capacity and sustainability of the public and private sectors to deliver quality reproductive health and child survival services. The five technical intervention areas were birth spacing, STD/HIV prevention, safe motherhood, childhood diarrhoeal diseases and micronutrient deficiences. One of the key intermediate results identified within these areas was inproved human resource capacity to address these issues. [adapted from author]