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By Chinelo Obogo
Country Director of US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Nigeria, Mary Adetinuke Boyd, has said a US-supported National HIV Clinical Mentorship Programme can help to establish a capable workforce that can provide quality care for individuals and accelerate epidemic control in the country.
In a recently released scientific paper in a journal, PLOS, new evidence showed that the implementation of Zambia’s national HIV clinical mentorship programme aligned with progress toward the UNAIDS 90/90/90 targets in the four selected provinces.
Programme data from the country indicated that rates of HIV case-finding, index-case testing, HIV testing efficiency, treatment initiation, viral load testing coverage, and viral load suppression significantly improved during the implementation period.
The scientific paper is the first published report of a government-led national HIV clinical mentorship programme in sub-Saharan Africa that aligned with significant improvement in key HIV programmatic indicators.
Boyd, who is the paper’s lead author, said the results from Zambia justified continued support for the mentorship programme and made a case for the implementation of similar programmes in other settings such as Nigeria.
“In the current phase of the HIV epidemic response, there is a greater focus on ensuring country ownership to promote sustainability, while maintaining epidemic control,” Boyd said.
