Ethiopia, Rwanda Projects Featured At ICASA 2005

The 14th International Conference on HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA), which took place from December 4-9 in Abuja, Nigeria, featured four presentations from IntraHealth. While the conference offered a wide range of presentations, this year's meeting had a special focus on HIV/AIDS and the family.

An oral presentation given by Dr. Laetitia Gahimbaza, Antiretroviral Therapy Team Leader for IntraHealth's Rwanda office, complemented the conference theme. It Takes Two: Integration of Couples' Voluntary Counseling and Testing into Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) and VCT Services detailed results and lessons learned from the Rwanda team's efforts to encourage couples to receive voluntary HIV counseling and testing at 20 public health care facilities. More than 10,000 couples have received VCT together at the facilities since October 2003, and the program has shown that couples' VCT reduces HIV/AIDS-related stigma, enables discussion of family planning and helps couples take a partnership approach to planning and taking care of their families.

IntraHealth's Country Director for Ethiopia, Cristina Ruden, and Shashu Araya, PMTCT Team Leader, coordinated three presentations highlighting the work of the Hareg Project, a U.S. Government-supported initiative to avert pediatric HIV infections. Ruden delivered an oral presentation, On-the-Job Training: A Best Practice in Accelerating PMTCT Services, which focused on five components of an innovative, rapid approach used by the project to strengthen the knowledge and skills of PMTCT providers at 24 health centers.

Two poster presentations showcased other important aspects of Hareg's work in Ethiopia. PMTCT as a Means of Strengthening Existing Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Services illustrated the project's comprehensive, holistic approach to PMTCT and MCH services and the areas in which Hareg is building the MCH knowledge and skills of providers who deliver PMTCT services. The Role of Traditional Birth Attendants in Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV documented the important function of these providers in the project's community-level efforts to raise awareness of PMTCT services and facilitate birth preparedness plans to decrease delays in reaching referral sites when complications arise.

Dr. Tedla Mezemir, IntraHealth/Ethiopia's TB/HIV Advisor, presented the poster Involving the Private Sector in the Prevention of TB through Workplace HIV/AIDS Programs. The poster highlighted one of the essential components of the Public Private Partnership for Positive Change (PC4) Project, in which IntraHealth is a partner. Launched in 2005, the project is designed to expand awareness and accessibility of affordable, high-quality private-sector HIV/AIDS and TB prevention and care services.