IntraHealth International

Because Health Workers Save Lives

Where We Work > Africa > South Sudan

South Sudan

Compared to other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, HIV prevalence is relatively low in South Sudan. After a historic referendum for independence, this region has become its own nation, opening it to steady commercial traffic, migration, and displaced people returning home. In collaboration with governmental and nongovernmental agencies, IntraHealth International is working to prevent a spike in new HIV infections as the region changes, by providing HIV prevention information to communities and high-quality medical care to people living with HIV.

Preventing and Reducing the Impact of HIV

In 2005, South Sudan was granted autonomy through a peace agreement and commissioned its military force, the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), to manage work on HIV prevention, testing, and treatment for the army and local communities. IntraHealth currently works with the SPLA HIV/AIDS Secretariat, the Ministry of Health, International Medical Corps, Merlin, and the St. Bakhita Health Centre to prevent the epidemic’s spread by making high-quality HIV services more widely available in the South Sudanese states of Central Equatoria, Western Equatoria, Eastern Equatoria, and Lakes.

The project aims to:

Use mobile HIV testing centers to expand the availability of confidential HIV testing services beyond health centers
Integrate HIV prevention and treatment services with existing health care services for women and children at health facilities to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission
Organize community activities to teach people how to protect themselves from HIV
Collaborate with the Ministry of Health to develop better policies, guidelines, and training materials that support health workers to provide HIV counseling, testing, and treatment.

The project also trains health care providers to offer HIV counseling, testing, and education. After the training, the project monitors the trainees through follow-up visits and assessments to ensure that they are providing high-quality services. Additionally, the project helps health care administrators effectively monitor and evaluate their programs.

Since October 2009, through this project, IntraHealth:

Provided HIV testing and counseling services to 33,000 people at 16 health facilities
Trained 53 new HIV counseling and testing providers, including three individuals who were trained as trainers
Counseled and tested more than 7,000 pregnant women for HIV and provided nearly 300 women with antiretroviral therapy to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission
Enrolled over 7,600 people living with HIV in programs where they receive counseling and care to prevent the spread of the virus
Educated more than 100,000 people about HIV
Distributed more than two and a half million male condoms.

This work is funded by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and builds upon IntraHealth’s earlier successes and collaborations with the South Sudan AIDS Commission and the Ministry of Health.