HIV TREATMENT
2020
Action 27. Mobilize their networks and work with communities to help build treatment literacy, generate demand, and expand access to ARVs among children.
Action 34. Increase efforts to share information on the roll-out of new paediatric formulations, including lessons learned.
Paediatric HIV & TB : Rome Action Plan
28. Equip, mobilize, and support faith leaders, FBOs, people in places of worship, and the wider community to create demand for testing of infants and children.
29. Combat stigma and discrimination among faith leaders and within communities of faith.
30. Further collaborate and coordinate community mobilization, education and outreach to find otherwise hard-to-reach children, adolescents, youth and adults for age appropriate prevention education, testing and linkage to treatment and health and social support services and integrate into the national system.
31. Ensure FBO participation in local and national diagnostic product/supplies forecasting.
32. Support and participate in national efforts to improve the use and impact of pediatric diagnostics and develop national strategies to optimize the use of new technologies and interventions.
33. Work to implement new HIVST modalities (such as oral fluid testing) in communities and homes, where national polices and regulations allow for lay implementation with children.
Commitment 28:
Caritas Nigeria continue to support of 62 pediatric ART champions who are religious leaders trained to use the social capital of the Church in Nigeria to deliver audience appropriate messaging about HIV stigma, testing and diagnosis in children to their communities across Nigeria. Champions conducted free medical outreaches in Lafia Diocese, North Central Nigeria which reached 515 children (aged 0 – 5 years) with clinical evaluations & treatment for communicable diseases from amongst whom 431 children aged 0 – 5 years with three children (F 2; M 1) testing HIV positive of the 515 beneficiaries aged 6 – 10 years. An additional 11 pediatric ART champions were identified during this post-training phase activity.
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Commitment 29:
Caritas Nigeria provided post-training support to 62 religious leaders trained under the GRAIL project continued with community awareness creation and free medical outreaches for childhood illnesses (which included a HIV test). Following successful training of religious leaders on the understanding of the fundamentals of HIV which has helped to dispel myths and misconception, the organization has organized about two review meeting to further deepen this understanding. A number of Parishes have organized church based HIV testing showing a positive impact on stigma reduction.
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Commitment 30:
Caritas Nigeria, through her PEPFAR funded HIV care and Treatment Program, is implementing pediatric and adolescent specific interventions through collaboration with health facilities and PLHIV support Group Network. Currently, selected health facilities are supported to implement adolescent friendly clinics, weekend clinics, adolescent clubs and Operation Triple Zero (OTZ) all aimed at enhancing age appropriate education, testing and linkage to treatment and health and social support services.
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Commitment 32:
Caritas Nigeria has been part of the discussion and a member of the National Task Team that monitor progress on the pilot exercise on the use of DBS for Viral L
38. Support and participate in national efforts to improve and integrate the use and impact of pediatric diagnostics for TB and HIV and develop national strategies to optimize the use of new technologies and interventions.
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71. Equip, mobilize, and support faith leaders, FBOs, people in places of worship, and the wider community to create awareness of the importance of HIV testing of infants and children of people living with HIV. Demand that national school curricula include scientifically appropriate information on HIV prevention, testing and treatment.
72. Combat stigma and discrimination among faith leaders and within communities of faith around HIV prevention, testing and treatment. Create demand for client-centered and stigma-free care within health facilities as well as access to community-based treatment.
73. Further collaborate and coordinate community mobilization, education and outreach to find otherwise hard-to-reach children, adolescents, youth and adults for age appropriate prevention education, testing, and linkage to and continuity of treatment, health, psycho-social and spiritual support services and integrate into the national system.
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52. Ensure FBO participation in local and national forecasting of optimal paediatric drug formulations.
53. Collaborate with GAP-f partners to develop, test, and disseminate training tools for treatment initiation with LPV/r and other optimal pediatric formulations.
54. Support and increase family treatment initiation and retention for children, adolescents, and families by:
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Increasing identification and provision of same-day/same-appointment mother/infant pair treatment through FBO clinics;
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Promoting male/father engagement in EMTCT programmes; and
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Increasing stigma reduction interventions through mobilized faith leaders and faith communities
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Providing social work interventions to assist fathers to support treatment and adherence of their partners and children living with HIV.
55. Foster and more actively participate in coordinated and collaborative advocacy to:
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Increase funding for research & development, introduction and scale-up of priority pediatric drugs and formulations;
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Accelerate regulatory processes for rapid adoption and uptake of optimal paediatric drugs and formulations; and
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Ensure sustainable access to optimal testing and treatment for infants and children.
Commitment 52:
As a major FBO in Nigeria and having presence in the South-South and South Eastern part of Nigeria, Caritas Nigeria provides a strong representation for the interest of FBOs in local and National forecasting by attending the Procurement and Supply Management TWG.
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Commitment 53:
In partnership with HIV Division of Federal Ministry of Health, Caritas Nigeria disseminated a tools to guide the use of pediatric formulation of LPV/R in addition to the job technical support to health care workers provide the services.
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Commitment 54:
Caritas Nigeria trained over 100 health workers and volunteers in 4 states in Nigeria on index testing services for HIV diagnosis to increase case identification of children through family based testing. Work on stigma reduction pursued through continued support to the 62 pediatric ART champions in Nigeria to deliver audience appropriate messaging about HIV stigma, testing and diagnosis in children to their communities across Nigeria and Niger.
Action 10: Promote the revision of national procurement plans to align with WHO recommended regimens and the Optimal Formulary, and support the provision of reliable forecasts and the consolidation of orders.
Action 22: Support the early adoption of priority formulations and diagnostics and take steps to facilitate their wider roll-out, including by developing introductory guidance, materials, and other tools for health facilities.
Action 27. Mobilize their networks and work with communities to help build treatment literacy, generate demand, and expand access to ARVs among children.
Action 28. Raising awareness in global fora about the unmet diagnostic and treatment needs of children with HIV.
Action 29. Promote uptake by mobilizing their networks of hospitals and community structures to distribute paediatric medicines in hard to reach places and in situations of conflict and crisis.
Action 34. Increase efforts to share information on the roll-out of new paediatric formulations, including lessons learned.
Action 22:
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Caritas Nigeria participated in Nigerian Technical Working Groups of the National AIDS and STI Control Program to promote the adoption and scale up of optimized ART formulations for adolescents - Tenofovir/Lamuvudine/Dolutigravir (eligible adolescents). Latest was from 17th – 18th June, 2019. Operational support includes:
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Deployment and distribution of an approved National Guideline on regimen transitioning to all stakeholders
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Training and capacity building of health care workers
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Regular audit of transitioning progress
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Transport incentives to accelerate transitioning effort among others
Action 27:
Caritas Nigeria continues to support of 62 pediatric ART champions in Nigeria to deliver audience appropriate messaging about HIV stigma, testing and diagnosis in children to their communities across Nigeria. Champions and staff are building a stronger clinic-community interphase through afflation of health facilities with congregations for ease of referral and post-test follow-up.
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Action 28:
Caritas Nigeria participated in the Caritas DRC ASBL and Caritas Kinshasa (a diocesan Caritas also in DRC) review meeting from 19th – 22th February 2019 for their religious leaders who are referring children for HTS in Congolese communities. Finalized participation in ICASA2019 in Rwanda where plenary, satellites and community activities will be used to draw global attention to the opportunities, challenges and prospects in working with religious leaders to fight pediatric ART.
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Action 29:
Support of 62 pediatric ART champions in Nigeria to deliver audience appropriate messaging to their communities across Nigeria. Since last Rome meeting we have scaled up use of free medical outreaches targeting malnutrition, helminthiasis, chest infection, malaria as well as HIV to help identify more children. 6 large outreaches conducted in North Central and South Eastern Nigeria.
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Action 34
Caritas Nigeria participated in Nigerian Technical Working Groups of the National AIDS and STI Control Program to promote the adoption and scale up of optimized ART formulations for adolescents - Tenofovir/Lamuvudine/Dolutigravir (eligible adolescents). Latest was from 17th – 18th June, 2019. Participated in the pilot exercise toward the roll of Lopinavir pellet in Nigeria, involved in the training of health care workers at the nationwide scale up of the use of Lopinavir pellet, Currently contribute to the National data on the uptake of Lopinavir pellet in the country. As it stands, Caritas Nigeria has commenced active transitioning of all children from the sub optimal regimen AZT/3TC/NVP to ABC/3TC/LPV/R for 0-3 years and ABC/3TC/LPV/R for 3-6 years while weight eligible children 6-14 year were moved to TDF/3TC/DTG.
119. Advocate for and support Ministries of Health to rapidly transition to optimal paediatric formulations as outlined by the latest WHO guidelines, provide coordinated support for the development and implementation of transition plans, inform clinicians and patients of the value of transitioning to new formulations, and ensure communication of reliable information on the availability of new formulations in-country.
120. Support the scale up of access to priority formulations and diagnostics and take steps to facilitate their wider roll-out, including by performing operational research, developing introductory guidance and education, materials, and other tools for health facilities and local community health structures.
121. Promote the revision of national procurement plans to align with WHO recommended regimens and the EML-C, and support the provision of reliable forecasts and the consolidation of orders.
122. Mobilize their networks and work with communities to help build treatment literacy, generate demand, and expand access to TB diagnosis and treatment among children in close collaboration with other stakeholders.
123. Raise awareness in local, national, and global fora about the unmet diagnostic and treatment and prevention needs of children with or at risk for TB.
124. Foster and more actively participate in coordinated and collaborative advocacy to:
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Increase funding for TB research & development, introduction and scale-up of priority paediatric drugs and formulations;
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Accelerate regulatory processes for rapid adoption and uptake of optimal paediatric TB drugs and formulations; and
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Ensure sustainable access to optimal TB testing and treatment for infants and children.
125. Tackle the TB stigma and discrimination in communities, schools, and healthcare settings that prevent children and adolescents living with TB or at risk of TB from accessing testing and treatment, including promotion of awareness of the difference between infection and disease and include messages of hope regarding treatment of both HIV and TB.
126. Promote uptake by mobilizing their networks of hospitals and community structures to distribute paediatric medicines in hard to reach places and in situations of conflict and crisis.
127. Support and increase TB treatment initiation and retention for children, adolescents, and families by:
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Identifying all TB-exposed children and connecting them to treatment and preventive TB treatment through FBO clinics and within communities of faith;
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Reducing TB stigma and discrimination through mobilization and evidence-based education and training of faith leaders and faith communities
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