Experiences and Lessons Learnt from the HIV Treat All Pilot Phase Implementation in Zimbabwe

Richard Makurumidze

doi:10.2147/HIV.S319850

Experiences and Lessons Learnt from the HIV Treat All Pilot Phase Implementation in Zimbabwe

HIV AIDS (Auckl). 2021 Aug 16:13:823-828. doi: 10.2147/HIV.S319850. eCollection 2021.

Author

Richard Makurumidze^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe.
² Department of Clinical Sciences, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium.
³ Gerontology, Faculty of Medicine & Pharmacy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium.

Abstract

Zimbabwe adopted the Treat All recommendations and started to implement them nationwide in 2017. Before launch, Treat All was piloted in nine districts. The sharing of implementation experiences and knowledge gained will significantly contribute to the implementation success in settings where Treat All still needs to be rolled out. We report on experiences and lessons learnt from the implementation of Treat All during the pilot phase in Zimbabwe. Coordination and well-structured engagement plans with the districts led to the successful implementation of the Treat All pilot. The established technical working groups offered standardisation and a platform for the exchange of experience between the implementing partners and the Ministry of Health and Child Care. Training and capacity building of the healthcare workers through mentoring, support and supervision, and the provision of job aides were necessary to equip them with the required skills. Community knowledge, commitment and support were critical to the successful implementation of the guidelines. Health facilities preparedness was of great importance. This enabled the health facilities to develop mitigating strategies at the local level using existing resources. Studies examining how patient outcomes will progress under Treat All are pertinent.

Keywords: HIV; Treat All; antiretroviral therapy; sub-Saharan Africa.

Grants and funding

The HIV Treat All pilot was funded by PEPFAR through its two main implementation partners I-TECH and OPHID. Richard Makurumidze receives a PhD scholarship grant from the Institute of Tropical Medicine, funded by the Belgian Development Cooperation (DGD). The funders had no role in the preparation of the manuscript or decision to publish.