Global health aid at work

Wednesday, Jaci and I visited the CTC, which is the HIV Care and Treatment Center. These clinics are all over TZ/Africa and were initially started by the Clinton Foundation and their reach was expanded by George W Bush under the PEPFAR program (President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief).

The morning did not have many patients, so I spent time talking with the staff. Adam is the program 'tracker' so his job is to follow up with patients who miss their appointments. 

If Adam can't reach the patient by phone, he can ask the community health worker nearest to their village to reach out to the patient & ask them to come in. Adam also shared that the regional CTCs  communicate regularly via What's App chats. They share data and ideas for improvement. If a patient from their clinic shows up at another clinic, they let Ilula know for tracking and vice versa. 

Once several  patients came in, we filled their prescriptions. I even got to count out the meds like a real pharmacist. 

Next we met with a newly diagnosed patient to observe the intake process. First the patient met with Jeremiah, the clinical officer for clinic, to take a detailed history and provide counseling. The patient was initially teary about this news, but Jeremiah was very reassuring.  Next Adam came to complete  all the required forms to enroll as a CTC patient. The clinic keeps a paper record  and also provides one for the patient to take.  The clinic also has a data entry clerk who enters all the info for tracking and aggregation. 

Jeremiah came back after the forms were done to complete the final tasks. Jaci got to write her prescription and then we filled her first 2 weeks of medication. 

This clinic serves over 3000 patients. They are efficient and provide supportive & compassionate care that is leading to long healthy lives for patients with HIV. I have heard that in previous visits to Ilula almost all the inpatients were HIV positive. Now there are only a few on each ward but they are admitted for other reasons- not HIV. The hospital also reports newly screened patients, and everyday we have been here there have been zero new positive cases. 

If anyone has doubts about the value or impact of USAID/PEPFAR, please let me put them to rest for you. This money saves lives - please tell your congressional representatives to reauthorize so this program can keep going.