Author: Olesya Kravchuk, AFEW International
The ‘Improved TB/HIV Prevention & Care – Building Models for the Future’ project was presented during the Dutch National Congress ‘Soa.Hiv.Seks’ on 1 December 2017 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Three working models from Kazakhstan, the Philippines, and Nigeria implemented by AFEW, Hivos and PharmAccess with KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation as the lead agency were shown to the Congress audience.
HIV and TB are two of the biggest public health threats in the world. Mounting challenges associated with these mutually reinforcing diseases are both medical and socio-political. In the efforts to address many of the common challenges, AFEW, HIVOS, PharmAccess and KNCV, with support from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, collaborate in different parts of the world via the ‘Improved TB/HIV prevention and care-building models for the future’ alliance to jointly design and pilot innovative models of cooperation between the public, private and community sectors involved in the fight against HIV and TB, to find new ways of ensuring and expanding affordable, patient-centred and high quality access to care for key affected populations.
“After the project has started in Almaty, Kazakhstan, we can observe positive changes. A patient has information about good quality care, knows where to go for treatment and support, and has a choice in seeking care in the public sector, private sector and civil society,” the executive director of AFEW International Anke van Dam is saying. “Self-support groups and client management for TB patients are being organized and the HIV and TB working group is supported by the head of the Almaty City Health Department.”
Private clinics in Kazakhstan are now engaged in the public healthcare sector. They are integrated into the national monitoring and evaluation system for public/non-public TB/HIV care provision in Almaty city.
