Tutu Tester and Gugulethu, Nyanga and Masiphumele clinics
Projects Info
Project Manager: Richard Kaplan
Tel: +27 21 650 6958
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Anova works with the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation to support HIV-services at Gugulethu, Nyanga and Masiphumele clinics. Through activism, fund raising and government partnerships, the DTHF started the first dedicated ART clinic in the country in Gugulethu in 2002.
In addition, Anova supports a mobile HCT unit at DTHF. The DTHF believes that taking HIV testing out of health facilities and making the service accessible and convenient normalises HIV testing in the context of other preventative strategies. By providing more comprehensive information when referring those who test positive, it will increase HIV testing uptake, identify those infected earlier and improve links to care through services.
ART
The Hannan Crusaid Treatment Centre in Gugulethu has now screened more than 5 500 adults and children. The protocol devised for the clinic served as the foundation for the national ART programme. The clinic also provided the setting for the development of pharmacy accountability tools, on-site laboratory monitoring and a greater understanding of the TB burden in ART programmes, as well as better ways to screen for TB in these settings.
Further sites have been initiated to answer specific questions. The Masiphumelele site, where the population denominator is known, investigates the role of ART coverage on TB and HIV at the community level. The Nyanga clinic examines the integration of TB and ART/HIV services at clinic and community level and the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre explores new treatment strategies and novel ART drugs.
HCT
The Tutu Tester is a mobile clinic that has been taking trained staff and the latest point of care CD4 technology into communities in the greater Cape Town area since May 2008. This means that people receive their HIV and CD4 test results at the same visit. Clients are also screened for hypertension, diabetes, obesity, TB and STIs.
This concept is consistent with the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation’s vision that HIV should be viewed as a chronic, treatable condition rather than one attached to stigma, discrimination and shame.
The project's focus is to reduce the risk of HIV acquisition and transmission in all clients irrespective of the HIV test result. Negative clients are given individual solutions for risk reduction, whilst positive clients receive specialised care on the spot with a syphilis test, a sputum induction to screen for TB, and a physical examination to enable appropriate referrals to other centres. Each client is also supplied with a Road to HIV Health card (designed by the DTHF) for documenting their CD4 count and viral load and prompts for the client to take certain preventative measures to stay healthy.
A total of 9 828 people were tested for HIV, with 943 (9.6 percent) being HIV-positive. There was a very high uptake of TB screening - 878 (93.1 percent) - and CD4 testing - 844 (89.5 percent).