COMMUNITY ART (3IE 2016-2017)
Community ART (3IE 2016-2017)This was a implementation research project implemented by MDH in collaboration with the Harvard T.H.Chan School of Public Health, National AIDS Control Program (NACP), CHMTs, CBHCs and HBCs at the selected health facilities in Dar es Salaam region. The key objective of the project was to assess the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness using the HBCs to deliver ARVs to stable clients at the community as one of the differentiated care model.
The primary outcome of the project was the proportion of clients with suppressed viral load among those receiving home delivery of ARVs vs those continued with the current standard of care. A total of 48 HFs participated, 24 randomly assigned to the intervention arm and 24 continued with the standard of care (control arm). Up to 2,000 clients were enrolled, 1000 in each arm. A total of 636 clients, mostly women received ARVs at home during the study period. We performed a series of qualitative interviews to assess feasibility and acceptability. The preliminary findings showed that the community ART project is feasible and accepted by the HCPs and clients and the quantitative data shows that it is not inferior to the current standard of care.