Project Mission

In partnership with the Reproductive Health and HIV Research Unit (RHRU), the European Commission Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) and, the City of Johannesburg Department of Health, this program aims to improve systems for identifying patients in need of antiretroviral treatment (ART), ensure high standards of quality of care, and build capacity for continuous quality improvement.

Program Spotlight

The inner city program works with an area of Johannesburg called Region F, which has a population of about 485,300 (this is probably an underestimate due to the highly mobile populations that move through the region, many of whom are not South African). The region has about 11,000 births per year and is served by one district hospital, one tertiary hospital, a community health center, and 14 primary health care clinics. Thirty-three percent of these children are born to mothers who are HIV positive and in need of ART.

Progress

The South African Department of Health set the standard for antiretroviral (ARV) initiations at 80 percent of adults in need and in October 2008, the program exceeded these goals by reaching almost 100 percent of HIV-positive patients in need of ARV treatment in the program area.

The Road Ahead

The program will continue encouraging participating clinics and hospitals to hold regular meetings in order to energize teams about improvement projects and to form new collaboratives across the district. Participating clinics will also focus on assessing patient files in order to sooner identify those in need of ARV treatment.

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