Given the need to reduce the prevalence of undiagnosed HIV and new infections, our teams in Enugu and Imo States trained community testers and health personnel from community-based organizations in Advanced HIV Diseases (AHD) and Recency testing.
The capacity strengthening workshop beamed focus on how Recency testing helps to distinguish recent HIV infections from long-term and unclassified HIV infections, while also engaging participants in a hands-on session that equipped them with Recency testing and results-interpretation skills.
Whereas trainees were drawn from Orlu and Okigwe local government areas of Imo State, participants included representatives of the Enugu State Ministry of Health and three health personnel each from ten health facilities in Enugu State.
In a related event, a team of epidemiologists and laboratory scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), together with the Caritas Nigeria team in Enugu State, paid a monitoring visit to four supported-HIV service facilities in the state, to break the chain of new HIV infections.
The technical visit to the health facilities namely; Enugu Ezike District Hospital, Mother of Christ Specialist Hospital, Nsukka District Hospital, and Udi District Hospital, was intended to strengthen the Recency Surveillance program. Recency surveillance seeks to effectively monitor new HIV infections (acquired within the past 12 months) by providing adequate data of recently diagnosed persons for real-time analysis, tracking and treatment.