Malawi is one of first countries in Southeast Africa to respond to the World Health Organization’s call for robust birth surveillance systems. Routine surveillance is essential for public health monitoring of pregnancy outcomes and birth defects, especially in high-HIV burden settings where women living with HIV initiate the use of antiretroviral therapy before or during pregnancy.
Since 2016, the International Training and Education Center for Health, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has supported the implementation of an active hospital-based birth surveillance system at four high-volume facilities in Malawi. To date, a total of 165,608 of births have been assessed. A subset of women are also enrolled in an ongoing nested case control study to assess associations between external birth defects and maternal exposures such as prior health conditions, medications, and environmental and lifestyle factors.
Anticipated use of these data include:
Establish a baseline prevalence of external birth defects in Malawi
Evaluate the impact of introducing new drugs for the management of HIV (e.g., dolutegravir) on the prevalence of external birth defects
Advocate for investment in programs and interventions to reduce the occurrence of birth defects and adverse pregnancy outcomes.
Dr. Paul Farmer and Dr. Rachel Chapman during a discussion with UW students on equity, race, and global health. Photo by Maryska Valentine // Courtesy of UW DGH.
The International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH) and its partner network were saddened to learn about the unexpected passing of Dr. Paul Farmer. He was not only a leader in the field of global health, but an inspiration to those who knew him and an advocate for social justice. His work shaped the practices of global health and touched countless lives around the world.
As a co-founder of Partners in Health (PIH), a global health and social justice organization dedicated to strengthening health systems and providing access to high-quality healthcare, Dr. Farmer worked to reduce health inequities and provide care to those most in need. He is remembered for his compassion in his humanitarian work and dedication to the PIH mission.
“I am grateful to have known Paul, and like countless others, I benefitted from his kindness, intellect, and zeal,” says Dr. Pamela Collins, I-TECH Executive Director. “This is a devastating loss for the community, but I know that his work will live on as each of us works for compassionate, equitable, and quality health care wherever we may be.”
Dr. Farmer was an inspiration to the global health community. His legacy will continue through the work of PIH and the lives he touched around the world. We thank Dr. Farmer for his life of service and dedication to global health. He will be deeply missed.
To learn more about the impact Dr. Farmer’s work, see these tributes from PIH, NPR, and New York Times.
The International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH), under the leadership of Government of Namibia ministries overseeing child welfare and health and in close collaboration with the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA), UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), supported the implementation of Namibia’s first Violence Against Children and Youth Survey (VACS).
The final Namibia VACS report was published by the Government of Namibia and Together for Girls, a global partnership working to end violence against children, on 28 September 2021. Photo Credit: Together for Girls: www.togetherforgirls.org/.
VACS are national surveys that measure the prevalence and impact of violence on children and youth around the world. The survey results help inform future program decisions and policy approaches to ensure the safety of children and youth. On 28 September 2021, the Day of the Namibian Child, the Government of Namibia published the final Namibia VACS report.
The survey, funded by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and led by the Ministry of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare (MGEPESW), interviewed households with children aged 13-24 years in all 14 regions of Namibia from March 2019 through June 2019.
Survey operations—including data collection by field teams, data generation, and analysis—were carried out by the NSA, the central statistical authority responsible for all official statistics in Namibia. “It has been a pleasure working together with the Ministry of Gender Equality, the University of Washington, I-TECH, and CDC on this important survey,” says Ottilie Mwazi, Namibia’s Deputy Statistician General. “Our team has learned a lot from the process and is very proud to have contributed important data that will help to improve child welfare in Namibia.”
Prior to data collection, I-TECH alongside CDC colleagues hosted a two-week training for 130 enumerators, focused on best practices for data collection, interview techniques, and key aspects of the survey protocols. In addition to supporting VACS training, I-TECH and the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS) ensured all selected enumerators were trained and certified by the Namibia Institute of Pathology to conduct HIV rapid testing so any survey respondent aged 14-24 years who did not know their HIV status and wanted a test during their interview could immediately be tested.
In total, 5,191 individual interviews among 6,042 households (86.35% overall response rate) and 3,232 HIV rapid tests were conducted as part of data collection. Any respondent testing positive for HIV during the survey was linked to psychosocial and HIV/AIDS care and support in line with well-established MoHSS guidelines and the survey protocol.
Expanding Post-Violence Clinical Care
The survey results have informed important initiatives across Namibia’s wider social welfare and health systems. MGEPESW has moved forward with drafting the National Action Plan on Violence against Children and has accelerated the training of various child welfare stakeholders such as police officers and social workers, while operationalizing the establishment of more child shelters in several regions.
“The data coming out of Namibia’s VACS have really brought home how prevalent and serious violence against children and adolescents really is,” says Helena Andjamba, Director for Child Welfare at MGEPESW. “Having these hard facts readily available has helped greatly during our policy and planning engagement with multiple stakeholders during the past year. We are now moving forward with the Ministry of Justice in drafting a new Child Justice Bill, and at the same time we are engaged with the Ministry of Education on strengthening the National School Safety Framework.”
Following the completion of the survey, the MoHSS convened a technical working group with I-TECH, the World Health Organization, UNFPA, Project Hope, and other stakeholders to coordinate and strengthen first-line post-violence clinical care in primary health care facilities across Namibia. I-TECH also supported the compilation of clinical guidance on emergency care for survivors of sexual violence and its inclusion in the 2021 edition of the Namibia Standard Treatment Guidelines published by the MoHSS.
Much of the focus during the second half of 2021 was on integrating post-gender-based violence (GBV) clinical care in MoHSS HIV/AIDS clinics and antiretroviral therapy (ART) services throughout Namibia. As part of this work, I-TECH conducted a mentorship training-of-trainers for 28 HIV clinical providers, nurses, and testing services staff. These mentors now provide ongoing technical guidance and supportive supervision to frontline health workers through monthly facility visits.
To further improve post-violence care in clinics, I-TECH compiled a GBV care implementation guide for Namibian healthcare providers. This includes elaboration of best practices, as well as a suite of materials including posters, pamphlets, job aids, and a pocket booklet for communities, clients, health workers, and health facility managers, respectively. An intimate partner violence/GBV screening tool to be administered to ART patients with persistent high viral loads is also currently being piloted in ten health facilities.
Through a five-year cooperative agreement with the United States (US) Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) under the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), I-TECH implements the Quality Improvement (QI) Solutions for Sustained Epidemic Control (QISSEC) project in Côte d’Ivoire. This project aims to support Côte d’Ivoire in reaching the UNAIDS 95-95-95 Fast-Track Targets, which to date have not been consistently achieved with specific populations faring worse than others.
The QISSEC approach supports Côte d’Ivoire’s National AIDS Program, Côte d’Ivoire’s International Training and Education for Health (I-TECH CIV), and other implementing partners to help close HIV-related service delivery gaps across clinics and communities, aiming to reach the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets. Focused on 80 priority sites throughout the country, QISSEC works closely with local clinic- and community-based partners to implement customized site-level QI interventions; integrate community or civil society groups into QI approaches; establish national QI learning networks; and disseminate QI successes and lessons learned across the learning networks. Using this patient-centered approach, QISSEC aims to ensure a facility-owned and locally-led response to persistent challenges in patient testing, retention, and suppression.
Since 2018, I-TECH has supported the Ukraine Ministry of Health (MOH), through the MOH Public Health Center, in introducing and adopting WHO-recommended safe and effective antiretroviral therapy (ART) regimens.
Since 2019, I-TECH has provided increased technical assistance for 39 state healthcare facilities in eleven high HIV burden regions of Ukraine to advance assisted partner notification/services and index testing as a sustainable strategy for HIV case finding.
The Government of Ukraine prioritized pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) as part of combination prevention for HIV in 2019.1 Since 2020, I-TECH has focused its programmatic efforts in Ukraine on improving PrEP services uptake and strengthening PrEP delivery at selected stat healthcare facilities.
In collaboration with the Malawi Ministry of Health (MOH) and Centers for the Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), I-TECH has supported the national COVID-19 response in Malawi since March 2020. Technical assistance has focused on laboratory capacity, supporting quality COVID-19 surveillance and data management, and implementing a COVID-19 population-based survey with oversight from the Public Health Institute of Malawi (PHIM), under MOH.
In June 2020, I-TECH seconded a Technical Advisor (TA) to PHIM to support COVID-19 activities. The I-TECH TA acts as secretariat for the national Public Health Emergency Operations Center (PHEOC), supporting the coordination of the multi-sectoral COVID-19 response, developing and revising strategies and procedures, facilitating communication, and ensuring access to and sharing of COVID-19 data and information between partners.
I-TECH has also assisted with data management and reporting at the district level, as well as with contact tracing and adherence to infection prevention and control measures.
I-TECH has been able to leverage use of its platform for HIV laboratory activities to provide critical lab support for COVID-19 activities and provide key support to the National Health Reference Laboratory, focusing on building or increasing laboratory capacity including with genomic sequencing, maintaining quality assurance, and improving communication and coordination among laboratory stakeholders.
The I-TECH Team also coordinated a population-based survey to evaluate the extent of spread of COVID-19 in five high-burden districts in Malawi.
The International AIDS Society (IAS) virtually hosted the 11th Conference on HIV Science on 18-21 July 2021. The conference also included a “local partner hub” in Berlin, the original host city, for local experts to gather in person. This biennial conference brings together top HIV researchers, experts, and scientists for presentations and discussions on the latest advances in HIV research and practice.
Representatives from the International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH) virtually presented the following posters:
Representatives from I-TECH’s partner network organizations and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also presented data from I-TECH-supported programs in Malawi, India, and Zimbabwe.
The International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH), in collaboration with the Malawian Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, began implementing recent HIV infection surveillance in April 2019. The project aims to establish a surveillance system among persons newly diagnosed with HIV infection by integrating point-of-care testing for recent infection into routine HIV testing services (HTS). A rapid test for recent infection is given to consenting clients 13-years-and-older who screen HIV positive within routine HTS across participating health facilities. Between April 2019-2020, I-TECH and MOH activated 485 testing points at 155 facilities in Malawi. All 155 facilities implemented recent HIV infection surveillance and reported data. The project has reached 11 of 28 districts to date.
These data allow the detection and characterization of recent HIV infection among newly diagnosed individuals and identify geographic areas associated with recent HIV-1 infection to inform geographic prioritization of HIV prevention and treatment strategies. The project has demonstrated high uptake and allowed characterization of recent infections according to socio-demographic and geographic factors. PEPFAR implementers in Malawi will collaborate with MOH to further investigate the reasons for high recent infection prevalence in identified clusters. Based on the findings of these responses, Malawi may focus on interventions such as youth-focused programs that aim to limit HIV acquisition and transmission among young people.
