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I-TECH

Category: Surveillance

HIV Recency Surveillance in Malawi

Post categories: Gabrielle O'Malley HIV Counseling and Testing Malawi Monitoring & Evaluation Surveillance
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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.

Global Health Security Agenda in Kenya

Post categories: eLearning/Distance Learning Global Health Security Health Information Systems Human Resources for Health John Lynch Kenya Laboratory Systems Peter Rabinowitz Surveillance
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I-TECH Kenya’s Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA)-funded programs aim to advance the GHSA goals of preventing , detecting, and responding to disease threats to health security.

For the past 8 years, I-TECH Kenya has had a cooperative agreement with US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to work closely with the Kenya Ministry of Health (MOH) on multiple projects related to health security. The key objectives of these activities are preventing and reducing the likelihood of disease outbreaks, improving the efficiency and accuracy of the detection of communicable diseases, strengthening surveillance capacity and national and county levels for a rapid and effective response, enhancing Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) practices to prevent the emergence and spread of pathogens and antimicrobial resistant bacteria.

Prevention

Use IPC practices to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and other microbial threats:

  • Building capacity for IPC in health care facilities is a critical part of disease outbreak and AMR preparedness and prevention. In Kenya, I-TECH has partners with the CDC National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Disease and Kenya MOH to support two model hospitals in developing capacity for quality improvement measures for strengthening evidence-based IPC practices, infrastructure, and tools including hand hygiene, waste management, injection safety, surgical site infections, and antimicrobial stewardship. As part of this IPC work, I-TECH created and piloted e-learning modules for IPC. The modules aim to build clinical skills and technical knowledge in infection prevention and control and antimicrobial stewardship among health care workers in low-resource settings, and have now been adopted by WHO.
  • With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, I-TECH Kenya was able to play a leadership role in the country in assessing and improving facility readiness at the national and local level to handle COVID-19 cases and maintain the health care workforce.
  • Current IPC activity is focused on surveillance for surgical site infections, an important cause of hospital acquired infections (HAIs).

Disease Prevention through Immunization Program Strengthening:

  • I-TECH collaborated with the Kenya MOH, CDC Global Health Protection Division, and the CDC Global Immunization Division, to build and roll out an online mobile platform for capturing immunization data at the point of care.

Detection

Laboratory Information Systems Strengthening:

  • In Kenya, I-TECH collaborated with the MOH and National Public Health Laboratory Services to enhance and strengthen laboratory information systems at the facility and national levels to improve timeliness and efficiency of testing and reporting results, specifically for AMR testing.

Response

Disease Surveillance and Response:

  • I-TECH supports the Kenya MOH Surveillance Unit in the rollout of trainings for health care workers to routinely and consistently use the real-time surveillance reporting system in Kenya.

Gabrielle O’Malley

Gabrielle O’Malley, MA, PHD, is I-TECH’S Director of Implementation Science. Dr. O’Malley has worked as an applied research and evaluation professional for over 25 years. Her experience includes a wide variety of international and domestic programs including child survival, private agricultural enterprise, medical education, community technology, reproductive health, HIV prevention (PrEP), and care and treatment as well as applied research for private industry. Her research interests include innovative practices for program evaluation and improvement, formative research, qualitative methods, and the relationship of gender and health.

Dr. O’Malley received her PhD from UW, an MA from Johns Hopkins University and a BA from Smith College.

Program Highlights

HIV Recency Surveillance in Malawi
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 ...
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National COVID-19 Emergency Response in Malawi
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 ...
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Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis for HIV Prevention in Namibia
I-TECH began supporting the implementation of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) as part of Namibia’s combination HIV prevention strategy in 2017 ...
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Site-level Data Improvement and Use in Namibia
I-TECH continues to focus efforts on the improvement of data quality and use of data to improve clinical decision making. I-TECH works at the site level to build awareness and buy-in for data quality and use among site-level management and health care workers. On-site I-TECH Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Officers ...
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Peter Rabinowitz

Peter Rabinowitz, MD, MPH, directs the Center for One Health Research and has multiple faculty appointments including Professor, Global Health, at UW. The “One Health” center explores linkages between human, animal, and environmental health. Dr. Rabinowitz has expertise in zoonotic infectious disease; diseases of animal workers; microbiome sharing between humans and animals; emerging infectious disease; antimicrobial resistance animal sentinels of environmental health hazards; and noise and hearing loss.

Dr. Rabinowitz also directs the Canary Database, an online resource for evidence about animals as sentinels of environmental health threats from both toxic and infectious hazards. He was a visiting scientist at the Global Influenza Program of the WHO, and also in the Animal Health Division of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). He completed a Family Medicine residency through the University of California San Francisco, and completed fellowships in General Preventive Medicine and Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine.

Program Highlights

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Field Epidemiology Training Program in Malawi

Post categories: Gabrielle O'Malley Human Resources for Health Malawi Surveillance
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The Frontline Field Epidemiology Training Program (Frontline FETP) enhances the capacity of HIV and AIDS surveillance and strengthens health systems. The program contributes to a sustainable response to HIV by training health professionals in basic field epidemiology that can support responsiveness to HIV surveillance needs.  Continue reading “Field Epidemiology Training Program in Malawi”