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Success Story
Mobile medical services
for HIV and AIDS save
and sustain lives
HIV/AIDS Treatment Reaches Remote Villages
Photo: Simon Smith / Abt Associates Inc.
Mrs. Sibanda and Chipo
“When Chipo was very
sick, I spent money going
to hospital; now I can get
medicine from the health
center,” said Chipo’s
grandmother, Mrs. Sibanda.
In the remote village of Chitanda in Zambia’s Central
Province, two-year-old Chipo, is learning to walk. This event is
remarkable, given the challenges of her young life.
Chipo’s mother passed away a month after her birth, and
she was left in the care of her grandmother. Chipo was
diagnosed with HIV and was severely malnourished and
constantly sick. Her grandmother did everything in her
power to provide Chipo with food and treatment, exhausting
precious resources to travel to Liteta Hospital, more than 50
miles away.
As part of a USAID-supported program, mobile antiretroviral
therapy services came to the nearby Chitanda Rural Health
Center and Chipo was able to obtain treatment in her
community for the fi rst time. Since beginning the therapy,
Chipo is a thriving, active two year old. Mobile antiretroviral
therapy outreach currently covers seven remote locations
across Central Province, organized under the Provincial
Health Office and supported by USAID.
Clinical Care Specialists play a critical role in each of
Zambia’s nine provinces, providing training, supervision, and
program coordination in support of HIV/AIDS activities. The
mobile antiretroviral therapy team includes a doctor, a nurse,
a pharmacy technician, and a counselor who visit every
two weeks to provide testing, counseling and antiretroviral
therapy services.
The community mobilizes clients to gather on mobile
antiretroviral therapy outreach days. Currently 78 clients are
receiving antiretroviral therapy in Chitanda village through the
mobile service.
A community leader said, “We’ve seen the stigma of HIV
reduced. Before, people feared to get tested, but now that
services are nearby, and we have seen the people who have
benefi ted and it has encouraged others to get tested.”
As the mobile antiretroviral therapy team provides services,
they train the resident health center staff. Over time, program
responsibility will be taken over by the local staff, freeing the
mobile team to expand services to new locations.
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