I-TECH India, with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) India and PATH, facilitated a three-day Experience Sharing and Review Meeting from 19 to 21 April 2022 in Guwahati, Assam. The meeting focused on strengthening the HIV prevention program in the priority states of Mizoram, Manipur, and Nagaland by using an integrated and innovative approach for achieving the first 95 of the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets. There were 46 participants at the meeting from CDC, PATH, and I-TECH, as well as field mentors and community counselors. Discussion topics included strengthening OST service delivery packages, youth interventions, border packages, virtual outreach, and blended approaches for index testing. Participants also developed state-specific action plans with defined targets, roles, and priorities for the next six months of the current regional operational plan.
Category: New and Media
Under Project Sunshine, a virtual outreach model is currently being implemented in Nagaland and Mumbai to provide a basic package of HIV testing and treatment services to MSM seeking sexual networks on virtual spaces (e.g., dating applications) using a ‘virtual’ outreach worker who is a member from the community. I-TECH India presented this virtual outreach model during a three-day virtual interventions meeting organized by the National Aids Control Organization in New Delhi from 19 to 21 April 2022.
In collaboration with MDACS, I-TECH India organized a one-day training on index testing and partner services for 55 healthcare providers working at integrated counseling and testing centers and targeted intervention NGOs on 18-19 April 2022. The goal of the training was to improve the providers’ knowledge and skills in supporting status disclosure and encouraging index clients to have their exposed contacts tested for HIV to link them to treatment services and/or prevention packages. The training also focused on improving coordination and linkages between the outreach and HIV testing facilities.
The National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), a division of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, implements Public-Private Partnership (PPP) models across the prevention-to-treatment cascade to reduce HIV incidence. I-TECH India, in continuation to the night clinic that was recently established for female sex workers, mapped 110 private practitioners in the Malad Malvani area of Mumbai (an area with high HIV detection) and conducted advocacy efforts with 70 of them. On 16 March 2022, I-TECH India supported the Mumbai District AIDS Control Society to organize a sensitization meeting for 26 of the private practitioners to discuss recent updates, the National AIDS Control Program (NACP), and the HIV services provided at each facility. The practitioners were encouraged to support building referral networks for timely linkages to HIV testing and treatment services, as well as engage in PPP models for continuous capacity building for standardized care and treatment.
I-TECH India continues to support the State AIDS Control Societies in field implementation of index testing to saturate HIV case finding of all exposed contacts to reach the first 95 in the north-east region. Several trainings were conducted on index testing in Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, and Assam for healthcare providers from HIV testing and treatment facilities, including staff at the newly recruited Link Worker Scheme NGOs focusing on rural populations. The NETSU team at I-TECH India facilitated a training on OST dispensation for closed setting (prison) authorities and advocated the need for antiretroviral therapy (ART) treatment continuity for people living with HIV (PLHIV) that resulted in setting up a differentiated service delivery (DSD) model for ART dispensation through a closed setting (prison) in Assam.
Establishment of Youth Friendly Drop-in Center for People Who Inject Drugs (PWID) in Manipur
In the high priority state of Manipur, 25% of the newly diagnosed HIV cases in 2019-20 reported acquiring it through infected syringes and needles (NACO, Sankalak 2020, 2nd Ed.). I-TECH India, under Project Sunshine, facilitated focus group discussions about youth-friendly harm reduction behavior/service models with 25 young PWID and civil society organization (CSO) staff in the Churachandpur district. One key finding from the focus group discussions was the need to have a space separate from adult PWID to access harm reduction and HIV prevention services. As the first step towards developing a youth-friendly model, a Drop-in-Center was established at SHALOM (CSO) which will have a youth friendly ambience and provision for recreational activities to attract young PWID, including hidden population. The center will also promote family/parent engagement for better understanding and service uptake. A blended index and social network model of HIV testing will also be integrated into the center to reach out to networks of positive and high-risk clients.
I-TECH India initiated an integrated model of services for HIV and Hepatitis (HBV and HCV) in the north-eastern state of Nagaland. Implemented in collaboration with the National Viral Hepatitis Program and State AIDS Control Society, this model focuses on providing services to people who inject drugs (PWID) who are also at increased risk of HIV, tuberculosis (TB), and viral hepatitis B and C (HBV and HCV). I-TECH India provides technical support for the comprehensive service delivery at the PWID Day Care Shelter Home (PDCSH) and a FIDU Night Shelter Home (FNSH) under its Sunshine Project, funded by PEPFAR through CDC and PATH. Staff from the Targeted Intervention NGOs (Bethesda Youth Welfare Centre and CAD Foundation) are trained on Hepatitis B and C screening process for the early detection and linkages to treatment services making screening available at a client preferred location, thus, decongesting the health facilities.
MITWAA initiative is one of the adolescents’ focussed interventions implemented in Mumbai by I-TECH India with support from MDACS and CDC India under PEPFAR. The initiative is targeted to promote holistic development including mental wellbeing of adolescents living with HIV (ALHIV) (10-19 years age group) through life skills approach. Two day training workshop was organised on 10th & 11th February 2022 for the healthcare professionals who will impart training to the ALHIV on life skills such as communication, interpersonal relations, decision making, critical thinking, coping mechanism and self-management skills as well as ART adherence, nutrition and sexual and reproductive health. Total 22 counsellors were trained during this workshop who are expected to reach around 1000 ALHIV.
In keeping with the mission to expand integrated services for key populations, I-TECH India, supported by PATH US and CDC India under PEPFAR and in partnership with Mumbai District AIDS Control Society (MDACS) and the SANA clinic, recently launched a night clinic near Kamathipura, one of the busiest red-light areas in Mumbai city. The clinic will provide comprehensive HIV services (prevention and treatment) primarily to female sex workers and their partners but is open to anyone wanting to access HIV services.
I-TECH India’s Technical Specialist participated in the national-level meeting organized by National Network of Transgender Persons (NNTP) in New Delhi, to discuss revamping of the network and creating a work plan with a revised mission and vision. Dignitaries included officials from the Ministry of Social Justice Empowerment. The meeting was followed by an award ceremony where transgender activists, organizations, and parents were honoured for their support and contributions to India’s Transgender empowerment. I-TECH India’s Technical Specialist has been appointed as an advisory member of the NNTP.