HIGHLIGHTS
- Mozambique is struggling to bring its HIV epidemic under control
- Strengthen public health services; ensure sustainability of the HIV response
- After one year of full implementation ECHO achieved significant improvements
PROJECT
Efficiencies for Clinical HIV Outcomes (ECHO)
The Challenge
Mozambique has the eighth highest HIV prevalence in the world, with 12.6 percent of adults living with HIV, and one of the highest HIV mortality rates. The country has made strides in testing people for HIV and providing treatment. But a high proportion of HIV-positive individuals discontinues treatment due to systemic challenges: long distances to access health facilities, long wait times in facilities, stigma and ineffective delivery of information about the importance of staying on treatment.
The Approach
Efficiencies for Clinical HIV/AIDS Outcomes (ECHO), a $239 million, seven-year USAID project, works in four provinces to support Government of Mozambique efforts to ensure 95 percent of eligible patients are tested for HIV, 95 percent of people living with HIV receive treatment, and 95 percent of those on treatment are virally suppressed. ECHO is achieving these goals by providing technical assistance; deploying hundreds of health workers, community workers and data analysts to sites with poor performance; training government health workers; giving grants to community outreach organizations and provincial health authorities; and supporting government activities to strengthen crucial laboratory, transport and information systems.
The Results
The project, which covers 148 health facilities, achieved the following milestones as of September 2023, the end of ECHO’s fifth year:
- Increased the number of people living with HIV on life-saving antiretroviral treatment (ART) by 18 percent, from 207,753 to 417,059
- Increased one-month retention of ART patients from 58 percent to 97 percent
- Increased three-month retention of ART patients from 74 percent to 98 percent
- Increased viral suppression from 78 percent to 92 percent
- Reached 99 percent of TB cases with documented HIV status, with 90 percent linked to treatment
In a new technical brief series, Abt is exploring ECHO’s successful approaches, achievements, and lessons learned from more than five years of implementation. In the project’s most recent briefs, ECHO details its successes in transferring ownership to local leaders; innovative models it has employed to provide patient-centered, efficient care and treatment; and ECHO details its strategies to achieve viral load coverage and suppression – the “third 95” of HIV epidemic control.
Read the Technical Briefs: Advancing HIV Epidemic Control in Mozambique Through Localization (abtglobal.com)
Learn more:
- Increasing Community and Facility HIV Testing in Mozambique
- Localization Expands and Improves HIV Treatment in Mozambique
- Multi-month Drug Distribution Improves ART Retention and Quality of Care
- Collaborative, Locally-led Campaign Reaches More Than 180,000 With Lifesaving COVID-19 Vaccines
- Motorcycles to Technical Assistance: Abt Provides Sustainable Solutions to Community Organizations in Mozambique
- Caught Between HIV+ and Climate Change: Mozambique’s Cyclone Victims Maintain Treatment Through Community Support
- Getting to 95+: Culture of Learning, Data-Use Drives Demand for HIV Services in Mozambique (Perspectives Blog)
- Mother-friendly One-Stop Model Improves Patient Experiences While Decreasing Vertical Transmission