Zamfara Akwa Ibom HIV/AIDS Project (ZAIHAP)

Providing HIV counseling and testing services through outreach to communities is one of the strategies used by ZAIHAP, an initiative in Zamfara and Kano states, Nigeria. As stated on the Jhpiego website, HIV counselling and testing remains a critical tool in prevention efforts and a gateway to care and treatment. HIV counselling and testing outreach services help to bridge the access gap.

ZAIHAP, supporting outreach services to vulnerable populations in hard-to-reach communities, held group health education sessions in Abarma, Zamfara State, Nigeria, offering information about HIV/AIDS and the “opt-out” approach to HIV testing, which tests unless a client declines it. They explained the steps an HIV-positive woman would take to avoid transmitting the virus to her unborn child and how to care for herself to remain healthy. They also outlined the extent of care, treatment, and support available to HIV-positive clients and their families.

HIV, Reproductive Health.

Since 2008, the ZAIHAP Project, according to Jhpiego, has provided prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) services to more than 60,000 pregnant women and also provided support for many of the women’s children and partners. Other accomplishments to date include:

• Provided HIV counseling and testing services to more than 40,000 clients, with emphasis on the most-at-risk;
• Educated and trained more than 150 health care providers and community volunteers on various aspects of PMTCT/HIV counseling and testing services, community mobilisation, monitoring and evaluation, and quality assurance controls; and
• Provided more than 170 HIV-positive pregnant women with antiretroviral prophylaxis and referred over 350 men and non-pregnant, HIV-positive women to comprehensive sites that provide antiretroviral therapy.