EGPAF Celebrates Point-of-Care Early Infant Diagnosis Successes, Marks 19-year Partnership with Rwanda
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACTS:
Eric Kilongi Ekilongi@pedaids.org +254 735 702-701
June 20, 2019—Kigali, Rwanda—Today, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) together with the Ministry of Health of Rwanda, celebrated the milestones of the transformational point-of-care early infant diagnosis (POC EID) project while marking the end of a fruitful 19-year partnership.
Thanks to Unitaid’s funding and support, innovative, new-to-market POC HIV testing technologies were introduced into Rwanda’s health services in August 2015. These technologies allow non-specialized healthcare workers to run tests for HIV in decentralized clinics and can return results within 1 to 2 hours. Earlier, it took 34 days to get infants’ test results back to the caregiver with only 41 percent receiving results within 30 days.
Through the project, 99% of caregivers received infant test results within a day, with 98.2% of those tested HIV-positive being initiated onto life-saving treatment. More than 140 health facilities across Rwanda were enrolled in POC EID between March 2017 to April 2019 and they tested 3,915 infants. The technology has been so successful in identifying HIV in infants and swiftly linking them to treatment that it was integrated into Rwanda’s 2018-2020 HIV and AIDS national strategic plan.
“Point of Care early infant diagnosis technology is key in elimination of pediatric AIDS”, Unitaid Executive Director Lelio Marmora said.
“Children can now access life-saving care earlier and faster thanks to devices providing results within an hour of testing. Unitaid is proud to have introduced with EGPAF this game-changer in Rwanda and in more than 15 countries in Africa.”
“The difference of a few weeks can mean life or death for infants, as HIV-related mortality is very high in the first two years of life. Point of care technology has reduced the time mothers and care givers wait for their infants’ HIV test results from 34 to just one day – a truly transformational shift” Chip Lyons, President and CEO of EGPAF said.
“Just a few years ago, a turnaround time of 12 to 15 days would have been reason to celebrate, but with point-of-care technology today, anything less than the highest degree of success is no longer acceptable,” Chip said.
Since 2000, EGPAF has collaborated with Rwanda’s health ministry to provide early technical assistance to the Treatment and Research AIDS Centre and to support scale up of programs providing services that prevent mother to child HIV transmission.
EGPAF’s landmark 2013 to 2016 three-year study evaluating treatment outcomes for mothers and infants with HIV showed that, with proper interventions, mother-to-child transmission of HIV can be eliminated. It also showed that high adherence to medicines and positive treatment outcomes among both infants and mothers can be achieved.
Rwanda’s focused leadership and strong strategic partnerships have helped it to tilt the scales in the fight to end AIDS.
About the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF):
EGPAF is the global leader in the fight against pediatric HIV/AIDS and has reached nearly 30 million pregnant women with services to prevent transmission of HIV to their babies. Founded in 1988, EGPAF today supports activities in 19 countries and over 5,000 sites to implement prevention, care, and treatment services; to further advance innovative research; and to execute global advocacy activities that bring dramatic change to the lives of millions of women, children, and families worldwide. For more information, visit pedaids.org.
About Unitaid:
Unitaid brings the power of new medical discoveries to the people who most need them and helps set the stage for large-scale introduction of new health products by collaborating with governments and partners such as PEPFAR, the Global Fund and WHO. Unitaid invests in new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat diseases including HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, tuberculosis and malaria more quickly, affordably and effectively. A growing number of our programs address more than one disease, maximizing effectiveness of health systems. To learn more, visit www.unitaid.org.
