Baylor-Uganda team works to advance HIV/AIDS education, treatment

Addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic takes dedicated and multi-skilled groups of healthcare professionals from all walks of life. The Baylor-Uganda Children’s Centre of Excellence, part of the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative at Texas Children’s Hospital network of clinical centers providing HIV/AIDS treatment in Africa, is scaling up its efforts to meet the Joint United States Programme on HIV/AIDS’ (UNAIDS) 90–90–90 targets. The goals are for 90 percent of people living with HIV to know their HIV status, 90 percent of people who know their HIV-positive status to access treatment and 90 percent of people on treatment have suppressed viral loads.

The centre recently hosted Amakobe Sande, UNAIDS country director in Uganda, who toured the facility and learned about the advances and challenges in meeting the 90-90-90 goals. Some of these advances include the use of an electronic record management system, or EMR, that has resulted in significantly reduced waiting times for clinic appointments as well as for lab results and pharmacy orders.

The EMR has also enabled Baylor-Uganda to implement a Differentiated Service Delivery model, a patient- and community-centered approach that also reduces burdens on the healthcare system. Along with success come challenges, including limited infrastructure and equipment, particularly for adolescents who are being treated at the center and who participate in programming geared just for them.

Sande met with the senior leadership at the centre, including Baylor-Uganda Executive Director Dr. Adeodata Kekitiinwa. Sande expressed her appreciation and support for the role of the Baylor-Uganda Children’s Centre of Excellence in the comprehensive HIV care especially for children and adolescents. Sande and Kekitiinwa, affectionately known as “Dr. Addy,” joined the Baylor-Uganda children’s choir to sign campaign songs on attainment of 90-90-90 targets.

View photos from the event below, courtesy of the Baylor-Uganda Children’s Centre of Excellence.

-By Dana Benson