Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes : JAIDS
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J. Acquir. Immune Defic. Syndr. · Aug 2011
ReviewLeveraging the private health sector to enhance HIV service delivery in lower-income countries.
Evidence that the private health sector is a key player in delivering health services and impacting health outcomes, including those related to HIV/AIDS, underscores the need to optimize the role of the private health sector to scale up national HIV responses in lower-income countries. This article reviews findings on the types of HIV/AIDS services provided by the private health sector in developing countries and elaborates on the role of private providers of HIV services in Ethiopia. Drawing on data from the nation's innovative Private Health Sector Project, a pilot project that has demonstrated the feasibility of public-private partnerships in this area, the article highlights the potential for national governments to scale up HIV/AIDS services by leveraging private health sector resources, innovations, and expertise while working to regulate quality and cost of services. Although concerns about uneven quality and affordability of private sector health services must be addressed through regulation, policy, or other innovative approaches, we argue that the benefits of leveraging the private sector outweigh these challenges, particularly in light of finite donor and public domestic resources.
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J. Acquir. Immune Defic. Syndr. · Dec 2010
ReviewSecondary prevention of HIV in the United States: past, current, and future perspectives.
To provide a synopsis of past, current, and potential next-generation approaches to prevention for positives (PfP) interventions in the United States. For a variety of reasons, PfP interventions, with the goals of limiting HIV transmission from people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) to others and protecting the health of PLWHA, did not appear with any frequency in the United States until about 2000. Even today, the number and breadth of evidence-based PfP interventions is very limited. ⋯ We review early and more recent PfP interventions and suggest that next-generation PfP interventions must involve behavioral and biologic components and target any element that affects HIV risk behavior and/or infectivity. Next-generation PfP interventions should include increased HIV testing to identify additional PLWHA, components to initiate and maintain HIV care, to initiate antiretroviral therapy and promote adherence, and to reduce sexual and injection drug use risk behavior, as well as ancillary treatments and referrals to services. Comprehensive next-generation PfP interventions, including all of these elements and effective linkages among them, are discussed.
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J. Acquir. Immune Defic. Syndr. · Nov 2009
ReviewImpact of HIV treatment scale-up on women's reproductive health care and reproductive rights in Southern Africa.
The HIV epidemic has changed the face of women's reproductive health across southern Africa. In some circles, there have been calls for restrictions on women's reproductive rights, focusing particularly on the spread of HIV between sexual partners and from mother to child. However, during the past decade, public health attention and resources for the clinical care of HIV-infected individuals living in Africa have led to advances in women's reproductive health services. ⋯ In much of the region, this programmatic focus has helped increase attention on the ground to women's reproductive rights. However, in many settings, policies explicitly supporting the reproductive rights of HIV-infected women have lagged. Important gaps remain both in policy development and in the design, evaluation, and implementation of interventions promoting women's reproductive health and rights at the service delivery level.