Optimized Retention In Care Model For Newly Diagnosed HIV Clients In Kisumu County Referral Hospital

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY Kisumu County is one of the 47 counties in Kenya. The county has an urban and rural background with a rich ethnic, racial and cultural diversity. The County has seven sub counties with fishing, farming and trade as the major economic mainstay. In 2015 The Kenya National HIV prevalence among people aged 15-49 years was estimated to be 5.9% with Kisumu having a prevalence rate of 19.9%, the county ranked third among the 9 counties that accounted for the highest number of new HIV infections in the Kenya. Kisumu County Referral Hospital is one of the high volume health facilities which offers HIV services in Kisumu city. KCRH has 17600 clients ever enrolled in HIV care with 5400 active HIV clients. This number could be higher were it not for clients who drop out right after HIV diagnosis. The metropolitan environment with mass transit of people makes it hard to track and retain the newly HIV diagnosed clients in HIV care and treatment posing a challenge in the achievement of 959595 UNAIDS targets for Kisumu County. The project sought to use HIV clinic data to design and implement a retention in care model that aimed at retaining newly diagnosed HIV clients in care and treatment. The optimized RIC model was designed and piloted in KCRH for 6 months. Over that period, cases of newly diagnosed HIV positive clients who were lost to HIV care and treatment follow up reduced significantly, proving that program data can help to inform designing of innovative interventions that can significantly help to improve RIC among newly identified HIV positive clients without much strain on existing health system infrastructure.