REVIEW PAPER
A critical take on the World Health Organization’s new ‘test and treat’ strategy: making a case for resource-constrained countries
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Submission date: 2016-10-28
Final revision date: 2017-02-16
Acceptance date: 2017-02-27
Publication date: 2017-05-25
HIV & AIDS Review 2017;16(3):135-139
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ABSTRACT
This article aims to critically explore limitations, which resource-constrained countries like Lesotho face in the sustainable implementation of the WHO ‘test and treat’ comprehensive strategy for eliminating HIV and AIDS. The methodology is critical thinking and qualitative theoretical analyses, articulated around the UNAIDS 90-90-90 strategy. The researchers argue that the context of Lesotho involves serious human, technical, and infrastructural challenges, which may hamper the efficient and effective implementation of the ‘test and treat’ strategy. In line with the preceding, they suggest that the country is among the poorest in the world, and faces severe shortage of conventional health workers and professional counsellors. The paper’s recommendation as a way forward: widespread and timely access to treatment, extensive countrywide testing, training and deployment of social work and counselling professionals, mass education and sensitization, development and sustenance of linkages to care and patient follow-up on referrals, putting in place retention in care mechanisms, optimization of every component of ‘test and treat’, and trying out alternative treatment models like the Anti-Retroviral Treatment and Access to Services (ARTAS).
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