Improving HIV Service Delivery for Infants, Children and Adolescents: A framework for country programming
The paediatric service delivery framework presents strategies to address bottlenecks across the continuum of care for each population: infants, children and adolescents. This includes keeping mothers who receive interventions for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) and their infants in care; locating missing infants, children and adolescents through family and index testing; linking those diagnosed with HIV to services; treating them with efficacious regimens and retaining them on treatment to achieve viral suppression. It describes comprehensive and targeted service delivery models, which emphasize strong linkages between testing, treatment and care, and between communities and facilities.
The framework was developed by a group of global experts who were convened by UNICEF in June 2019 to advance the collective thinking on paediatric HIV service delivery. The partnership’s analysis of current evidence and specific programme interventions that need to be scaled up to improve the quality of HIV treatment services and reach more infants, children and adolescents with these lifesaving medicines is presented here.