Closing the gap in HIV prevention and care for children: early insights from a model that links communities and health care facilities in Uganda

Abstract

Inequities in access to HIV prevention and treatment for children remain a global challenge and a black spot to effective HIV prevention and response especially in many HIV endemic countries like Uganda. In Uganda while about 51% of the adults living with HIV are on antiretrovirals, only 39% of the children aged 0–14 years accessed the needed HIV care in 2014. In this article, it is argued that much focus on health system interventions with little regard to bridging the gap between health facilities, where much of the care is provided, and the communities, where children are conceived, born and cared for, contributes to and sustains this inequality. Investments need to be made in building and implementing models that create and enhance linkages between communities and health care facilities. Success factors from the Towards an AIDS Free Generation in Uganda project model in creating these linkages are bringing all actors together in one approach, building on existing community structures and enabling community health workers to be the linking pin between communities and facilities. Only with models like this, full elimination of mother-to-child transmission and paediatric HIV care coverage (0–14 years) can be reached in Uganda and other HIV endemic countries.