What is needed to make linkage effective? How can we ensure our linkage approaches drive improved ART initiation and retention? How can we adapt these approaches for re-engagement of people who have been on treatment in the past but have fallen out of care?
This session, organized by the International AIDS Society’s Differentiated Service Delivery initiative, will address these questions through a differentiated service delivery lens. It will explore the term “sticky linkage” and its usefulness, the importance of global and country guidance on linkage and how to ensure durable linkage in the context of rapid ART initiation, highlighting client-centred approaches. Finally, it will challenge the notion that the HIV continuum of care is linear, emphasizing the cyclical nature of HIV treatment with its multiple entry and re-entry points. Presentations and panelists will consider how to determine who should be prioritized for effective tracing. The target audience for this session is policy makers, programme implementers and implementation scientists.
The full session outline can be found here.
Peer providers to support from HIV self-testing to ART initiation in Burundi (Dismas Gashobotse) (July 2019)
System redesign to improve linkage and ART initiation rates in Angola (Juliana Soares Linn) (July 2019)
