USAID’s Supply Chain for Health team has put together an antiretroviral (ARV) planning tool to help countries consider their ARV procurement and supply chain planning for implementing i. “treat all” and ii. longer ART refills, also known as multi-month scripting (MMS). By inputting the i. the total number of newly identified HIV positive patients starting ART and ii. the number of stable patients (eligible for MMS) the tool determines the number of ART treatments needed to implement “treat all” and MMS over a three-year period.
Countries can then identify the initial “bump” of additional ARV treatments needed in year one. In addition, it will enable countries to note how many additional ARV treatments are needed in years 2 and 3. Finally, the tool provides countries with an estimate of the number of ARVs needed to transition a country’s care and treatment programmes from monthly prescribing to longer refills (2-, 3-, 4-, or 6-months) in MMS programmes.
