CHS has been actively working with health facilities and county health management teams in five counties of Central Kenya, to scale up the provision of Isoniazid Preventive Therapy (IPT) for all people living with HIV (PLHIV) across 105 CHS supported facilities.
IPT is a key intervention recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to reduce the burden of tuberculosis (TB) among people living with HIV.
According to the Global Tuberculosis Report 2015, one out of every three HIV positive patients in Kenya has TB, and this disease has been the leading cause of mortality among people living with HIV in Kenya.
When taken as prescribed, IPT is highly effective in preventing latent tuberculosis infection from progressing to clinically apparent disease, and this could serve as the greatest prevention mechanism for people living with HIV.
CHS contribution toward the Scale Up of Isoniazid Preventive Therapy
In a bid to decrease the burden of disease among vulnerable groups, CHS has been supporting health facilities to offer Isoniazid Preventive Therapy (IPT) for children under five with contact to TB patients. In 2012, CHS began scaling up the integration of IPT to treat latent TB and prevent progression to active TB, into the package of care for people living with HIV.
In November 2015, CHS conducted an IPT sensitisation workshop with health care workers from Murang’a, to train them on the importance and guidelines of administering IPT to PLHIV. The county health management team members were also in attendance.
At the end of the training, the county team, together with the health workers, developed an IPT implementation road map and targets for Murang’a County.
Brilliant achievements by Kandara Health Centre
In mid-March 2016, CHS visited Kandara Health Centre in Murang’a County, as part of its routine supervision support to the health facilities in the county.
This quarter’s support was focused on two key areas: the implementation of IPT among people living with HIV, and the identification of people with HIV (progress towards the first 90 of the 90-90-90 targets).
Health records reviewed from the Comprehensive Care Centre (CCC) at Kandara Health Centre showed that 84% of all its HIV positive adult patients had been enrolled on IPT. Furthermore, 92% of the facility’s paediatric cases had similarly been enrolled on IPT.
During the course of the visit, Kandara CCC staff received praise from the county health management team for the good and consistent work going into the care of their patients.
“We commend the good work that the staff here continue to put into the provision of high quality services to our people. This facility has consistently been our model facility in the implementation of HIV/AIDS care, treatment and support,” said Mr Danny Mungai, Murang’a County Nurse.
Other members of the county health management team who joined CHS staff during this visit included, Dr Juliana Mbuthia (Murang’a South Sub-county Medical Officer of Health) and Caroline Mwaura (Murang’a South Sub-county Logistics Nurse).
IPT will remain a core intervention in the implementation and expansion of HIV prevention, care and treatment services in Central Kenya.
Read more: CHS work in the fight against Tuberculosis (TB)
