Retention, Viral Suppression, and Care Models in HIV Positive Children and Adolescents in Cameroon

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) remains a significant public health problem in Sub-Saharan Africa with poor treatment outcomes in children and adolescents (C&As). There is a lack of information on the effects of various HIV care models (Child and Adolescent Friendly Clinic model and Support Group model) on retention in care and Viral Suppression (VS) in Cameroon. This study was carried out to identify the care model with the best outcomes for C&As, inform national scale-up strategies, resource prioritization, and contribute to the existing literature. A quantitative retrospective cohort review approach guided by the social cognitive theory was used to analyze data on 2,503 C&As aged 0-19 years current on antiretroviral therapy (ART) from January 2018 to September 2019 with a documented viral load result. Data were analyzed using multiple logistic regression and the Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance tests, and findings were interpreted using the test statistics and p values. The retention at 12 months was not associated with the model of care (OR = 1.014, p = .876). Viral Suppression and medication pickup were not associated with the type of home-based caregiver. The Odds of VS were 1.265 times higher in C&As enrolled in the Child and Adolescent Friendly Clinic model compared with the Support Group model (p = .003). Consequently, this research\u27s findings will impact positive social change by stimulating further studies leading to quality improvement in the HIV domain. Moreover, the results could encourage public health professionals to design and implement effective HIV management programs addressing clinical and psychosocial services needed to improve retention and VS for C&As

Evidence for an enhanced HIV/AIDS policy and care in Cameroon: proceedings of the second Cameroon HIV Research Forum (CAM-HERO) 2021

To achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of zero hunger, multi-sectoral strategies to improve nutrition are necessary. Building towards this goal, the food and agriculture sector must be considered when designing nutritional interventions. Nevertheless, most frameworks designed to guide nutritional interventions do not adequately capture opportunities for integrating nutrition interventions within the food and agriculture sector. This paper aims to highlight how deeply connected the food and agriculture sector is to underlying causes of malnutrition and identify opportunities to better integrate the food and agriculture sector and nutrition in low and middle income countries. In particular, this paper: (1) expands on the UNICEF conceptual framework for undernutrition to integrate the food and agriculture sector and nutrition outcomes, (2) identifies how nutritional outcomes and agriculture are linked in six important ways by defining evidence-based food and agriculture system components within these pathways: as a source of food, as a source of income, through food prices, women’s empowerment, women’s utilization of time, and women’s health and nutritional status, and (3) shows that the food and agriculture sector facilitates interventions through production, processing and consumption, as well as through farmer practices and behavior. Current frameworks used to guide nutrition interventions are designed from a health sector paradigm, leaving agricultural aspects not sufficiently leveraged. This paper concludes by proposing intervention opportunities to rectify the missed opportunities generated by this approach. Program design should consider the ways that the food and agriculture sector is linked to other critical sectors to comprehensively address malnutrition. This framework is designed to help the user to begin to identify intervention sites that may be considered when planning and implementing multi-sectoral nutrition program