20 years of TCE and 23rd International AIDS Conference

03-07-2020

The Federation Humana People to People is attending, through virtual participation, the 23rd International AIDS Conference. The Conference – known as AIDS 2020 – will be hosted in San Francisco and Oakland, US, on 6-10 July 2020 with the theme, Resilience. AIDS 2020 will gather more than 20,000 participants from more than 170 countries.   

Total Control of the Epidemic (TCE) is Humana People to People’s flagship HIV/AIDS control model that has reached over 20 million people covering 12 countries, since its start in early 2000. Under the motto: “Only the people can liberate themselves from AIDS, the epidemic,” TCE has supported thousands of people to live positively with HIV, dream again and have a normal life whilst supporting their families.

Organizing people at community level and building capacity to master their own development is at the core of TCE activities. The TCE model at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic began with addressing home-based care, stigma and discrimination, providing HIV prevention messages and building community-based structures with volunteers.

TCE equips people with tools to fght HIV through large-scale community mobilisation, HIV testing, referrals and support for treatment, including adherence. Operating in hard-to-reach areas with key at-risk populations, project staff and volunteers build relationships with communities to provide access to HIV testing, often in the privacy of their own homes. They also connect people affected by HIV and AIDS with family members and community-based support groups.

The journey over the years has seen the TCE programme implementing various innovative approaches such as pioneering HIV testing at home, building synergies with health centres to support HIV treatment for the sick and early initiation of treatment for patients who test HIV positive.

TCE has proven to be a powerful model, helping countries move towards the global UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets leading to epidemic control. Currently, TCE has aligned its approach to target most-at-risk groups, people missing for HIV testing, fnding people living with HIV and referring them for treatment. People are assisted to adhere to treatment and ‘lost-to-follow’
clients are tracked and identified so they remain under treatment, which is essential in achieving viral load suppression of HIV.

Having reached 20 million people with this strategy, similar approaches are now being used in programs to combat TB and malaria. Furthermore, they are being adapted for programs that include non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes.

Humana People to People encourages People Living with HIV who are on treatment to ensure they have at least 30 days of ARVs with them and, where possible, a 3 to 6-month supply of antiretroviral therapy. People living with HIV who are not on treatment or who are not virally suppressed may have a compromised immune system makes them vulnerable to opportunistic infections and more severe illnesses. Previous pandemics have shown that when health systems are overwhelmed deaths from vaccine-preventable & other treatable conditions can also increase dramatically. It is critical that work in fighting.

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