South Africa
Spotlight: PEPFAR Recognition
As one of PEPFAR’s 15 focus countries, South Africa has been recognized by both the National DOH as well as the RTCs as a training partner in the areas of clinical mentoring and the development of integrated curricula for the prevention, care, and treatment of HIV, TB and STIs.
Training Materials
Materials and projects being developed include:
- Basic "HAST" course, to be piloted in May and finalized by July 2009.
- Specialized "HAST" courses in HIV and TB care and treatment, and counseling skills will be reviewed and piloted in July 2009.
- Assessment of video conferencing options in Limpopo.
- Holistic assessment of HIV-related training activities in Mpumalanga.
Overview
Since 2003, I-TECH has been working in South Africa at the request of the National and Provincial Departments of Health (DOH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Global AIDS Program (CDC GAP) South Africa, to help implement the South African government’s Operational Plan for comprehensive HIV and AIDS Care, Management, and Treatment.
I-TECH was initially invited to work in South Africa to develop and implement a national training center initiative, specifically at the Regional Training Centre (RTC) in the Eastern Cape Province. The nine South African provincial RTCs, also known as the Health Promotion and Quality Assurance (HPQA) centres, are responsible for training health care workers in the care and treatment of HIV and AIDS as well as sexually transmitted infections (STI), tuberculosis (TB), and other diseases associated with HIV. I-TECH South Africa currently supports organizational development; monitoring and evaluation; and planning, implementation, and clinical mentoring of HPQA centre staff to support the growth of provincial sites, including the Eastern Cape (consisting of the Eastern Cape's main population areas of Mthatha, East London, and Port Elizabeth); Mpumalanga; and Limpopo.
The I-TECH South Africa office moved to Pretoria in April 2008, though it maintains a small satellite office in East London. This shift in location supports the broadening mandate for I-TECH by CDC GAP South Africa, which is to provide technical assistance and expertise to HPQA centres, where requested.
Program Highlights
Clinical Mentoring. A clinical mentoring program for I-TECH South Africa was initiated in 2003 through a subcontract with the University of California, San Diego (UCSD)—specifically the Owen Clinic and its faculty and infectious disease fellows under the direction of Dr. Chris Mathews. In addition to direct clinical mentoring, mentors provide ongoing clinical consultation on complicated cases via telephone, personal visits, or email. Further, there is a structured, weekly clinical conference call initiated by UCSD that is open for all South African providers' participation. The I-TECH South Africa office's change in venue has had the added effect of refocusing its clinical mentoring work from being provided
by expatriate mentors in the Eastern Cape to I-TECH supporting the development of local, sustainable
clinical mentoring programs at the HPQA centres, as appropriate and feasible.
Training Development and Activities. I-TECH's work in curriculum development, training, and distance learning has significantly scaled up, with substantial projects underway in Mpumalanga and Limpopo
provinces.
In Mpumalanga, I-TECH is working to determine the training needs of the Mpumalanga HPQA Centre and the Provincial DOH, with the goal of identifying non-governmental organizations or other entities working on President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) activities in the province. These organisations will be invited to support the HPQA Centre’s "HAST" (HIV and AIDS, STI, and TB) training mandate and function as training partners.
With regard to training development, I-TECH, in partnership with Mpumalanga HPQA and the DOH, is developing a "HAST" curriculum, including a training-of-trainers course, in an effort to streamline activities. Additionally, together with Walter Sisulu University (WSU) and the Eastern Cape RTC, I-TECH is working toward the creation of a post-graduate fellowship program on HIV and AIDS.
Finally, I-TECH is partnering with the National DOH to organize and evaluate the first national annual RTC and HPQA centers conference, which will be held in 2009.
For the Future
Project activities are targeted at supporting additional HPQA centers, local educational institutions, and the National DOH for the purpose of building sustainable programming to train health care professionals in preventing, caring, and treating people living with HIV and AIDS as well as TB, STIs, and other related comorbidities. I-TECH South Africa also aims to strengthen the capacity of individual HPQA centres in order to align and unify their efforts with the national training center model, as appropriate to the size and capacity of the center.
