Over 600,000 preventable HIV deaths occur annually. Despite progress in scaling up HIV treatment, up to one-third of people living with HIV still progress to advanced HIV disease (AHD), putting them at greater risk of life-threatening opportunistic infections. Cryptococcal meningitis (CM), a severe fungal disease, is responsible for 15-20% of all HIV-related mortality, resulting in over 100,000 deaths each year. WHO now recommends a package of low-cost interventions capable of preventing AHD and CM deaths, though critical gaps remain in making these interventions accessible to all who need them.
Integral Global Health (IGH) has partnered with Gilead Sciences to bring needed support to national HIV programs as part of the Getting to Zero Cryptococcal Meningitis Deaths initiative. As part of the collaboration, IGH has forged relationships with ministries of health and country implementing partners to address key areas of AHD programs where technical support and resources are most needed, such as:
- Monitoring and evaluation (M&E): Enhancing comprehensive data collection along the cascade of care
- Supply chain strengthening: Increasing use of quality data for resource forecasting
- Capacity building: Supporting healthcare worker training and knowledge dissemination in inpatient and outpatient settings
- Policy and planning: Facilitating country coordination and development of national implementation roadmaps
Current IGH work focuses on providing on-the-ground support to ministries and partners in Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, and Eswatini to drive AHD and cryptococcal disease programming forward, increasing access to vital treatments and diagnostics and ultimately reducing deaths from these preventable causes.
