TITLE:
An Assessment of Quality Assurance in HIV and AIDS-Related Services in Chivuna Rural Health Facility of Southern Zambia
AUTHORS:
Harriet Ntalasha, Simona J. Simona, Felicitas Moyo, Jairous Miti, Ireen Kabembo, Eliphas Machacha, Mundia Libati, Emily Ng’andu, Aurick Mubita
KEYWORDS:
Zambia, HIV and AIDS, WHO Guidelines, Capacity of Health Facilities
JOURNAL NAME:
World Journal of AIDS,
Vol.8 No.1,
March
29,
2018
ABSTRACT: With many countries experiencing high prevalence rates of HIV scaling up ART, it is vital to assess quality assurance in health facilities accredited to pro-vide these HIV and AIDS-related services. Reviewed literature indicates that there are limited studies in Zambia on the capacity of accredited health care facilities to provide effective HIV/AIDS related services. Using data from a large ethnographic qualitative study in a resource poor rural setting in Zam-bia, this paper assesses quality assurance in health facilities to providing HIV/AIDS services in a remote rural setting. Findings show that although HIV and AIDS related services were available at the remote rural health facil-ity of Chivuna, the services provided did not meet the WHO minimum guide-lines/standards on the provision of such services. Therefore, there is need for such facilities to be adequately equipped in all the departments of ART deli-very so as to ensure effective delivery of these services and universal access.