Adapting HIV services for pregnant and breastfeeding women, infants, children, adolescents and families in resource-constrained settings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted global health service delivery, including provision of HIV services. Countries with high HIV burden are balancing the need to minimize interactions with health facilities to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission, while delivering uninterrupted essential HIV prevention, testing and treatment services. Many of these adaptations in resource-constrained settings have not adequately accounted for the needs of pregnant and breastfeeding women, infants, children and adolescents. We propose whole-family, tailored programme adaptations along the HIV clinical continuum to protect the programmatic gains made in services. DISCUSSION: Essential HIV case-finding services for pregnant and breastfeeding women and children should be maintained and include maternal testing, diagnostic testing for infants exposed to HIV, index testing for children whose biological parents or siblings are living with HIV, as well as for children/adolescents presenting with symptoms concerning for HIV and comorbidities. HIV self-testing for children two years of age and older should be supported with caregiver and provider education. Adaptations include bundling services in the same visit and providing testing outside of facilities to the extent possible to reduce exposure risk to COVID-19. Virtual platforms can be used to identify vulnerable children at risk of HIV infection, abuse, harm or violence, and link them to necessary clinical and psychosocial support services. HIV treatment service adaptations for families should focus on family based differentiated service delivery models, including community-based ART initiation and multi-month ART dispensing. Viral load monitoring should not be a barrier to transitioning children and adolescents experiencing treatment failure to more effective ART regimens, and viral load monitoring for pregnant and breastfeeding women and children should be prioritized and bundled with other essential services. CONCLUSIONS: Protecting pregnant and breastfeeding women, infants, children and adolescents from acquiring SARS-CoV-2 while sustaining essential HIV services is an immense global health challenge. Tailored, family friendly programme adaptations for case-finding, ART delivery and viral load monitoring for these populations have the potential to limit SARS-CoV-2 transmission while ensuring the continuity of life-saving HIV case identification and treatment efforts.

PEPFAR's response to the convergence of the HIV and COVID-19 pandemics in Sub-Saharan Africa.

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic reached the African continent in less than three months from when the first cases were reported from mainland China. As COVID-19 preparedness and response plans were rapidly instituted across sub-Saharan Africa, many governments and donor organizations braced themselves for the unknown impact the COVID-19 pandemic would have in under-resourced settings with high burdens of PLHIV. The potential negative impact of COVID-19 in these countries is uncertain, but is estimated to contribute both directly and indirectly to the morbidity and mortality of PLHIV, requiring countries to leverage existing HIV care systems to propel COVID-19 responses, while safeguarding PLHIV and HIV programme gains. In anticipation of COVID-19-related disruptions, PEPFAR promptly established guidance to rapidly adapt HIV programmes to maintain essential HIV services while protecting recipients of care and staff from COVID-19. This commentary reviews PEPFAR's COVID-19 technical guidance and provides country-specific examples of programme adaptions in sub-Saharan Africa. DISCUSSION: The COVID-19 pandemic may pose significant risks to the continuity of HIV services, especially in countries with high HIV prevalence and weak and over-burdened health systems. Although there is currently limited understanding of how COVID-19 affects PLHIV, it is imperative that public health systems and academic centres monitor the impact of COVID-19 on PLHIV. The general principles of the HIV programme adaptation guidance from PEPFAR prioritize protecting the gains in the HIV response while minimizing in-person home and facility visits and other direct contact when COVID-19 control measures are in effect. PEPFAR-supported clinical, laboratory, supply chain, community and data reporting systems can play an important role in mitigating the impact of COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa. CONCLUSIONS: As community transmission of COVID-19 continues and the number of country cases rise, fragile health systems may be strained. Utilizing the adaptive, data-driven programme approaches in facilities and communities established and supported by PEPFAR provides the opportunity to strengthen the COVID-19 response while protecting the immense gains spanning HIV prevention, testing and treatment reached thus far.