CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY

CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY

An intervention of active screening and awareness for co-morbidities. A team consisting

of a clinician, a nurse, a VCT counselor and an activist will travel one day a week to one of 25 identified centers to promote health health days in which each HIV patient afferent to the center,

if agreed, will be able to receive a screening for major co-morbidities (hypertension, diabetes, malnutrition, hypercholesterolemia, renal disease, hepatitis B and C). Some of these tests will be performed on-site, others will be performed in the laboratory. In addition, the VCT counselor and activist will carry out some awareness sessions on co-morbidities to patients present at that

time in the center.

It is planned, in 6 months, to involve all 25 basic health facilities non-hospital facilities in Meru County (dispensary/basic health centers).

These data, in addition to their important clinical relevance to the patient, will play a crucial role in the development of epidemiological prevalence data to planning further subsequent interventions at the regional level and, possibly, nationwide.

In this activity, it is planned to involve and screen about 1,000 patients and to raise awareness of another 2,000.