Control and Prevention of HIV/AIDS, STDs & STIs

Biography

Biography: Eric Ekute

Abstract

Eswatini is a small landlocked country in the world with 27.4% of adults living with HIV. In 2017, 7,000 adults were newly infected with HIV and 3,500 people died of an AIDS related illness. Over the last decade Eswatini has made significant progress on its HIV epidemic. HIV prevalence is stabilizing and the number of new infections among adults has newly halved since 2011, an achievement largely made possible and by rapidly scaling up the number of people accessing antiretroviral treatment. At 85%, it has one of the highest rates of antiretroviral treatment coverage in Sub-Saharan Africa, and it has also increased its own domestic investment and funding for the HIV response. Nevertheless, the huge amount of people living with HIV in Eswatini means it is still the country’s biggest public health concern. According to 2015 estimates, life expectancy in the country is 57 years for men and 61 years for women. Mbabane government hospital is the biggest hospital in Eswatini with the highest number of patients with HIV. Its laboratories are working hard for supporting patients with HIV. Medical laboratories have always played an essential role in determining clinical decisions and providing clinicians with information that assists in the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of diseases in the developed world. Mbabane central laboratory is a referral laboratory operating at Mbabane government hospital under ministry of health in Eswatini. Th e central laboratory provide service routinely to all facilities with limited or without the capacity to perform simple or complex tests, it also serve a national back up for laboratory services. Th e scope of testing includes: Serology, Immunochemistry, Chemistry and Flowcytometry. Th e central laboratory runs about 45,356 tests in a year with an average of 3,779 tests per month. Flowcytometry is a biophysical technology in cells counting, cells sorting, biomarkers detection, by suspending them in the stream of fl uids and passing them to the electronically detection. It is the department which is monitoring patients with HIV by counting their CD4 before starting the antiretroviral treatment or when they are under treatment. Th is department can receive more than 2,500 samples of blood per month for CD4 Count or more than 30,000 samples per year. And all the results are sent to the clinicians for a good care of patients with HIV.