Bhekululu Chasokela's hands no longer shake when he has to prescribe antiretroviral (ARV) treatment for HIV patients. He is a nurse and thanks to the ‘task shifting’ programme – improving access to patients in remote areas - he has now acquired the training to treat patients with HIV.
“I had never done it before, and the first time I did it I felt really good knowing that I was helping a patient whom I had known for a long time," he recalls proudly.
Training nurses is one of the easiest ways to make ARV treatments available in remote areas. The programme is a straightforward, effective initiative launched in 2006 by Médecins sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Tsholtosho, Zimbabwe.
This training began in four rural health centres - Sipepa, Pumula, Nkunzi and Makaza – where they were experiencing a high incidence of HIV in the communities.
Rural areas in need of new initiative
Improving access to antiretroviral treatment for patients in remote areas is the aim of the task shifting programme.
It is a simple decentralisation initiative that entails training health professionals in remote rural areas that are far from the hospital to be more autonomous and manage patients with HIV.
“Nurses are the only people we always see in our health centres. The fact they can prescribe antiretroviral therapy has helped us a lot,” says Sibongile Bhebhe, a 42-year-old woman who lives in Madona, about 100 km from Tsholotsho.
She is HIV positive and did not begin to take ARV treatment until 2013 due to a lack of access. “I was waiting a long time for the doctor to come. I can't get to Tsholotsho hospital because it is a long way and transportation is very expensive for me," she says.
Making treatment accessible to the greatest number of people possible is one of the main challenges in countries hard hit by the virus. According to the World Health Organisation, antiretroviral therapy reduces the risk of transmitting the virus by 96 percent.
The latest figures from the Ministry of Health in Zimbabwe indicate that 72 percent of adults and 43 percent of children who need treatment are receiving it.
Taking HIV treatment to patients
“It's important to take the drugs and resources to where the people who really need it are - those most vulnerable and affected by HIV who have no access to hospitals," explains Guiomar Hernández, an MSF doctor and coordinator of the decentralisation team in Tsholotsho.
Philimon Mgnui, an MSF nurse in Tsholotsho, outlines the success of ‘task shifting’ since the programme began in 2006: "The benefits for patients have been excellent, both by increasing the number of tests that have been carried out and in the adherence to treatment.
“The programme has enabled a huge reduction in waiting lists to start antiretroviral therapy, and patients feel much better cared for," he explains.
Relieving the burden of care
It is estimated that currently half a million adults and 150,000 children are affected by HIV in Zimbabwe.
For several years, MSF has been putting in place strategies aimed at establishing decentralised models suited to the real needs of the large number of sparsely populated rural areas.
There is a referral hospital and only one doctor from the Ministry of Health in Tsholotsho.. “Transport alone to the hospital in Tsholotsho from rural areas costs US$5, an amount that many patients can't afford," explains Hernández.
Thanks to the decentralisation strategy, many people are relieved of this burden as they can be treated at home or in local health centres, rather than in larger and fewer facilities that are very difficult to access for the majority of patients.
A matter of training
Over 30 nurses, both women and men, cover the 18 health areas in Tsholotsho district and attend training sessions twice a year, all run by MSF.
They are given theoretical and practical courses where they learn to identify patients and to perform HIV testing, screening, diagnosis and treatment.
This training extends to HIV-associated infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and meningitis, as well as clinical and immunological patient follow-up.
“With our team colleagues we developed a protocol that nurses apply when diagnosing a patient with HIV.
“We can now say that the nurses we have trained can do almost everything when it comes to managing HIV-positive people," says Guiomar Hernández.
In addition to training health professionals, the MSF medical team perform weekly monitoring. “We saw that they were gradually getting confident and managing patients,” explains Dr Hernández.
“They have our support at all times, and when there are uncertain cases they schedule those patients to come on the same day as the MSF team visits the health centre, so that we can examine the patient together.”
“The key to the patients’ health in Tsholotsho”
The local staff have responded well to this support and MSF is seeing returns to their training. Dr Hernández adds: “It has been very interesting to see how motivated the staff of rural health centres are.
“They know that afterwards they have to deal with situations alone, and they take full advantage of our presence in the centre to continue learning."
Nurses are not the only professionals who are benefiting from the initiative. Laboratory scientists, microscopists, pharmacists, mental health auxiliary staff, and support groups, among others, have all been able to boost their autonomy in managing patients.
Since 2013, MSF has gradually been transferring its activities in Tsholotsho to the Ministry of Health of Zimbabwe.
“The programme is an interesting strategy that allows knowledge to remain in place, regardless of whether we are there, and this is the key to both the success of the programme and the health of many patients in Tsholotsho," explains Dr Hernández.
