Abstract:
Background: HIV/AIDS is an important public health problem despite important progress.
The prevention remains up today the most effective way of fighting against HIV. Research
has shown that testing is an important step toward behavior change, but uptake of testing still
low with only 11% of men and 12% of women who have been tested for HIV and received
their results (RDHS2005), waiting for the results of the RDHS2010; this is why the Ministry
of Health started the PIT program. As a new program, it is important to understand how the
program has been implemented and evaluate its effectiveness today and provides
recommendations for changes.
Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess the overall implementation of the PIT program
as initiated by RBC/IHDPC/HIV Division (former TRAC) at all health centers supervised by
Muhima Hospital for contributing to its improvement.
Methods: This descriptive, cross sectional study conducted in 8 health centers supervised by
Muhima district hospital concerns an overview of these 8 health centers by interviewing their
heads, the implementation of PIT program by interviewing the 26 health care providers
working in outpatient department and the quality of services receiving by the 260 patients
coming for outpatient services by an exit interview done end of May and start of June 2011.
A program monitoring framework (tracking inputs, process, outputs, outcomes and impact)
was used to analyze the PIT program implementation. Routinely collected data from
RBC/IHDPC/HIV Division (former TRAC) were used for the analysis.
Findings: More inputs in the PIT program implementation have been put in place like avail
the guideline, register, reporting tool, training manual, reporting system, funds for formative
supervisions and health facilities personnel ,equipment, reagents. The trainings were
conducted both on the quality of services and on the reporting system, but there still a need to
emphasize also to the personnel working in OPD. The uptake of the HIV counseling and
testing through PIT in OPD was 30% in February 2011.
Conclusion: The PIT program has increased the coverage of HIV testing opportunities, and
has increased the testing uptake. However there is a still to do more efforts in improving the
quality of services received by the clients especially in pre-test counseling by more trainings
and formative supervisions in all services particularly in OPD.
