Are Expert Patients an Untapped Resource for ART Provision in Sub-Saharan Africa?
Affiliation
Médecins Sans Frontières, Avenue Eduardo Mondlane 38, Tete, Mozambique.Issue Date
2012-04
Metadata
Show full item recordJournal
AIDS Research and TreatmentAbstract
Since the introduction of antiretroviral treatment, HIV/AIDS can be framed as a chronic lifelong condition, requiring lifelong adherence to medication. Reinforcement of self-management through information, acquisition of problem solving skills, motivation, and peer support is expected to allow PLWHA to become involved as expert patients in the care management and to decrease the dependency on scarce skilled medical staff. We developed a conceptual framework to analyse how PLWHA can become expert patients and performed a literature review on involvement of PLWHA as expert patients in ART provision in Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper revealed two published examples: one on trained PLWHA in Kenya and another on self-formed peer groups in Mozambique. Both programs fit the concept of the expert patient and describe how community-embedded ART programs can be effective and improve the accessibility and affordability of ART. Using their day-to-day experience of living with HIV, expert patients are able to provide better fitting solutions to practical and psychosocial barriers to adherence. There is a need for careful design of models in which expert patients are involved in essential care functions, capacitated, and empowered to manage their condition and support fellow peers, as an untapped resource to control HIV/AIDS.PubMed ID
22577527Language
enISSN
2090-1259ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1155/2012/749718
Scopus Count
Collections
Related articles
- Community-based antiretroviral therapy programs can overcome barriers to retention of patients and decongest health services in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review.
- Authors: Decroo T, Rasschaert F, Telfer B, Remartinez D, Laga M, Ford N
- Issue date: 2013 Sep
- A qualitative study of community home-based care and antiretroviral adherence in Swaziland.
- Authors: Root R, Whiteside A
- Issue date: 2013 Oct 8
- Families as catalysts for peer adherence support in enhancing hope for people living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa.
- Authors: Masquillier C, Wouters E, Mortelmans D, Booysen Fle R
- Issue date: 2014
- HIV care engagement and ART adherence among Kenyan gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men: a multi-level model informed by qualitative research.
- Authors: Graham SM, Micheni M, Secor A, van der Elst EM, Kombo B, Operario D, Amico KR, Sanders EJ, Simoni JM
- Issue date: 2018 Aug
- Contemporary issues on the epidemiology and antiretroviral adherence of HIV-infected adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa: a narrative review.
- Authors: Adejumo OA, Malee KM, Ryscavage P, Hunter SJ, Taiwo BO
- Issue date: 2015