ICAP: Empowering Health for 15 Years

Charting
progress
Gathering the data that
drive policy and programs
The scale-up of access to
treatment for people living with
HIV is a historic global health
achievement.
In order to make further progress,
countries and funders need to
understand how well they are faring
in responding to their national
epidemics and how best to focus
future resources and efforts.
Thanks to the Population-based HIV
Impact Assessment (PHIA) Project,
implemented by ICAP with funding
from the President’s Emergency
Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and
in partnership with the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) and ministries of health,
14 countries confronting the HIV
crisis will have access to a breadth
of population-level HIV data that
provide the most accurate measures
of the HIV epidemic to date.
The PHIA surveys involve
hundreds of trained staff who
conduct high-quality, householdbased
HIV counseling and testing
for all members of the household,
return the results, and refer HIVpositive
survey participants for care.
They also obtain blood samples
to determine HIV infection, how
well HIV is controlled, and also to
evaluate for other priority diseases
based on country priorities. To
date, more than 300,000 people
have participated in these nationally
representative surveys.
The surveys have been enormously
successful and are providing an
unprecedented understanding of
where countries stand in terms of
the HIV epidemic—yielding critical
information on HIV prevalence,
incidence, who is on treatment, and
how they are doing on treatment.
This information spotlights national
HIV program successes and points
to the gaps that remain.
Impressive declines in the rate of
new HIV infections have been
shown in countries such as Namibia
and Eswatini. At the same time,
the results provide a roadmap for
the future—recharging efforts to
confront the epidemic and guiding
adjustment of strategies.
Côte d’Ivoire Population-based HIV Impact Assessment
(CIPHIA) survey staff prepare for a day in the field. Staff
form clusters and use electronic tablets and printed materials
to identify survey households, check supplies, and coordinate
logistics.
“
Together with its remarkable partners, ICAP
brings ingenuity, expertise, and dedication
to these ambitious surveys. The findings will
continue to offer valuable insights for years
to come.
Jessica Justman, MD
PHIA Project Principal Investigator
and Senior Technical Director
ICAP at Columbia University