Supply of DBS kits During our visit 20% of the sampled facilities in EC, MP and LP reported stock-outs of DBS kits in the past month. 10% Sampled facilities in LP and NC were out of stock during the visit. 17% facilities in LP and 28% in NC had expired DBS kits. Blood Specimens Storage More than 60% facilities in KZN, EC and GP stored blood specimens in the consulting room where they were collected. The other sampled facilities in WC (44%), LP (52%) and MP (44%) used fridges, cooler boxes or special boxes to store specimens when collected Barriers to EID The health workers in sampled facilities reported barriers to the provision of early Infant Diagnosis. Some of these barriers are related to staff shortages, time and budget shortages for training, high volume of work at immunization service points. Others were personal factors like maternal fear of disclosure, maternal denial of HIV status and infant coming to the facilities with caregivers. Figure 1 Barriers to EID Discussion Our findings reveal that lay counsellors outnumber the ENAs and staff nurses in general. Proper utilisation of lay counsellors at primary care facilities does not only alleviate the workload from other cadres allowing timely early infant diagnosis but could also leverage their skills in terms of weighing babies, performing anthropometry, feeding practises, addressing mothers on issues relating to safer sex, disclosure, stigma reduction, HIV and how to prevent it. The shortages and expiration of DBS kits leads to interrupted service thereby denying HIV exposed babies an opportunity to access care on time. This can be overcome by establishing functional inventory control systems that are monitored regularly. DBS cards are designed in such a way that specimens can withstand temperature variation better than other specimens. However, the ideal storage temperature to
Supply of DBS kits During our visit 20% of the sampled facilities in EC, MP and LP reported stock-outs of DBS kits in the past month. 10% Sampled facilities in LP and NC were out of stock during the visit. 17% facilities in LP and 28% in NC had expired DBS kits. Blood Specimens Storage More than 60% facilities in KZN, EC and GP stored blood specimens in the consulting room where they were collected. The other sampled facilities in WC (44%), LP (52%) and MP (44%) used fridges, cooler boxes or special boxes to store specimens when collected Barriers to EID The health workers in sampled facilities reported barriers to the provision of early Infant Diagnosis. Some of these barriers are related to staff shortages, time and budget shortages for training, high volume of work at immunization service points. Others were personal factors like maternal fear of disclosure, maternal denial of HIV status and infant coming to the facilities with caregivers. Figure 1 Barriers to EID Discussion Our findings reveal that lay counsellors outnumber the ENAs and staff nurses in general. Proper utilisation of lay counsellors at primary care facilities does not only alleviate the workload from other cadres allowing timely early infant diagnosis but could also leverage their skills in terms of weighing babies, performing anthropometry, feeding practises, addressing mothers on issues relating to safer sex, disclosure, stigma reduction, HIV and how to prevent it. The shortages and expiration of DBS kits leads to interrupted service thereby denying HIV exposed babies an opportunity to access care on time. This can be overcome by establishing functional inventory control systems that are monitored regularly. DBS cards are designed in such a way that specimens can withstand temperature variation better than other specimens. However, the ideal storage temperature to
Proceedings-2014.docx