Reducing Loss to follow-up among Clients Living with HIV through Back to Care Initiative in Kongwa District in Dodoma

Abstract

Loss to follow-up among People Living with HIV/AIDS at HIV clinics is increasing, as most of the clients enrolled at CTC do not adhere to their scheduled visits. This paper reports on how Back to Care Initiative (B2CI) has reduced loss to follow- up to clients living with HIV/AIDS in Kongwa District in Dodoma. The study was conducted in six health facilities in Kongwa District, which provide Care and Treatment Centre services. We employed descriptive cross-sectional design whereby 35 key informants were purposively sampled and 305 patients living with HIV/AIDS were randomly selected. In-depth interview and structured questionnaire were used to collect information from key informants and patients living with HIV. Quantitative data were analyzed using STATA software pack 13, while qualitative data were analyzed using Atlas. ti software. Findings of the study revealed that the use of patient data fro appointment and tracking registers, adherence to counselling and health care confidentiality improved and enhanced patient’s retention in care. In addition, involvement of community-based health services volunteers helped in tracing and returning patients into care. We recommend a similar approach to other districts in Tanzania with low- resource settings and a high rate of loss to follow-up patients.