ICAP at Columbia’s Mailman School has received five new awards from the CDC to continue partnerships with ministries of health in Swaziland, Cameroon, and South Sudan. Through these awards, ICAP will provide technical assistance and capacity building support to reduce new HIV infections, strengthen health systems for programmatic impact, and support sustainable, government-led responses to the epidemic.

In Swaziland, ICAP has been a PEPFAR implementing partner since 2005, working hand-in-hand with the Ministry of Health. Through the first award, ICAP is supporting a new phase of service expansion at the national level for all TB, MDR-TB and HIV/TB activities; strengthening capacity of the Regional Health Management Team in the Manzini Region and improving quality of adult and pediatric HIV testing, prevention, care and treatment. Through another award, ICAP is partnering with the Ministry to build Swaziland’s capacity in epidemiology and research and strengthen the monitoring and effective use of data for disease surveillance. Through an additional award, ICAP will support education and training in lab capacity.

In Cameroon, ICAP received CDC funding to expand and improve HIV services for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT). ICAP will partner with Cameroon’s Ministry of Health to expand the option B+ strategy to achieve scale up of antiretroviral therapy for pregnant women and their families as well as enhancing program quality. “This is an important opportunity to ensure that HIV-infected women, their children and families members are identified early, initiated on treatment, and retained in care,” said epidemiology professor Dr. Elaine Abrams, the project’s principal investigator and senior research director at ICAP.

In South Sudan ICAP funding from the CDC will continue to support, expand and strengthen family-focused HIV care and treatment services. The project builds on ICAP’s previous work in South Sudan and will also expand on the use of data to inform evidence-based programs, and the development of new health systems, policies and tools for use at the national and facility level. ICAP has been a PEPFAR implementing partner in South Sudan since 2012.