Advancing Person-Centered Integrated Care for a Sustainable HIV Response
January 15th, 2025 | viewpoint
Photo credit: JSI / Zambia
By Muka Chikuba-McLeod, Deborah Goldstein, Yogan Pillay, Beatrice Ajonye, Njeri Kamere
Global progress against HIV transmission, morbidity, and mortality is one of the most remarkable public health achievements of modern times. But the epidemic is far from over, with an estimated 29–46 million people expected to be living with HIV by 2050 and 400,000 new infections occurring each year. Health systems must, therefore, adapt and be able to meet the needs of people living with HIV, reduce transmission, and simultaneously address other health conditions and challenges. To achieve this we must develop and maintain integrated, person-centered care models and approaches that ensure high-quality services, streamline and simplify care delivery, and enhance financial sustainability.
Integration is not new to the HIV response. Services like HIV counseling, testing, and prevention have been integrated into antenatal care clinics for decades. These integrated programs have successfully identified women living with HIV and provided them with antiretroviral therapy for their own health and to reduce HIV transmission to their children. Too often, however, program integration is constrained by the limitations of policy, financing, and siloed health care delivery systems. In many resource-limited settings, while HIV service delivery systems are relatively robust and well resourced, systems that support non-HIV services tend to be under resourced and, as a result, face challenges in effectively addressing the needs of patients and clients. Thoughtful integration of HIV into primary health care will require strengthening core health systems to drive better health outcomes across the board.
The Case for Integration
At its core, integration is about managing and delivering health services together in ways that prioritize people, not merely their diseases. This approach responds to what clients are asking for: care that is convenient, efficient, accessible, addresses their wide range of health needs and diverse life experiences, and offers the information and choice necessary for clients to make decisions about their health.
