Achieving HIV Epidemic Control and Improving Maternal Healthcare Services with Community-Based HIV Service Delivery in Zambia: Mixed-Methods Assessment of the SMACHT Project

Novel community-based approaches are needed to achieve and sustain HIV epidemic control in Zambia. Under the Stop Mother and Child HIV Transmission (SMACHT) project, the Community HIV Epidemic Control (CHEC) differentiated service delivery model used community health workers to support HIV testing, ART linkage, viral suppression, and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (MTCT). A multi-methods assessment included programmatic data analysis from April 2015 to September 2020, and qualitative interviews from February to March 2020. CHEC provided HIV testing services to 1,379,387 clients; 46,138 were newly identified as HIV-positive (3.3% yield), with 41,366 (90%) linked to ART. By 2020, 91% (60,694/66,841) of clients on ART were virally suppressed. Qualitatively, healthcare workers and clients benefitted from CHEC, with provision of confidential services, health facility decongestion, and increased HIV care uptake and retention. Community-based models can increase uptake of HIV testing and linkage to care, and help achieve epidemic control and elimination of MTCT.