Vibangalala Health Centre in Mzimba district has registered a tremendous reduction of defaulter rate from 13% as reported in October 2021 to -31%. District ART Coordinator representative, Joel Mkandawire disclosed this in a stakeholders meeting held by Network of Journalists Living with HIV (JONEHA) in Salima on 24th February 2022.
Mkandawire said the negative number signifies that the facility has brought back more recipients of care than the ones who defaulted. He further explained that despite the facility not being under the list of PEPFAR program funding they still felt it was wise to approach an implementing partner who would understand the dire situation for support. When Vibangalala first shared their data on 2nd April, 2020 the facility had no records for defaulters and lost to follow which was a concerning scenario.
‘We revamped the support groups and worked towards maintaining them with support from Light House. This meant engaging community structures and especially the affected population. It has greatly impacted on reduction of the defaulter rate’. Mzimba District Coordinator representative applauded.
To sustain the decrease of defaulter rate, Mzimba District Health Office (DHO) has also prioritized interventions such as scaling up 6-multi-monthly dispensing of ARVs, establishment of friendly clinics, adopting recipients of care fol-low up models and welcome back culture initiatives which involves Light House’s 4D approach: Deflating fear, Discussing the reason for interrupting treatment, Directing recipients of care to appropriate services and Decorating the recipients of care for remaining in care.
Thus; Mkandawire recommended other implementers to continuously engage the community to help in decreasing number of defaulters as this produces greatly produces desired results.
Commenting on the same, JONEHA Executive Director David Kamkwamba urged other Directors of Health and Social Services (DHSS) and ART Coordinators to maximize on the support of existing implementing partners in their respective districts. He said the remarkable results achieved by Mzimba DHO in a non-funded area shows more can be achieved if implementing partners are innovatively engaged. He ex-pressed appreciation to Light House for going an extra mile by responding to a partner’s expressed need. This is after JONEHA has record-ed high defaulter rates in health facilities that are not supported by PEPFAR.
Funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through AVAC under the COMPASS Africa Project, JONEHA conducted a defaulter rate follow up meeting with ART Coordinators and PEPFAR Implementing Partners under the Community Led Monitoring (CLM) project. The project is targeting five of the 11 PEPFAR scale up districts of Mulanje, Mangochi, Chiradzulu, Mzimba South and Phalombe.
