On 27 April, Kitovu Mobile joined clinical providers in Masaka District and trained  in Assisted Partner Notification (APN)

The Clinical Providers APN  training was organised by the Ministry of health,aiming to equip HIV care providers with knowledge and skills to provide high quality APN services to eligible patients to decrease transmission of HIV.

It was adapted from Passport to Partner Services, the US-based curriculum developed by CDC with the National network of STD/HIV prevention Training Centers (NNPTC)

The classroom based training content areas included: Key concepts of HIV, Introduction to APN, Procedures for APN, Confidentiality and Data Security, Communication Techniques, Counselling,Interviewing and Partner Notification.

The training saw Kitovu Mobile attended staff  develop core competencies in: Identifying eligible clients for APN, Interview and counsel index clients to assure linkage to HIV Care treatment, Sensitively elicit sexual partners of index clients, Perform investigation to locate and notify partners of their exposure to HIV,Facilitate HIV testing of partners exposed and treatment of partners testing positive.

Ms Noeline Ndagire, a Kitovu Mobile Medical Center staff,who was among the trainees, of the attendees,said the training is going  to boost their efforts in identifying eligible HIV,STI and TB patients.”We want to ensure that any one  who is diagnosed with the to the above ailments is encouraged to disclose his or her partner and have done; when found positive,we definitely enroll them on treatment,” Ms Ndagire says.