Ensuring an effective continuum of response and cascade of care for persons living with HIV in Uganda.

The Continuum of Response (COR) approach seeks to provide clients and their families with the essential prevention care / support and treatment services to reduce HIV transmission and disease progression and to maximize health outcomes. Following diagnosis of HIV the next step along the COR cascade is linking persons living with HIV (PLHIV) to care and treatment retaining them in care and ensuring that they receive all recommended services often referred to as the cascade of care. Uganda has adapted modern quality improvement (QI) approaches to improve linkage and enrollment from HIV testing and counseling (HTC) into care and treatment in order to sustain reductions in morbidity mortality and transmission of HIV. With support from USAID ASSIST and other U.S. Government-supported implementing partners the Ministry of Health of Uganda is applying improvement methods in 50 health facilities across Uganda to test changes in support of the Continuum of Response. This short report shared results from the first phase of implementation and describes changes that sites implemented to improve linkages and retention in care.