Project profile — HIV-AIDS Surveillance

The project contributes to enhancing the capacity of the Government of Pakistan to implement an effective second-generation surveillance (SGS) system for HIV/AIDS. This system involves repeated cross-sectional sampling of vulnerable, high-risk populations to obtain information on risk behaviours in addition to a biological sample for testing for HIV and other disease agents. The project is contributing to building systems and protocols that are flexible, scalable, and sustainable, and that work in the context of Pakistan.

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Results as of the end of the project (March 2012): HASP's key achievement was the development of an innovative and internationally-respected methodology of second generation surveillance (SGS). Pakistan's SGS system is cited as best practice for the Middle East region in the 2010 World Health Organization (WHO)/UNAIDS publication, HIV Surveillance in the Middle East and North Africa: a handbook for surveillance planners. For data management and storage capacity; Central and 4 Provincial Data Coordinating Units (CIPDCUs) were established within the National and 4 Provincial Aids Control Programmes. Standard Operating Procedures was developed and made available to the Data Coordinating Units (DCUs). The National Referral Laboratory (NRL) as well as 3 private laboratories have the skills to test high volumes of specimens for HIV accurately. A database system for tracking specimens and a detailed Laboratory Manual are available to guide future surveillance. Over the life of the project 634 males and 334 female (researchers, coordinators and monitors) participated in advanced training in SGS. HASP data was used to project HIV prevalence among key populations and for Pakistan as a whole. UNAIDS and the WHO used HASP data on their sites for epidemiological updates for 2008, 2009 and 2010. Surveillance data was widely used by the National Aids Control Program (NACP) and Provincial Aids Control Programmes (PACP) in developing policies and plans.