Resilience outcomes and associated factors among workers in community-based HIV care centres during the Covid-19 pandemic: A multi-country analysis from the EPIC program

Di Ciaccio, Marion; Lorente, Nicolas; Villes, Virginie; Maxence, Axel Akpaka; Vargas Pelaez, Claudia Marcela; Guillen, José Rafael; Castillo, Ingrid; Folch, Cinta; Diagne, Rokhaya; Riegel, Lucas; Delabre, Rosemary M.; Rojas Castro, Daniela

doi:10.1016/j.hpopen.2023.100105

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 35 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The recent global health crisis due to COVID-19 disrupted HIV care systems throughout the world in many ways. For example, activities such as HIV testing 10 – 12 and community-based tracing of patients lost to follow-up 11 were suspended, healthcare workers experienced physical and psychological burnout 13 , 14 , and the level of privacy during medical consultations was greatly reduced 15 . In some contexts, continuity of HIV care was more resilient.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors associated with ART interruption during the COVID-19 crisis in Burundi (the EPIC community-based research program)

Niyongabo,

Villes,

Diagne

et al. 2024

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

With a national prevalence of 0.9%, Burundi is close to achieving UNAIDS’ 2025 targets. Despite this, different types of crises periodically disrupt its HIV health services. The community-based program EPIC measured the impact of the COVID-19 health crisis on people living with HIV (PLHIV) in Burundi in 2021. Specifically, it assessed ART interruption and associated factors since the beginning of the pandemic. The study questionnaire was administered to PLHIV in three cities between October and November 2021. Participants were recruited using convenience sampling. Logistic regression models helped identify factors associated with ART interruption. Of the 317 respondents, 37 (11.7%) reported interruption. The majority (79.2%) self-identified as belonging to key populations. Interruption was significantly associated with: fewer HIV medical follow-up visits (adjusted Odds Ratio, aOR = 7.80, p = 0.001) and forced HIV status disclosure (aOR = 4.10, p = 0.004). It was inversely associated with multi-month ART dispensing (aOR = 0.36, p = 0.017) since the beginning of the pandemic and the perception of not having been sufficiently informed by the HIV medical team about the risk of COVID-19 infection (aOR = 0.11, p < 0.001). Our results highlight the importance of multi-month ART dispensing, enhanced communication, and voluntary disclosure of one’s HIV status in preventing ART interruption in times of crises in Burundi.

show abstract