2023 marks the 20th anniversary of the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) globally, and the 3-year anniversary of the PEPFAR program in Togo implemented by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Over the past two decades, the US government, through PEPFAR, has helped save millions of lives and strengthened the global response to HIV/AIDS. Over the past 3 years, the Government of the United States of America, through PEPFAR, has provided financial support to the Government of Togo and civil society organizations to positively impact the national response to HIV/AIDS. AIDS.
Since 2020, the United States has granted more than $25 million to Togo through PEPFAR.
Additional funding of $11 million has been allocated for this year to accelerate progress towards achieving the 95-95-95 targets.
This means that 95% of people living with HIV know their HIV status; 95% of people diagnosed HIV-positive receive long-term antiretroviral treatment; and 95% of people on antiretroviral therapy have a suppressed viral load.
Through innovative approaches, PEPFAR funding in Togo has helped diagnose HIV-positive people, enroll and maintain them on antiretroviral therapy, and suppress their viral load.
From October 2019 to September 2022, the number of patients on antiretroviral treatment followed at PEPFAR-supported sites in four health regions across the country increased from 25,000 to 44,000, a 75% increase in just three years.
PEPFAR in Togo helped ensure access to viral load testing for 90% of patients on antiretroviral treatment at the 30 sites supported by the program and contributed to the increase in the rate of viral load suppression from 82 % in 2019 to 94% in 2022.
The program has introduced and scaled up several good practices including Index Testing, social network testing strategies, differentiated offer of HIV testing, HIV self-testing, improved outreach and peer screening for key populations, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), multi-month dispensing of antiretrovirals, and the use of an electronic patient monitoring tool to improve the quality of data and their use for decision-making of decision.
With support from the Ministry of Health and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, many of these good practices are being replicated nationwide.
With PEPFAR Togo, thousands of people living with AIDS receive the support they need to lead positive and productive lives.
Globally, more than 25 million lives have been saved and millions of new HIV infections have been averted.
