An effective HIV-AIDS care and treatment programme must have access to key medical technologies.

"To monitor the health of HIV+ patients and to determine when they will benefit from anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs), treatment teams must track various components of the blood, especially levels of T-cells," explains Bulongwa CTC nurse Mary Musoma. "This is commonly referred to as a patient's CD4 count."

The "gold standard" of CD4 count technology is a process called flow cytometry. And the HH hospitals have decided that the best flow cytometry system for their rural African setting is the CyFlow® Counter for HIV/AIDS Patient Monitoring manufactured by Partec of Muenster, Germany.

"We looked at many potential suppliers," says Dr. Rainer Brandl, Director of the Bulongwa CTC,  "but Partec clearly understood the unique requirements of a resource-poor setting like ours. We have to be independent from any heavy laboratory infrastructure requirements and both up-front and operational affordability is essential."

(more to come)