Role of public-private partnerships in achieving UNAIDS HIV treatment targets.
BACKGROUND
Despite progress towards achieving UNAIDS 90-90-90 goals, barriers persist in laboratory systems in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) restricting scale up of early infant diagnosis (EID) and viral load (VL) test monitoring of patients on antiretroviral therapy. If these facilities and system challenges persist, they may undermine recorded gains and appropriate management of patients. The aim of this review is to identify Public Private Partnerships (PPP) in SSA that have resolved systemic barriers within the VL and EID treatment cascade and demonstrated impact in the scale up of VL and EID.


METHODS
We queried five HIV and TB laboratory databases from 2007 to 2017 for studies related to laboratory system strengthening and PPP. We identified, screened and included PPPs that demonstrated evidence in alleviating known system level barriers to scale up national VL and EID testing programs. PPPs that improved associated systems from the point of viral load test request to the use of the test result for patient management were deemed eligible.


RESULTS
We identified six PPPs collaborations with multiple activities in select countries that are contributing to address challenges to scale up national viral load programs. One of the six PPPs reached 14.5 million patients in remote communities and transported up to 400,000 specimens in a year. Another PPP enabled an unprecedented 94% of specimens to reach national laboratory through improved sample referral network and enabled a cost savings of 62%. Also PPPs reduced cost of reagents and enabled 300,000 tested infants to be enrolled in care as well as reduced turnaround time of reporting results by 50%.


CONCLUSIONS
Our review identified the benefits, enabling factors, and associated challenges for public and private sectors to engage in PPPs. PPP contributions to laboratory systems strengthening are a model and present opportunities that can be leveraged to strengthen systems to achieve the UNAIDS 90-90-90 treatment targets for HIV/AIDS. Despite growing emphasis on engaging the private sector as a critical partner to address global disease burden, PPPs that specifically strengthen laboratories, the cornerstone of public health programs, remain largely untapped.
['Shrivastava|Ritu|R|', 'Fonjungo|Peter N|PN|', 'Kebede|Yenew|Y|', 'Bhimaraj|Rajendra|R|', 'Zavahir|Shabnam|S|', 'Mwangi|Christina|C|', 'Gadde|Renuka|R|', 'Alexander|Heather|H|', 'Riley|Patricia L|PL|', 'Kim|Andrea|A|', 'Nkengasong|John N|JN|']
D017954:Africa South of the Sahara D016208:Databases, Factual D003695:Delivery of Health Care D042241:Early Diagnosis D006040:Goals D006678:HIV D015658:HIV Infections D006801:Humans D007223:Infant D007753:Laboratories D055818:Public-Private Sector Partnerships D012698:Serologic Tests D014481:United States D054702:United States Agency for International Development D019562:Viral Load
Public-private partnership Early infant diagnosis Viral load Cascade Laboratory systems strengthening