Maureen Milanga, a staffer at Health GAP in Keyna and an alumna of the AVAC Advocacy Fellows program, presented a poster demonstrating how advocates from Kenya, Zimbabwe and Nigeria were able to influence their countries by strategically raising their voices to increase demand for key interventions.
Their work has helped secure a number of significant changes--including global WHO guidelines that recommend early ART initiation for sero-discordant couples regardless of CD4 counts. Demand is also driving expanding attention to the need to deliver post exposure prophylaxis (PEP - ARVs given after a person suspects they have been exposed to HIV) for key populations like sex workers in Zimbabwe and South Africa. There has also been increased effective engagement of communities in trials.
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