Mozambique has the eighth highest HIV prevalence in the world. In June 2013 the country launched a task-shifting (TS) initiative for the administration of antiretroviral therapy (ART) to under-5 HIV-positive children, to be carried out not only by doctors working in HIV outpatient services but also nurses trained in mother and child care.
This study, which involved 588 HIV-infected children, 330 of whom were part of the post-intervention phase, sought to evaluate the effectiveness or lack thereof of the TS.
While we found an increase in regular nutritional visits and preventive therapy with isoniazid for children following the shift of activities to mother and child care-focused centers, no clear benefits were seen in terms of ART initiation and maintenance in the young HIV-infected patients.