IMPACT Recency
Sustaining HIV Epidemic Control

Christopher Blair -
Role: Overseeing implementation of the IMPACT Project-Recency across 27 districts
Expertise: HIV/AIDS surveillance, epidemiological data analysis, public health program management
Project Goal & Objectives
Project Goal:
The goal of this project is to use a rapid test for recent infections to provide continuous epidemiological data on person, place, and time of newly diagnosed individuals to inform HIV prevention and treatment strategies and have a better understanding of the performance of RTRI.
Project Objectives:
- Monitor trends in the proportion testing recent on the RITA among newly diagnosed PLHIV
- Identify geographic areas associated with testing recent on the RITA to inform geographic prioritization of HIV prevention interventions
- Generate cross-sectional estimates of HIV incidence
- Describe demographic and high-risk behavior associated with recent HIV infection
Scope of Work
Use the existing National-HTS algorithm and the HTS providers in the 300 Recency implementing sites.
- Providing technical support to implement the Recency Surveillance services at national level with National HIV Reference Laboratory, Department of HIV Aids and other district stakeholders
- Providing daily management and implementation of the Recency Surveillance System field activities according to study protocol guidelines and standard operating procedures through sub-providing data management expertise and support to Recency Surveillance Data system
Target Population
- 13 years and above
- Targets all the new positive clients
- Never taken Anti-retroviral therapy
Key Achievements
Districts Covered
27
Health Facilities
300
Trained Workers
500+
Reports Generated
15+
Project information
- Name: IMPACT Project-Recency
- Donor: CDC
- Project Duration: 2022-2027 (5 Years)
- Geographic Coverage: 27 districts
- Health Facilities: 300 sites
Project Description
This project implements the field activities of Recency Surveillance across 27 districts in Malawi. The project uses rapid tests for recent infections to provide epidemiological data that informs HIV prevention and treatment strategies.
MACRO provides field oversight to ensure that the project is implemented according to study protocols and standard operating procedures.
Key Achievements
- Established surveillance in 300 health facilities
- Trained 500+ healthcare workers
- Enrolled 10,000+ participants to date
- Produced 15+ epidemiological reports