2016 ICT4D Conference

The Local Partners Excel in Comprehensive HIV & AIDS Service Delivery (LEAD) project, funded by the Centers for Disease Control under PEPFAR, supports prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) services at 509 facilities in Mara and Tanga regions of Tanzania. Most are health centers and dispensaries in remote locations with unreliable or no sources of funds to transport reports and travel to collect medical supplies. These factors contribute to regular stock-outs of Dry Blood Spot (DBS) kits needed for HIV testing of children (exposed infants) born by HIV positive women. In July 2013, LEAD introduced the use of International Quality Short Message Software (IQSMS) to support facilities to share DBS kits information without traveling.
Methods: The IQSMS software package uses health providers’ mobile phones to send preformatted exposed infants enrolled and tested and DBS stock reports to a central in-country server via SMS. Messages are received by a modem connected to a server which performs data quality checks and responds to the sender. After data verification, the data are integrated into the database. The enrolled and tested exposed infants and DBS stock reports are then retrieved, analyzed, and shared with key stakeholders for immediate action.
Results: Using a snapshot of reports sent by 467 sites from October to December 2014, analysis indicated 73% of 800 newly enrolled exposed infants were tested. A total of 40 facilities had no DBS test kits while a total of 1,791 DBS kits were available in all other 467 sites, which could enable testing of all exposed infants enrolled. This information helped program, district, and facility staff to support re-distribution of DBS test kits to sites that had none. The October-December 2015 report indicated 94% of 666 newly enrolled exposed infants in all 467 sites were tested, there were no stock-outs of DBS kits reported from any of the site.
Conclusion: IQSMS provides district, regional, and national stakeholders with up-to-date, vital information and assists with decision making about the distribution and re-distribution of DBS test kits to avoid disruption in the testing of exposed infants.