Department of Health and Human Services’ CDC Grant for Expansion of HIV/AIDS, STI and TB Lab Activities in Namibia

Under the leadership of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, as part of the President’s Emergency
Plan, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (HHS/CDC) works with host countries and other key partners to assess the needs of
each country and design a customized program of assistance that fits within the host nation’s
strategic plan.

HHS/CDC focuses on two or three major program areas in each country. Goals and priorities
include the following:
• Achieving primary prevention of HIV infection through activities such as expanding
confidential counseling and testing programs and building programs to reduce mother-tochild
transmission;
• Improving the care and treatment of HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections (STIs)
and related opportunistic infections by improving STI management; enhancing the care
and treatment of opportunistic infections, including tuberculosis (TB); and initiating
programs to provide anti-retroviral therapy (ART); and
• Strengthening the capacity of countries to collect and use surveillance data and manage
national HIV/AIDS programs by expanding HIV/STI/TB surveillance programs and strengthening laboratory support for surveillance, diagnosis, treatment, disease
monitoring and HIV screening for blood safety.
The purpose of the program is to improve national surveillance for HIV infection, sexually
transmitted infections (STIs), and tuberculosis (TB) as well as to expand the capacity of the
Namibia Institute of Pathology (NIP) to provide services for diagnosing and managing these
diseases and others related to HIV infection and transmission in Namibia. Additionally, through
special initiative funding, the grantee will scale-up HIV/AIDS treatment services in priority
regions in Namibia with high HIV disease burden.

The U.S. Government seeks to reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS in specific countries within sub-
Saharan Africa, Asia, and the Americas through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
(PEPFAR). Through PEPFAR, CDC’s Global AIDS Program (GAP) will continue to work with
host countries to strengthen capacity and expand activities in the areas of: (1) primary HIV
prevention; (2) HIV care, support and treatment; and (3) capacity and infrastructure development,
especially for surveillance and pre- and in-service training. Targeted countries represent those with the most severe epidemics where the potential for impact is greatest and where U.S.
Government agencies are already active. Namibia is one of these targeted countries. To carry out its activities in these countries, CDC is working in a collaborative manner with national governments and other agencies to develop programs of assistance to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic. CDC’s program of assistance to Namibia focuses on several areas of national priority including scaling up of promising strategies for HIV prevention, care and treatment.