Defense Health Program Grant for HIV/AIDS Prevention, Care, and Treatment in Foreign Militaries

Meet with key partners in country to determine provisional major program areas and other technical assistance needs.
Adapt DHAPP support to a country’s need for prevention, care and/or treatment of their HIV/AIDS situation based on existing plans and assessments.
Strengthen the military capacity for ownership and behavioral changes over the long term.
Possibly design a program with other country partners who have had successful prevention, care, or treatment efforts.
Focus on prevention, care and/or treatment impact aligned with national implementation plans.
Implement and monitor programs to ensure accountability and sustainability.

Countries and their militaries need strong programs with courses of action that demonstrate:

Visible support from the military sector
Development of plans of action and policies
Increasing awareness within the military sector
Country ownership of its activities
Prevention plans focusing on prevention of sexual transmission through voluntary counseling and testing, sexually transmitted infection (STI) management, behavioral interventions, prevention and care of other opportunistic infections, male circumcision, changing male normative behavior, and prevention campaigns
Reduction of mother-to-child transmission, (The primary focus of these interventions is on behavior change to reduce the risks of sexual transmission, counseling, testing, diagnosis and proper linkages to treatment, and reducing stigma associated with HIV infection.)
Surveillance and infrastructure development through programs focusing on HIV/STI/tuberculosis surveillance, prevalence surveys, laboratory support, monitoring and evaluation, training and information management.
Increasing financial resources

More information about countries DHAPP currently operates in and its existing programs can be found on the DHAPP website, http://www.nhrc.navy.mil/programs/dhapp/index.html

Program Purpose and Plan
DHAPP continues to rely upon the vital support of various partners, such as non-governmental organizations, in implementing HIV prevention, care and treatment programs across the globe. Each country has a customized plan to help the country/military bring its HIV/AIDS programs to sufficient scale to help reduce the spread of the epidemic and mitigate its impact.

DHAPP’s current priority activities include the following:

Training of master trainers and peer educators
“Troop Level” HIV/AIDS prevention education and behavior change communication
Providing infrastructure and equipment for HIV testing, care and treatment centers
Increasing testing of all military personnel
Developing HIV laboratory diagnostic and monitoring capabilities
Increasing clinical capability for health care of those infected with HIV
Effective methodology for monitoring and evaluation procedures