EpiC Côte d'Ivoire Quarterly Progress Report January 1–March 31, 2020

President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)-funded initiative aimed at controlling the HIV epidemic among at-risk adult men, women, and priority populations. The project is being implemented in 20 sites across eight health regions, with each site representing a health district or a commune. The EpiC Côte d'Ivoire project is funded by the USAID CI Country Operational Plan (COP) and the Key Population Investment Fund (KPIF). During the second quarter of fiscal year 2020 (Q2 FY20), the project accelerated testing and boosted strategies to increase HIV case finding and treatment initiation. The EpiC CI team conducted a series of trainings for local partners to refresh their knowledge about and skills in providing high-quality HIV prevention interventions and community- and facility-based testing. Trainings were conducted on approaches such as sexual and behavior change communication (SBCC), HIV testing and counseling (HTC), pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), the enhanced peer outreach approach (EPOA), and risk network referral (RNR). The project reached 7,150 key population (KP) individuals with HIV prevention interventions, representing 74 percent achievement of the KP_PREV annual target. A total of 4,705 KP members were tested for HIV through different testing modalities, with 552 newly diagnosed with HIV. Of the 552 newly diagnosed, 520 (94 percent) were successfully linked to antiretroviral therapy (ART) services and initiated on ART within the quarter. Cumulatively, 751 KP individuals were newly diagnosed HIV positive, of whom 692 were linked to ART services, representing 48 percent achievement of the annual target for TX_NEW_VERIFY. The project also conducted routine data quality assessment (RDQA) for Q1 and data validation activities for Q2. The EpiC CI team trained outreach workers on EPOA and the RNR approach, and 26 community-based organization (CBO) staff members were trained on the project monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system. The project distributed 297,515 male condoms, 26,321 female condoms, and 88,099 water-based lubricants to KP individuals and their sexual partners. The project faced two main challenges during Q2 FY20: the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC) moratorium on index testing and the outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) in March 2020. The moratorium on index testing resulted in the low volume of those offered index testing services, while the COVID-19 outbreak led to the closure of hot spots, reduced community outreach and testing activities, and reduced demand for healthcare services. The project's performance reached and surpassed the expected 50 percent of performance through Q2, except for TX_NEW_VERIFY, which is at 48 percent. However, in Q2, TX_NEW_VERIFY was at 94.2 percent linkage rate, showing positive improvement compared to 86.4 percent linkages to ART rate recorded in Q1. The project will scale-up index testing in Q3 to continue to improve case finding after training CBOs on the new PEPFAR safety and ethical requirements for implementing index testing.