Strengthening HIV and Tuberculosis Service Delivery to Tanzania’s Uniformed Services

Like similar institutions elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, the national uniformed forces—the army, police, and prisons, and immigration personnel—are experiencing a high burden of the HIV and AIDS epidemic. The incidence and prevalence of HIV and AIDS in these institutions is often found to be higher compared to that in the civilian population. Members of the forces remain vulnerable to the risk of HIV infection and sexually transmitted infections due to their age, their status, the migratory nature of their work, and the inadequate family presence during assignments. The goal of AIDSFree Tanzania is to provide quality comprehensive HIV and AIDS prevention, care and treatment, and support services for the police and prisons staff, the prison inmates, and civilians within the surrounding communities in Tanzania.

The program will build on the existing HIV programs for police, the prison staff, and their families, and the surrounding communities to: Promote behavioral risk reduction, positive social norms, and use of biomedical prevention modalities for the uniformed forces population; increase availability and accessibility of comprehensive HIV care, treatment, and support services; strengthen systems for linking individual clients from community-based program interventions to the continuum of care for HIV, health, and other related services; and provide guidance and capacity building for gender-based violence prevention and response in prisons and among police.