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Volume 9 Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education Public Health Congress 2019
May 15-16, 2019
May 15-16, 2019 Singapore
7th World Congress on
Public Health, Nutrition & Epidemiology
J Community Med Health Educ 2019, Volume 9
DOI: 10.4172/2161-0711-C3-060
To what extent can task shifting reduce the HIV prevalence in the MSM population, Malawi?
Joanne Martin
University of Aberdeen, UK
Introduction & Aim: MSM in Malawi have a HIV prevalence (around 20%) that is twice that of the general population (9.2%).
Despite research identifying MSM as one of the high-risk HIV groups in Malawi, work and research in this area has largely
focused of heterosexual and mother-to-child transmission. Task shifting is a process used to expand health care services by
moving tasks from highly trained and skilled health personnel to those who are less trained (e.g. community health workers).
This has been used in Malawi to expand HIV testing, counselling and treatment however; it had not been targeted at the MSM
population thus far.
Methods: A literature search was carried out using Medline, EMBASE and PubMed. Key search terms were used. The search
topics included: The strengths of task shifting and the sexual behaviors, attitudes and challenges faced by MSM in Malawi. A
limitation criterion was set to ensure the most appropriate and recent research was reviewed and included in this review.
Results: The results obtained suggest that task shifting may be used to overcome some of the barriers faced by MSM but it is not
clear if task shifting could overcome all of them. Key themes were identified and conclusions were drawn from these themes.
Conclusion: The results indicate that there may be a role for task shifting in reducing the prevalence of HIV in this high-risk
group. However, from the results it is unclear to what extent task shifting can do this as the challenges faced are complex.