Community-based therapeutic care in HIV-affected populations

Community-based therapeutic care (CTC) is a community-based model for delivering care to malnourished people. CTC aims to treat the majority of severely malnourished people at home, rather than in therapeutic feeding centres. This paper describes the potential of the CTC approach to provide effective care and support for people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA). CTC includes many of the components of a home-based care model for PLWHA. It provides outpatient treatment for common complications of HIV and AIDS, such as acute malnutrition and simple infections, and an energy-dense ready-to-use food that could be made with the appropriate balance of micronutrients for the HIV-infected patient. Through the decentralisation of outpatient treatment sites, CTC improves accessibility by moving treatment closer to people's homes and helps to promote the sustainability of care by building on the capacity of existing health infrastructure and staff. The CTC model contains many features that are appropriate for the care and support of HIV-affected people and, in its present form, can provide effective physical care for many HIV-affected individuals. We are currently working to adapt the CTC model to make it more suitable for the support of PLWHA in the longer term.