EpiC launches in Lindi — anchoring HIV epidemic control

The Meeting Targets and Maintaining Epidemic Control (EpiC) programme is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under PEPFAR and led globally by FHI360. In Tanzania, ASUTA serves as a sub-recipient with a clear, focused brief: drive down new HIV infections among Key and Vulnerable Populations (KVPs) in Lindi Region and help the country close the remaining gaps to the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets.

Lindi was selected because its KVP burden — particularly among female sex workers, men who have sex with men, people who use drugs, and adolescent girls and young women along the coastal economic corridor — has historically been under-served by static facility-based services. EpiC's design assumes that the last mile of epidemic control must be community-owned, mobile, and stigma-free.

Over the launch fortnight ASUTA convened preparatory sessions with the Regional Health Management Team (RHMT), six Council Health Management Teams (CHMTs), FHI360 technical leads, and district political leadership across Lindi Municipal, Kilwa, Lindi District, Ruangwa, Liwale, and Nachingwea. Twenty-eight CHMT members participated, including District Medical Officers, District AIDS Control Coordinators (DACCs), and Reproductive and Child Health Coordinators.

The conversations were deliberately practical. We mapped existing service points, identified data-sharing protocols, agreed on a joint quarterly review cadence, and signed memoranda of understanding that name the council — not ASUTA — as the steward of the response. This co-ownership model is non-negotiable; without it, KVP services collapse the moment external funding tapers.

In the next ninety days the team will recruit and train the first cohort of peer educators drawn from the KVP communities themselves, complete community mapping in twelve priority wards, and run an opening round of Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) sessions linked to HIV testing services.

Targets for Year One are ambitious but evidence-based: reach at least 4,800 KVPs with the EpiC minimum prevention package, refer 92 percent of those who test positive to treatment within seven days, and document a viral suppression rate of 90 percent or higher among those on treatment for six months or more.