Strategic Focus

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Haiti office opened in 2002. Working in collaboration with Haiti’s Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP), CDC is supporting the national response to HIV/AIDS by preventing the transmission of HIV; providing and increasing the accessibility and quality of HIV clinical services, and treatment; increasing patient adherence and retention in treatment; strengthening surveillance, epidemiology, laboratory, and health management information systems; and expanding multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) treatment availability.

Strengthening Health Systems: To ensure a sustainable and robust health system, CDC supports critical staffing needs, training programs with the greatest impact for medical and paramedical personnel, strengthening of MSPP governance and financial management mechanisms, strategic information systems and data use for informed decision-making.

Strengthening Laboratory Systems and Networks: CDC collaborates with the National Public Health Laboratory (LNSP) to develop multiple testing capacities, including Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) for diagnosis of HIV in infants, scale up of viral load testing, and testing for opportunistic infections in HIV-infected people. CDC has helped the country to establish an external quality assurance program and a training curriculum to build capacity for lab accreditation.

Strengthening Surveillance and Health Information Systems: CDC is increasing access to strategic information by supporting MSPP to establish and monitor integrated health management information systems including an electronic medical records (EMR) systems that cover more than 95% of patients on antiretroviral treatment (ART) in Haiti and a longitudinal web-based reporting and surveillance system for HIV and TB.