Joint Hosted PENTA Training with Tanzania and Zambia

The first ever Penta jointly-hosted training course, titled “Pent@training”, was held in Tanzania in July 2022. The training course was a joint activity with participants from Tanzania and Zambia. The course focused on HIV management, prevention of vertical transmission of HIV, safety of antiretroviral therapy during pregnancy and breastfeeding, antiretroviral guidelines, and treatment strategies.

The three-day course had 200 participants with nearly 150 invited participants online, 40 speakers, 18 presentations, and six interactive ‘virtual clinic’ case discussions. Healthcare professionals, experts, and frontline workers shared experiences, build their capacity, and discussed barriers in the management of pediatric and adolescent HIV and other infectious diseases within the Zambian and Tanzanian contexts.

Those present also discussed the COVID-19 pandemic, COVID-19 vaccine roll-out, tuberculosis management and prevention, and sexually transmitted infections.

Patience Komba, a Public Health Specialist working for the University of Maryland, Baltimore in Tanzania’s Associate Director for Program Quality and Business Development, has been Pent@training’s local coordinator and faculty since 2018. “There were valuable lessons learned that will surely improve how our pediatrics and adolescents living with HIV are managed across Tanzania,” she said.

The course was organized by Penta and supported by the Zambia Pediatric Association, the Zambian and Tanzanian Ministries of Health, the Tanzanian National AIDS Control Programme, and University of Maryland, Baltimore in Tanzania.