THE REPUBLIC OF THE GAMBIA’S COMBINED REPORT ON THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN & PEOPLES’ RIGHTS & INITIAL REPORT ON THE PROTOCOL TO THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA • Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) which is now being piloted in 14 sites and plans are afoot to scaling it with PMTCT to all RCH clinics. EID is a service that verifies the HIV status of babies as early as 6 weeks of birth and so far about 100 babies were tested and only 1 was found positive. The Service Delivery Areas (SDA) under the purview of NAS are mostly health facility based and include: Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP), HIV Counselling and Testing (HCT), Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT), HIV Clinical Care and Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART), and Health System Strengthening (HSS). In addition, there is an on-going program to support Post Exposure Prophylaxis services in health facilities. I. HIV Counselling and testing services are being provided through static health facilities and community outreach approach. The program is intensifying both the client and provider initiated counselling and testing approaches to increase uptake on HCT. Other strategies such as demand creation by the partners involved in community HIV prevention programs and on-going outreach services are paying dividend on HCT uptake. Routine programmatic data revealed an over achievement of the target (109%) of the 2014 HCT target. However, stigma and denial associated with the disease continue to affect HCT service delivery. II. Under the PMTCT services, the program attained an annual cumulative coverage of 92% of 2014 target for counselling and testing of pregnant women. The program also recorded 63% coverage for the administration of ARV prophylaxis for positive women and their babies. The 42 % results on the administration of Cotrimoxazole prophylaxis to exposed babies have not been impressive. This is due to stigma and denial associated with the disease and the outcome of their pregnancies. III. The program registered a significant enrolment of patients on ART with an overall 4586 PLHIV currently on ARV representing 91% of the year’s target. Out of the cumulative 4586 PLHIV on ART, 380 are children and 4206 are adults (males 1176 and females 3030). This provides evidence for more enrolment of PLHIV on ART, particularly children. With the adoption of the new 2013 WHO consolidated treatment guidelines, it is envisaged that more people will be put on treatment. IV. The Health Technician Training Institute (HTTI) under the University of The Gambia, School of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences finally completed the training of Assistants and Technicians in pharmacy, laboratory, physiotherapy and radiography as part of HSS component of the grant. This 151