The main objective of the course is to enhance the skills of participants in analysis of the HIV test–treat–retain cascade (“cascade”), which is used to determine the magnitude of the losses and gaps along the continuum of HIV care and to explore reasons for these losses.

The overall aim of the cascade analysis is to improve HIV services throughout the continuum of care, from diagnosis to achievement of viral suppression, and to assist country programmes to prioritize key indicators to assess in order to improve performance throughout the cascade of HIV services and transitions between services in a timely manner.

The course will outline data collection methods needed to assess three interlinked steps along the continuum of care (HIV testing, enrolment in HIV care and pre-antiretroviral (ART) care, and ART initiation and retention in lifelong HIV care) for a general population, pregnant women and key populations. These methods will include the collection of key quantitative and qualitative data, such as the total estimated number of persons living with HIV infection (PLHIV), the estimated number of PLHIV among key populations HIV testing uptake, linkage to HIV care, ART treatment, retention and viral load suppression. They also include the examination of factors that lead to patients being lost to follow up and the resultant coverage gap such as availability of services, geographical accessibility, affordability, etc. Lectures will also address key limitations to using the cascade analysis and the importance of assessing quality of data and strengths and limitations of each data source when constructing the indicators relevant for the cascade.