Solthis is an international medical association entirely dedicated to patients living with HIV/AIDS in developing countries.  Its objective is to facilitate access to care and treatment for people living with HIV.

With view toward development overall, and thanks to the daily presence of its teams in the field, Solthis has chosen to provide technical support to national actors in the fight against AIDS in order to given them the means to offer high quality, sustainable treatment to their populations.

To do so, Solthis has built its intervention strategy around five priority areas:

1. Healthcare providers (medical and paramedical):

Professionals who are confronted with patients infected by HIV include all the clinicians, nurses, and other paramedical personnel working in centers for treatment and testing.  Building the capacities of these health professionals is therefore primarily a matter of training, but may also extend to improving the material conditions of their work.  Regarding material support, Solthis plays the role of facilitator between financing mechanisms and their beneficiaries.  Solthis does not act as a financing mechanism.

2. Laboratories and other technical platforms:

Outside of clinical practice, the quality of patient care depends principally on biological follow-up.  The laboratory is an indispensible element in the capacity building of technical platforms, which also include medical imaging and other hospital-based services. Laboratory exams in turn depend on the healthcare system in question, notably testing services located at all levels of the healthcare pyramid, biochemical exams, hematology, and exams specific to HIV care (CD4, viral load, and testing for resistance).  Solthis supports the personnel of these services by providing appropriate training and, when traditional financing mechanisms fall through, supplying materials to ensure patients' care is uninterrupted. 

3. Pharmacies (procurement, supply chain management):

Even if healthcare professionals are appropriately trained and technical platforms are operational, it is an illusion to think that HIV care can be effective in the absence of certain products:  ARVs, medicines for opportunistic infections, and reactives.  Their quantification, purchase, and storage, as well as their distribution, are crucial to the success of treatment programs. For these reasons, Solthis formulates individual recommendations and supports their implementation in each country where it works, so that national institutions can play the leading role.  Solthis also forms links between different international institutions working in this field.

4. Management of health data:

One of Solthis' most important activities is the management of medical data created by HIV treatment programs.  This requires first the creation of a complete and operational patient file system, followed by its entry into computer databases so that program leaders can follow trends.  Finally, running statistical and epidemiological analyses permits treatment teams to evaluate their work and develop scientific strategies appropriate to their context.  This implies technical know-how (statistical tools and computer programs), as well as scientific knowledge (creating protocols for operational research).

5. Healthcare policy:

At the national level, Solthis works most closely with the Ministry of Health and National AIDS Councils (CNLS in the French acronym).  Within health ministries, several departments may be concerned: for example, national HIV/AIDS programs, reproductive health services, or pharmacies.  Depending on the country, other groups may be pertinent, such as national technical medical committees or partners' forums.  Solthis' teams in the field support all of these bodies in the creation of anti-AIDS policies, in the development of tools and procedures, such as therapeutic protocols, and also the writing-up of various documents required by financing mechanisms (Global Fund, World Bank ...).

These priority areas are addressed in the context of several intervention themes:

Care for each patient 

Implicit in the heart of its mission, Solthis considers accompanying patients -- by which we mean, outside of the strictly medical sphere - as an indispensable condition of high quality care.

The implementation of these activities - activities in support of mutual help societies and community groups, nutritional support - requires a specialized scientific expertise that Solthis does not possess among its members.  Therefore, we work in partnership with other actors in the field who do possess this knowledge and are recognized as authorities on the subject.  This may include international NGOs, local NGOs, international organizations (for example, the World Food Program for - www.wfp.org), patient networks, and research laboratories (e.g. theLaboratory for Study and Research on Social Dynamics and Local Development, the LASDEL www.lasdel.net/) ...