Rapid Antiretroviral Therapy Scale-up in Hubei Province, China

In 2003, physicians in China were unprepared to care for people with AIDS. Project HOPE partnered with Hubei Province health authorities to train and mentor doctors and build capacity for HIV care. From 2004 to 2006, seventy-eight Chinese "master trainers" were trained, who then trained and mentored 8,759 health workers. During this period, as the free antiretroviral therapy period began, measures of physician competence in HIV care improved significantly, and annual mortality from AIDS fell from 49 percent to 8.8 percent. This international partnership created a sustainable capacity for effective HIV prevention and care that could be replicable in other settings.