As the number of patients experiencing treatment failure rises, drug resistance in HIV management is becoming an emerging problem in Nigeria's National ART program. A committee of expert clinicians from the National Task Team on ART (NTTA) was formed to provide guidance and technical support to clinicians managing patients who were failing on 2nd-line ARVs. However, the cost of conducting Drug Resistance Test (DRT) is prohibitively expensive for most patients. According to NASCP data, 1,789 PLHIV are failing 2nd line ARVs in fifty-five (55) facilities. Given the foregoing, there is a need to reach out to these patients and determine whether or not they are actually failing on second-line ARVs by collecting blood samples from them and conduct a genotypic resistance testing. Global fund gave approval for the DRT to be conducted free (at no cost) for these patients to determine treatment failure and to engage consultants to coordinate the process. 2.0 Purpose In light of the foregoing, the National AIDS/STIs Control Programme (NASCP) issued a Rapid Advice on the management of patients failing second-line ARVs; however, direct implementation of this Advice by clinicians remains sub-optimal, resulting in low uptake of third-line drugs. To that end, two consultants will be hired to consolidate the process of determining actual treatment failure from patients who are said to be failing 2nd line ARVs across a number of Nigerian facilities.
<p>The Consultants will provide support to NASCP (Treatment and Laboratory components) in the various tasks outlined below:</p> <ul> <li>Protocol development</li> <li>Consolidate the planning of sample collection from the failing patients</li> <li>Analysis of the results of the DRT and develop a report of findings</li> <li>Submit final report of the entire process.</li> <li>Discuss the findings with clinicians to aid management of these patients</li> <li>Undertake any other task or responsibility required to provide oversight to the entire process</li> </ul>
<p>The requisite qualifications of the Consultant shall include the following:</p> <p>a) Must be a practicing Laboratory scientist or any related field in a Public or Private institution with a minimum of 5 years’ experience as a Medical Laboratory Scientist in HIV treatment intervention with excellent knowledge about genotypic testing and analysis.</p> <p>b) Should have track records in Laboratory monitoring and evaluation, by providing evidence such as engagement letter, reference letter or acknowledged report for similar job.</p> <p>c) Must have a very good communication, training and report writing skills</p> <p>d) Should have worked or be working in WHO Drug Resistance accredited Laboratory in Nigeria</p> <p>e) Proficient in the use of IT, especially MS Word, Excel and related packages</p> <p> </p>
<p>The consultants should submit to NASCP the following:</p> <ul> <li>A work plan of activities to be completed and time schedule for the assignment/contract within 2 days of signing the contract.</li> <li>Draft protocol</li> <li>The finalized report of the process in both hard and soft copies at the end of the assignment</li> </ul>
The consultant will be accountable to the National Coordinator NASCP.
The consultants will be paid based on qualification and experience
Deadline for submission of application for this position is Fri Mar 03 2023 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time). Any application sent in after the set deadline will be disqualified.
