About Health Connections International

Health Connections International (HCI) is a solution-oriented non-profit organisation, created with the specific aim of improving the responses to the HIV, tuberculosis (TB), and drug use epidemics in the former Soviet Union and other regions through an innovative web-based information- and knowledge-sharing platform. HCI seeks to ensure that, through the strengthening of healthcare systems, crucial international support and important developments in the fields of HIV, TB and drug demand and harm reduction are not missed due to language and/or geopolitical boundaries.

The Problem

The rapidly developing HIV and tuberculosis (TB) pandemics continue to cause devastating human suffering and a growing socio-economic burden in many regions of the world. Despite advancements in treatment for those already affected by HIV and TB, many health practitioners are ill-equipped and unprepared to deal with all aspects of these epidemics.

Likewise, important international developments are missed and direct support–whether that support be financial or contextual–is not available due to language barriers. Thus, those most vulnerable—that is, young people living with HIV or those most at risk of becoming HIV positive—do not receive the prevention, treatment, care and support so desperately needed.

In resource-poor settings, responses to HIV and TB have relied on short-term solutions and projects. Most of these are externally financed, consist of largely ‘isolated’ networks of professionals, and do not include capacity-building measures directed at long-term sustainability and the strengthening of healthcare systems.

For example, in Eastern Europe and Central Asia with more than 1.5 million people living with HIV, the responses have been slow to spread to all areas even while the rapid growth in the HIV epidemic poses a serious threat to the region’s social and economic stability. To further compound the issue, trained healthcare workers to deal with all aspects of the combined HIV, TB and drug use epidemics characteristic in the region are lacking.

Hence, innovative thinking is necessary in order to adequately respond to the convergence of these epidemics, to bridge existing gaps, and to significantly scale up existing activities.

With these issues in mind, Health Connections International is aimed at contributing to the development of prevention, treatment, care and support mechanisms to address the HIV, TB and drug use epidemics through the innovative use of ICT.