Estimation and Projection Package (EPP) Workshops
UNAIDS and WHO in collaboration with CDC, FHI and several other partners are planning a series of 11 regional workshops to train country representatives on methods to estimate HIV/AIDS prevalence during 2005. The workshops aim to enable countries to make their own estimates in a globally standardized manner. The results are expected to feed into the next round of global and country estimates during 2005-2006.
A software package called EPP has been developed for countries with generalized epidemics to estimate and project national prevalence levels from surveillance data derived from pregnant women attending antenatal clinics. In addition, a spreadsheet method is available for countries with concentrated and low level epidemics to make national estimates based on prevalence in high risk populations and estimations of the size of high risk populations.
The national prevalence estimates can be used in another software package called Spectrum to obtain estimates of mortality, numbers of people in need of certain interventions, population projections etc.
Preliminary schedule of estimation and projection workshops March- June 2005