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      An implementation study of oral and blood‐based HIV self‐testing and linkage to care among men in rural and peri‐urban KwaZulu‐Natal, South Africa

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          Abstract

          Introduction

          In South Africa, HIV‐infected men are less likely than women to test and know their status (the first UNAIDS “90‐90‐90” target), and men have worse outcomes across the HIV care cascade. HIV self‐testing (HIVST) may address this testing disparity but questions remain over the most effective distribution strategy and linkage following a positive test result. We implemented a men‐focused HIVST distribution programme to evaluate components contributing to participation and retention.

          Methods

          We conducted an implementation study of multi‐venue HIVST kit distribution in rural and peri‐urban KwaZulu‐Natal (KZN), South Africa. We distributed HIVST kits at community points, workplaces and social venues for on site or take‐home use. Clients could choose blood‐based or oral‐fluid‐based HIVST kits and elect to watch an in‐person or video demonstration. We provided a USD2 incentive to facilitate reporting test results by phone or SMS. Persons with reactive HIVST results were provided immediate confirmatory tests (if used HIVST on site) or were referred for confirmatory testing (if took HIVST off site) and linkage to care for ART initiation. We describe the testing and linkage cascade in this sample and describe predictors of reactive HIVST results and linkage.

          Results

          Between July and November 2018, we distributed 4496 HIVST kits in two regions of KZN (96% to men, median age 28 (IQR 23 to 35). Most participants (58%) chose blood‐based HIVST and 42% chose oral‐swab kits. 11% of men were testing for the first time. A total of 3902 (83%) of testers reported their test result to the study team, with 314 (8%) screening positive for HIV. Among 274 men with reactive HIVST results, 68% linked to ART; no significant predictors of linkage were identified. 10% of kit users reported they would prefer a different type (oral vs. blood) of kit for repeat testing than the type they used.

          Conclusions

          HIVST is acceptable to men and rapid distribution with optional testing support is feasible in rural and peri‐urban settings. HIVST kits successfully reached younger men and identified undetected infections. Both oral and blood‐based HIVST were selected. Scaling up HIVST distribution and guidance may increase the number of first‐time testers among men and help achieve the first UNAIDS “90” for men in South Africa.

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          HIV self‐testing: breaking the barriers to uptake of testing among men and adolescents in sub‐Saharan Africa, experiences from STAR demonstration projects in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe

          Abstract Introduction Social, structural and systems barriers inhibit uptake of HIV testing. HIV self‐testing (HIVST) has shown promising uptake by otherwise underserved priority groups including men, young people and first‐time testers. Here, we use characteristics of HIVST kit recipients to investigate delivery to these priority groups during HIVST scale‐up in three African countries. Methods Kit distributors collected individual‐level age, sex and testing history from all clients. These data were aggregated and analysed by country (Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe) for five distribution models: local community‐based distributor (CBD: door‐to‐door, street and local venues), workplace distribution (WD), integration into HIV testing services (IHTS), or public health facilities (IPHF) and during demand creation for voluntary male medical circumcision (VMMC). Used kits were collected and re‐read from CBD and IHTS recipients. Results Between May 2015 and July 2017, 628,705 HIVST kits were distributed in Malawi (172,830), Zambia (190,787) and Zimbabwe (265,091). Community‐based models, the first to be established, accounted for 519,658 (82.7%) of kits distributed, with 275,419 (53.0%) used kits returned. Subsequent model diversification delivered 54,453 (8.7%) test‐kits through IHTS, 23,561 (3.7%) through VMMC, 21,183 (3.4%) through IPHF and 9850 (1.7%) through WD. Men took 294,508 (48.2%) kits, and 263,073 (43.1%) went to young people (16 to 24 years). A higher proportion of male self‐testers (65,577; 22.3%) were first‐time testers than women (54,096; 17.1%) with this apparent in Zimbabwe (16.2% vs. 11.4%), Zambia (25.4% vs. 17.7%) and Malawi (27.9% vs. 25.9%). The highest proportions of first‐time testers were in young (16 to 24 years) and older (>50 years) men (country‐ranges: 18.7% to 35.9% and 13.8% to 26.8% respectively). Most IHTS clients opted for HIVST in preference to standard HTS in each of 12 delivery sites, with those selecting HIVST having lower HIV prevalence, potentially due to self‐selection. Conclusions HIVST delivered at scale using several different models reached a high proportion of men, young people and first‐time testers in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe, some of whom may not have tested otherwise. As men and young people have limited uptake under standard facility‐and community‐based HIV testing, innovative male‐ and youth‐sensitive approaches like HIVST may be essential to reaching UNAIDS fast‐track targets for 2020.
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            HIV Self-Testing Could “Revolutionize Testing in South Africa, but It Has Got to Be Done Properly”: Perceptions of Key Stakeholders

            South Africa bears the world’s largest burden of HIV with over 6.4 million people living with the virus. The South African government’s response to HIV has yielded remarkable results in recent years; over 13 million South Africans tested in a 2012 campaign and over 2 million people are on antiretroviral treatment. However, with an HIV & AIDS and STI National Strategic Plan aiming to get 80 percent of the population to know their HIV status by 2016, activists and public health policy makers argue that non-invasive HIV self-testing should be incorporated into the country HIV Counseling and Testing [HCT] portfolios. In-depth qualitative interviews (N = 12) with key stakeholders were conducted from June to July 2013 in South Africa. These included two government officials, four non-governmental stakeholders, two donors, three academic researchers, and one international stakeholder. All stakeholders were involved in HIV prevention and treatment and influenced HCT policy and research in South Africa and beyond. The interviews explored: interest in HIV self-testing; potential distribution channels for HIV self-tests to target groups; perception of requirements for diagnostic technologies that would be most amenable to HIV self-testing and opinions on barriers and opportunities for HIV-linkage to care after receiving positive test results. While there is currently no HIV self-testing policy in South Africa, and several barriers exist, participants in the study expressed enthusiasm and willingness for scale-up and urgent need for further research, planning, establishment of HIV Self-testing policy and programming to complement existing facility-based and community-based HIV testing systems. Introduction of HIV self-testing could have far-reaching positive effects on holistic HIV testing uptake, giving people autonomy to decide which approach they want to use for HIV testing, early diagnosis, treatment and care for HIV particularly among hard-to reach groups, including men.
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              Men, masculinity, and engagement with treatment as prevention in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

              Men’s poorer engagement with healthcare generally and HIV care specifically, compared to women, is well-described. Within the HIV public health domain, interest is growing in universal test and treat (UTT) strategies. UTT strategies refer to the expansion of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in order to reduce onward transmission and incidence of HIV in a population, through a “treatment as prevention” (TasP). This paper focuses on how masculinity influences engagement with HIV care in the context of an on-going TasP trial. Data were collected in January–November 2013 using 20 in-depth interviews, 10 of them repeated thrice, and 4 focus group discussions, each repeated four times. Analysis combined inductive and deductive approaches for coding and the review and consolidation of emerging themes. The accounts detailed men’s unwillingness to engage with HIV testing and care, seemingly tied to their pursuit of valued masculinity constructs such as having strength and control, being sexually competent, and earning income. Articulated through fears regarding getting an HIV-positive diagnosis, observations that men preferred traditional medicine and that primary health centres were not welcoming to men, descriptions that men used lay measures to ascertain HIV status, and insinuations by men that they were removed from HIV risk, the indisposition to HIV care contrasted markedly with an apparent readiness to test among women. Gendered tensions thus emerged which were amplified in the context where valued masculinity representations were constantly threatened. Amid the tensions, men struggled with disclosing their HIV status, and used various strategies to avoid or postpone disclosing, or disclose indirectly, while women’s ability to access care readily, use condoms, or communicate about HIV appeared similarly curtailed. UTT and TasP promotion should heed and incorporate into policy and health service delivery models the intrapersonal tensions, and the conflict, and poor and indirect communication at the micro-relational levels of couples and families.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                aeshapir@uw.edu
                Journal
                J Int AIDS Soc
                J Int AIDS Soc
                10.1002/(ISSN)1758-2652
                JIA2
                Journal of the International AIDS Society
                John Wiley and Sons Inc. (Hoboken )
                1758-2652
                26 June 2020
                June 2020
                : 23
                : Suppl 2 , Men & HIV: insights from sub‐Saharan Africa. Guest Editor: Wole Ameyan, James Ayieko, Anna Grimsrud, Tanya Shewchuk ( doiID: 10.1002/jia2.v23.s2 )
                : e25514
                Affiliations
                [ 1 ] Department of Global Health University of Washington Seattle USA
                [ 2 ] Department of Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases University of Washington Seattle USA
                [ 3 ] Human Sciences Research Council Sweetwaters South Africa
                [ 4 ] MRC/Wits Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit (DPHRU) University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg‐Braamfontein South Africa
                [ 5 ] Africa Health Research Institute Mtubatuba South Africa
                [ 6 ] London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine London United Kingdom
                Author notes
                [*] [* ] Corresponding author: Adrienne Shapiro, Departments of Global Health and Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA. Tel: +1 206 520 4268. ( aeshapir@ 123456uw.edu )

                Author information
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3106-1258
                https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2530-6885
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8813-3419
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1793-6003
                Article
                JIA225514
                10.1002/jia2.25514
                7319114
                32589337
                3057f194-f251-49d4-aa6e-5bc4f9db402b
                © 2020 The Authors. Journal of the International AIDS Society published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of the International AIDS Society.

                This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

                History
                : 27 September 2019
                : 02 April 2020
                : 22 April 2020
                Page count
                Figures: 2, Tables: 3, Pages: 8, Words: 13599
                Funding
                Funded by: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation , open-funder-registry 10.13039/100000865;
                Award ID: OPP1134599
                Categories
                Research Article
                Research Articles
                Custom metadata
                2.0
                June 2020
                Converter:WILEY_ML3GV2_TO_JATSPMC version:5.8.4 mode:remove_FC converted:26.06.2020

                Infectious disease & Microbiology
                hiv infections,male,workplace,south africa,mass screening,serologic tests

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