Tonen-Wolyec Serge, Kayembe Tshilumba Charles, Batina-Agasa Salomon, Tagoto Tepungipame Alliance, Bélec Laurent
Ecole Doctorale Régionale d'Afrique Centrale en Infectiologie Tropicale, Franceville, Gabon.
Faculty de Medicine, University de Bunia, Bunia, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Front Med (Lausanne). 2021 Jul 30;8:667732. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2021.667732. eCollection 2021.
As far as HIV self-testing (HIVST) is concerned, proving the link to HIV care for users with a positive result contributes to understanding the implementation of HIVST. We sought to examine whether there were differences by sex in the uptake of HIV services following a positive self-test in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This was a mixed-methods study exploring linkage to care for HIVST through a secondary analysis of collected data from three pilot surveys recently conducted in three cities (Kinshasa, Kisangani, and Kindu) during 2018 and 2020 in the DRC. Linkage to HIV care was defined as delayed when observed beyond 1 week. A total of 1,652 individuals were self-tested for HIV. Overall, the proportion of linkage to HIV care was high ( = 258; 82.2%) among individuals having a positive result with HIV self-test ( = 314), but it was significantly lower in men (65.2%) than women (89.2%). Furthermore, linkage to HIV care of men was significantly delayed as compared with that of women (40.0 vs. 20.7%). These findings show a lower uptake of care following a positive self-test in men than women. This trend already previously observed in sub-Saharan Africa shed light on the need to increase linkages to care among men newly diagnosed through HIV self-testing.
就艾滋病毒自我检测(HIVST)而言,证明检测结果呈阳性的使用者与艾滋病毒治疗之间的联系,有助于了解HIVST的实施情况。我们试图研究在刚果民主共和国(DRC)自我检测呈阳性后,接受艾滋病毒服务的情况在性别上是否存在差异。这是一项混合方法研究,通过对2018年至2020年期间在刚果民主共和国三个城市(金沙萨、基桑加尼和金杜)最近进行的三项试点调查收集的数据进行二次分析,探索与HIVST治疗的联系。如果观察到超过1周才与艾滋病毒治疗建立联系,则定义为延迟。共有1652人进行了艾滋病毒自我检测。总体而言,艾滋病毒自我检测结果呈阳性的个体(n = 314)中,与艾滋病毒治疗建立联系的比例较高(n = 258;82.2%),但男性(65.2%)的这一比例明显低于女性(89.2%)。此外,与女性相比,男性与艾滋病毒治疗的联系明显延迟(40.0天对20.7天)。这些发现表明,自我检测呈阳性后,男性接受治疗的比例低于女性。此前在撒哈拉以南非洲已经观察到这种趋势,这凸显了增加通过艾滋病毒自我检测新诊断出的男性与治疗之间联系的必要性。