Clinical Research Department, Africa Health Research Institute, Somkhele, South Africa.
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom.
Front Public Health. 2022 Apr 27;10:855625. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.855625. eCollection 2022.
To reach 95% of persons living with HIV (PLWH) knowing their HIV status, alternative testing approaches such as HIV self-testing (HIVST) and secondary HIVST kit distribution are needed. We investigated if secondary HIVST kit distribution from male and female PLWH in South Africa would successfully lead to their contacts testing for HIV and linking to care if positive.
Male and female PLWH participating in an HIV treatment trial between July and November 2018 in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa were offered participation as "HIVST kit distributors" in a pilot of secondary distribution of HIVST kits to give to sexual partners and social networks. Univariate descriptive statistics were used to describe the characteristics of volunteer distributors, proportion of HIVST recipients who reported their results, and linkage to care among those who tested positive using HIVST were assessed.
Sixty-three participant kit distributors accepted kits to disperse to contacts, of whom 52% were female, median age was 34 years (IQR 26-42.5), 84% reported 1 sexual partner and 76% did not know their partner's HIV status. HIVST kit distributors took 218 kits, with 13/218 (6%) of kits reported to be intended to be given to a sexual partner. A total of 143 HIVST recipients reported their HIVST results; 92% reported their results were negative, 11 recipients reported positive results and 1 HIVST-positive recipient was linked to HIV care.
Secondary distribution of HIVST to social networks and sexual partners from South African PLWH is feasible, with two thirds of contacts reporting use of the HIVST kits. Additional support is necessary to facilitate linkage to care.
为了让 95%的艾滋病毒感染者（PLWH）了解自己的艾滋病毒状况，需要采用艾滋病毒自我检测（HIVST）和二级 HIVST 试剂盒分发等替代检测方法。我们调查了在南非，由男性和女性 PLWH 分发二级 HIVST 试剂盒是否能成功促使他们的接触者进行 HIV 检测，如果检测结果为阳性，则促使他们获得治疗。
2018 年 7 月至 11 月，南非夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省参加一项艾滋病毒治疗试验的男性和女性 PLWH 受邀参加一项二级 HIVST 试剂盒分发试点项目，作为“HIVST 试剂盒分发者”参与，将试剂盒分发给性伴侣和社交网络。使用单变量描述性统计方法描述志愿者分发者的特征、报告检测结果的 HIVST 接受者的比例，以及使用 HIVST 检测呈阳性者与治疗的关联。
63 名参与者试剂盒分发者接受了分发接触者的试剂盒，其中 52%为女性，中位年龄为 34 岁（IQR 26-42.5），84%报告有 1 个性伴侣，76%不知道其伴侣的艾滋病毒状况。HIVST 试剂盒分发者领取了 218 个试剂盒，其中 13/218（6%）个试剂盒计划分发给性伴侣。共有 143 名 HIVST 接受者报告了他们的 HIVST 结果；92%报告结果为阴性，11 名接受者报告阳性结果，1 名 HIVST 阳性接受者与 HIV 治疗建立了联系。
在南非，从 PLWH 向社交网络和性伴侣二级分发 HIVST 是可行的，三分之二的接触者报告使用了 HIVST 试剂盒。需要额外的支持来促进与治疗的关联。
