Integrating HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis and diagnostic STI care: An individualised public health approach (iPrEP-STI)
Summary
South Africa has some of the highest rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV globally. New STIs infections are increasing among South African adolescents where comprehensive and integrated quality of health services are limited. South African guidelines for treating STIs are not based on the diagnosis of the actual pathogen that causes the STI but uses the syndromic approach which means that people may get antibiotics that they do not need. Further, the majority of people with an STI, especially women, are asymptomatic, hence do not get the treatment that they need. Additionally those on PrEP showed a higher incidence of STIs; 21% of PrEP users had chlamydia compared to the global average of 3%. Hence, integrating diagnostic STI care and PrEP provides a unique opportunity to reduce STI
incidence. The SA National Strategic Plan (NSP) for HIV, TB and STIs (2017-2022), highlights the need to address the high burden of STIs, detection and management of asymptomatic STIs with increased laboratory support and use of Point-of-Care (POC) testing for common STIs. Hence the aim of this study is to engage policy makers, healthcare providers and patients in discrete choice experiments to establish preferences for diagnosis and treatment of STIs and assess the feasibility of integrating these within the South African health-system.
Primary Objectives
Study Population
Clients at facilities receiving PrEP, as well as healthcare providers and key stakeholders (policy makers, key informants)
Investigators
Dr Saiqa Mullick, Dr Collins Iwujii, Diantha Pillay
Sponsors/Donors
NIHR (UK)
Latest Update: 15 February 2021
For more about iPrEP-STIplease email rhicomms@wrhi.ac.za