Perspectives of people living with HIV and health workers about a point-of-care adherence assay: a qualitative study on acceptability.

Current antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence monitoring is premised on patients' self-reported adherence behaviour (prone to recall error) and verified by blood viral load measurement (which can delay results). A newly developed Urine Tenofovir Rapid Assay (UTRA) assesses tenofovir in urine at point-of-care and is a novel tool to test and immediately respond to adherence levels of people living with HIV (PLHIV). We explored PLHIV and health workers' initial perceptions about integrating the UTRA into routine medical care for adherence support. We conducted a series of once-off in-depth qualitative interviews with PLHIV (n = 25) and health workers (n = 5) at a primary care health facility in Cape Town, South Africa. Data analysis involved descriptive summaries of key emergent themes with illustrative case examples. We applied a deductive, outcomes-driven analytic approach to the summaries using the Implementation Outcomes Framework proffered by Proctor et al. (2011). The three relevant concepts from this framework that guided our evaluation were: acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility. We found positive perceptions about the UTRA from many PLHIV and health worker participants. Many PLHIV reported that the immediate results offered by the UTRA could enable them to have constructive discussions with health workers on how to resolve adherence challenges in real-time. Few PLHIV reported concerns that drinking alcohol could affect their UTRA results. Many health workers reported that the UTRA could help them identify patients at risk of treatment failure and immediately intervene through counselling, though some relayed that they would support the UTRA's implementation if more staff members could be added in their busy facility. Overall, these findings show that the UTRA was widely perceived to be acceptable and actionable by many PLHIV and health workers in the study.

Motivating people living with HIV to initiate antiretroviral treatment outside national guidelines in three clinics in the HPTN 071 (PopART) trial, South Africa.

Background: The HPTN 071 (PopART) trial implemented universal test and treat (UTT) in three clinics in the Western Cape, South Africa at a time when antiretroviral treatment (ART) was only offered by CD4 threshold and World Health Organization clinical staging. This required a concomitant shift in the way health workers communicated ART initiation messages. We provide insight into front-line ART initiation communication pre-national policy shift.Method: The design of this study was exploratory with a case descriptive analysis of ART initiation in three clinics. To characterise their demographic profiles, we reviewed 134 randomly selected patient clinical folders of people who initiated ART at CD4 counts greater than the recommended standard. Further, we conducted 12 key informant interviews with health workers at these facilities and thematically analysed health workers' responses.Results: The median age of patients initiating ART regardless of CD4 count (above the threshold level) was 33 years and most were women (73.9%), married (76.1%), and unemployed (48.5%). The median CD4 count of patients initiating outside guidelines was 566.5 cells/µl. Contrary to expectations, key informants indicated no radical shift in messaging to explain ART initiation regardless of CD4 count. Rather, they encouraged people living with HIV (PLHIV) to initiate ART while they still "feel well". The reduced risk of onward HIV transmission did not factor significantly in how health workers motivated clients.Conclusion: Motivating PLHIV to initiate ART regardless of CD4 count in high burden settings is possible. However, there are still opportunities to improve messaging about immediate ART initiation or at high CD4 counts for the prevention of onward transmission.

Interrogating concepts of care in the HIV care continuum: ethnographic insights from the implementation of a "Universal Test and Treat" approach in South Africa.

South Africa currently sustains the largest antiretroviral treatment (ART) programme in the world. The number of people on ART is set to grow even more in the coming years as incidence remains stable, people on ART stay healthy, and guidelines for initiation become increasingly inclusive. The South African public health sector has increasingly relied on community- and home-based lay and professional "carers" to carry out the everyday tasks of rolling out the ART programme. Drawing on ethnographic research in one locality in the Western Cape, the paper explores the care practices of two such groups of carers implementing a 'Universal Test and Treat' (UTT) approach. The UTT approach being evlauated in this place is based on one model of the HIV treatment cascade, or care continuum, which focuses on the steps necessary to identify and link HIV-positive individuals to care and retain them in lifelong HIV treatment. In this context, community-based care workers are responsible for carrying out several discrete steps in the HIV care continuum, including testing people for HIV, linking HIV-positive individuals to care, and supporting adherence. In order to retain clients within the continuum, however, carers also perform other forms of labour that stretch their care work beyond more bounded notions of a stepwise progression of care. These broader forms of care, which can be material, emotional, social or physical in nature, appear alongside the more structured technical and biomedical tasks formally expected of carers. We argue that understanding the dynamics of these more distributed and relational forms of care is essential for the effective implementation of the care continuum, and of the UTT approach, in diverse contexts.

Including the voice of children <15-years-old in paediatric global health research.

Purpose of Review: Despite evidence of the benefits of including children's voices in global health research, they continue to be underrepresented. Implementation of how to include children's voices appears to remain an obstacle to their inclusion in global health research. In this manuscript, we present an epistemological frame that advocates children as experts of their own experiences and knowledge-bearers. Then we provide four case studies, to illustrate ongoing efforts to build equity in the design and execution of paediatric health research. Recent Findings: Ensuring children's equitable inclusion requires recognizing them as active participants in their health and wellbeing, and empowering them to employ their agency in all interactions with researchers, while recognizing the dialogical nature of those interactions. Successfully involving children in global health research can lead to important psychosocial and clinical insights, that could be leveraged to inform future treatment and care practices. Summary: We present four case studies describing the inclusion of children in research and research development related to prevention, treatment and/or care of chronic and acute diseases (tuberculosis, HIV, cervical and other forms of cancer) in a number of global settings including India, Philippines, South Africa, United States, Zambia. The exemplars detail novel applications of a diversity of arts-based methods that are rooted in frameworks for participatory action research. They highlight the need to invest funds, training, time and resources for early and sustained engagement with children throughout the research process. We conclude by offering principles for equitably engaging children in global health research.

Psychosocial experiences of adolescents with tuberculosis in Cape Town.

Adolescents (10-19-years-old) account for almost 10% of the annual global tuberculosis (TB) incidence. Adolescents' experiences of TB care, TB stigma, and the consequences of TB for their relationships, schooling, and mental health are different, and often more severe, compared to younger children and adults. How TB impacts the lives of adolescents is not well described or understood. We aimed to locate adolescents' experiences of TB relative to their psychosocial contexts, describe the impact of TB on adolescents' wellbeing, and describe how TB and its treatment affects their socio-familial contexts. Teen TB was a prospective observational cohort study which recruited 50 adolescents with newly diagnosed TB disease (including both multidrug-resistant TB and drug-susceptible TB) in Cape Town, South Africa. A nested sub-sample of 20 adolescents were purposively sampled for longitudinal qualitative data collection. Nineteen participants completed all qualitative data collection activities between December 2020 and September 2021. Adolescents described their communities as undesirable places to live-rife with violence, poverty, and unemployment. The negative experiences of living in these conditions were exacerbated by TB episodes among adolescents or within their households. TB and its treatment disrupted adolescents' socio-familial connections; many participants described losing friendships and attachment to family members as people reacted negatively to their TB diagnosis. TB, inclusive of the experience of disease, diagnosis and treatment also negatively impacted adolescents' mental health. Participants reported feeling depressed, despondent, and at times suicidal. TB also disrupted adolescents' schooling and employment opportunities as adolescents were absent from school and college for substantial periods of time. Our findings confirm that adolescents' psychosocial experiences of TB are often highly negative, compounding underlying vulnerability. Future research should prioritize exploring the potential of social protection programmes providing adolescents and their families with psychosocial and economic support.

Holistic acceptability of an adult levofloxacin formulation in children and adolescents on a tuberculosis preventive treatment trial.

Drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) is threatening global TB control. Although formulations designed for children are a priority, adult levofloxacin formulations are widely used in TB treatment and prevention. TB-CHAMP was a cluster-randomised, placebo-controlled trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of 24 weeks of daily levofloxacin to prevent TB in child and adolescent household contacts of adults with infectious multidrug-resistant TB. Nested in-depth longitudinal qualitative work was conducted in a subset of children and their caregivers to understand broader experiences of treatment acceptability. We conducted 41 interviews with 8 caregivers of children <6 years, and with 6 older children responding for themselves. Children who could not swallow the adult formulation whole, found the tablet unpalatable, although they learnt to tolerate the taste over time. Most caregivers and children came from families with substantial experience of TB, but felt they knew little about TB preventive therapy. Many families experienced challenging socio-economic circumstances. Poor acceptability was mitigated by sympathetic study personnel, assistance with transport and financial compensation. The adult formulation of levofloxacin was disliked by many younger children but was acceptable to children able to swallow the tablet whole. In addition to using acceptable drug formulations, TB preventive treatment implementation models should include patient education and should accommodate patients' socioeconomic challenges.

"This is an illness. No one is supposed to be treated badly": community-based stigma assessments in South Africa to inform tuberculosis stigma intervention design.

Background: Though tuberculosis (TB)-related stigma is a recognized barrier to care, interventions are lacking, and gaps remain in understanding the drivers and experiences of TB-related stigma. We undertook community-based mixed methods stigma assessments to inform stigma intervention design. Methods: We adapted the Stop TB Partnership stigma assessment tool and trained three peer research associates (PRAs; two TB survivors, one community health worker) to conduct surveys with people with TB (PWTB, n = 93) and caregivers of children with TB (n = 24) at peri-urban and rural clinic sites in Khayelitsha, Western Cape, and Hammanskraal, Gauteng Province, South Africa. We descriptively analyzed responses for each stigma experience (anticipated, internal, and enacted), calculated stigma scores, and undertook generalized linear regression analysis. We conducted 25 in-depth interviews with PWTB (n = 21) and caregivers of children with TB (n = 4). Using inductive thematic analysis, we performed open coding to identify emergent themes, and selective coding to identify relevant quotes. Themes were organized using the Constraints, Actions, Risks, and Desires (CARD) framework. Results: Surveys revealed almost all PWTB (89/93, 96%) experienced some form of anticipated, internal, and/or enacted stigma, which affected engagement throughout the care cascade. Participants in the rural setting (compared to peri-urban) reported higher anticipated, internal, and enacted stigma (ß-coefficient 0.72, 0.71, 0.74). Interview participants described how stigma experiences, including HIV intersectional stigma, act individually and together as key constraints to impede care, leading to decisions not to disclose a TB diagnosis, isolation, and exclusion. Stigma resilience arose through the understanding that TB can affect anyone and should not diminish self-worth. Risks of stigma, driven by fears related to disease severity and infectiousness, led to care disengagement and impaired psychological well-being. Participants desired counselling, identifying a specific role for TB survivors as peer counselors, and community education. Conclusions: Stigma is highly prevalent and negatively impacts TB care and the well-being of PWTB, warranting its assessment as a primary outcome rather than an intermediary contributor to poor outcomes. Multi-component, multi-level stigma interventions are needed, including counseling for PWTB and education for health workers and communities. Such interventions must incorporate contextual differences based on gender or setting, and use survivor-guided messaging to foster stigma resilience. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s44263-024-00070-5.

A scoping review of patient-centred tuberculosis care interventions: Gaps and opportunities.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading cause of death globally. In 2015, the World Health Organization hailed patient-centred care as the first of three pillars in the End TB strategy. Few examples of how to deliver patient-centred care in TB programmes exist in practice; TB control efforts have historically prioritised health systems structures and processes, with little consideration for the experiences of people affected by TB. We aimed to describe how patient-centred care interventions have been implemented for TB, highlighting gaps and opportunities. We conducted a scoping review of the published peer-reviewed research literature and grey literature on patient-centred TB care interventions between January 2005 and March 2020. We found limited information on implementing patient-centred care for TB programmes (13 research articles, 7 project reports, and 19 conference abstracts). Patient-centred TB care was implemented primarily as a means to improve adherence, reduce loss to follow-up, and improve treatment outcomes. Interventions focused on education and information for people affected by TB, and psychosocial, and socioeconomic support. Few patient-centred TB care interventions focused on screening, diagnosis, or treatment initiation. Patient-centred TB care has to go beyond programmatic improvements and requires recognition of the diverse needs of people affected by TB to provide holistic care in all aspects of TB prevention, care, and treatment.

"This is an illness. No one is supposed to be treated badly": Community-based stigma assessments in South Africa to inform TB stigma intervention design.

Background: Though TB-related stigma is a recognized barrier to care, interventions are lacking and gaps remain in understanding the drivers and experiences of TB-related stigma. We undertook community-based mixed methods stigma assessments to inform stigma intervention design. Methods: We adapted the Stop TB Partnership stigma assessment tool, and trained three peer research associates (PRAs; two TB survivors, one community health worker) to conduct surveys with people with TB (PWTB, n=93) and caregivers of children with TB (n=24) at peri-urban and rural clinic sites in Khayelitsha, Western Cape, and Hammanskraal, Gauteng Province, South Africa. We descriptively analyzed responses for each stigma experience (anticipated, internal, and enacted), calculated stigma scores, and undertook generalized linear regression analysis. We further conducted 25 in-depth interviews with PWTB (n=22) and caregivers TB (n=3). Using inductive thematic analysis, we performed open coding to identify emergent themes, and selective coding to identify relevant quotes. Themes were organised using the CARD (Constraints, Actions, Risks and Desires) framework. Results: Surveys revealed at least one-third of PWTB and one-quarter of caregivers report experiences of anticipated, internal, and/or enacted stigma, which affected engagement throughout the care cascade. Participants in rural locations (compared to peri-urban) reported higher anticipated, internal, and enacted stigma (ß-coefficient 0.72, 0.71, and 0.74). Interview participants described how stigma experiences, including HIV intersectional stigma, act individually and in concert as key constraints to impede care, and underpins failure to disclose a TB diagnosis, isolation, and exclusion. Stigma resilience arose through understanding that TB can affect anyone and should not diminish self-worth. Risks of stigma, driven by fears related to disease severity and infectiousness, led to care disengagement and impaired psychological wellbeing. Participants desired counselling, identifying a specific role for TB survivors as peer counsellors, and community education. Conclusions: Stigma is highly prevalent and negatively impacts TB care and the well-being of PWTB, warranting its assessment as a primary outcome indicator rather than intermediary contributor to poor cascade outcomes. Multicomponent stigma interventions are needed, including counselling for PWTB and education for health workers and communities. Such interventions must incorporate contextual differences based on gender or setting, and use survivor-guided messaging to foster stigma resilience.

'TB is a disease which hides in the body': Qualitative data on conceptualisations of tuberculosis recurrence among patients in Zambia and South Africa.

The WHO estimates 58 million people experienced one or more TB disease episodes between 2000 and 2018. These 'former TB patients' are at greater risk of future TB infection and death than TB naïve people. Additionally, former TB patients experience social, psychological, and physiological difficulties after microbiological cure. Drawing on semi-structured interviews collected with 28 people from communities in Zambia (n = 8) and South Africa (n = 2) between October 2018 and March 2019, we describe their perceptions of having two or more TB episodes. Utilising a discursive analytic approach, we interrogated how participants conceptualise their risk of disease recurrence. Despite being surprised by subsequent TB episodes, participants utilised their bodily experiences of TB signs and symptoms alongside their experiential knowledge of health systems processes to procure timely diagnosis and care. Yet, many participants were unable to resume social and economic participation. Experiences of multiple TB episodes and correlating social, economic, and physiological vulnerabilities, challenged participants biomedical understanding of TBs curability. Through notions of dirt and 'staining', participants conceptualise TB as a sinister, malicious presence they are bound to encounter time and again. Health providers should discuss the risk of TB recurrence with patients and promote prevention, early detection, and diagnosis of TB disease.

Practical and psychosocial challenges faced by caregivers influence the acceptability of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis preventive therapy for young children.

Drug-resistant (DR) strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb) are increasingly recognised as a threat to global tuberculosis (TB) control efforts. Identifying people with DR-TB exposure/ infection and providing TB preventive therapy (TPT) is a public health priority. TB guidelines advise the evaluation of household contacts of newly diagnosed TB cases, with the provision of TPT to vulnerable populations, including young children (<5 years). Many children become infected with TB through exposure in their household. Levofloxacin is under evaluation as TPT in children exposed to M. tb strains with resistance to rifampicin and isoniazid (multidrug-resistant TB; MDR-TB). Prior to opening a phase 3 prevention trial in children <5 years exposed to MDR-TB, the pharmacokinetics and safety of a novel formulation of levofloxacin given daily was evaluated as part of a lead-in study. We conducted an exploratory qualitative study of 10 caregivers' experiences of administering this formulation. We explored how the acceptability of levofloxacin as TPT is shaped by the broader impacts of MDR-TB on the overall psychological, social, and financial wellbeing of caregivers, many of whom also had experienced MDR-TB. Caregivers reported that the novel levofloxacin formulation was acceptable. However, caregivers described significant psychosocial challenges in the process of incorporating TPT administration to their children into their daily lives, including financial instability, withdrawal of social support and stigma. When caregivers themselves were sick, these challenges became even more acute. Although new child-friendly formulations can ameliorate some of the pragmatic challenges related to TPT preparation and administration, the overall psychosocial burden on caregivers responsible for administering TPT remains a major determinant of effective MDR-TB prevention in children.

Analysing interventions designed to reduce tuberculosis-related stigma: A scoping review.

Stigma is a critical barrier for TB care delivery; yet data on stigma reduction interventions is limited. This review maps the available literature on TB stigma reduction interventions, using the Health Stigma and Discrimination framework and an implementation analysis to identify research gaps and inform intervention design. Using search terms for TB and stigma, we systematically searched PubMed, EMBASE and Web of Science. Two independent reviewers screened all abstracts, full-texts, extracted data, conducted a quality assessment, and assessed implementation. Results were categorized by socio-ecological level, then sub-categorized by the stigma driver or manifestation targeted. After screening 1865 articles, we extracted data from nine. Three studies were implemented at the individual and interpersonal level using a combination of TB clubs and interpersonal support to target internal and anticipated stigma among persons with TB. Two studies were implemented at the interpersonal level using counselling or a video based informational tool delivered to households to reduce stigma drivers and manifestations. Three studies were implemented at the organizational level, targeting drivers of stigma among healthcare workers (HW) and enacted stigma among HWs. One study was implemented at the community level using an educational campaign for community members. Stakeholder consultation emphasized the importance of policy level interventions and education on the universality of risk to destigmatize TB. Review findings suggest that internal and anticipated TB stigma may be addressed effectively with interventions targeted towards individuals using counselling or support groups. In contrast, enacted TB stigma may be better addressed with information-based interventions implemented at the organizational or community level. Policy level interventions were absent but identified as critical by stakeholders. Implementation barriers included the lack of high-quality training and integration with mental health services. Three key gaps must be addressed in future research: consistent stigma definitions, standardized stigma measurement, and measurement of implementation outcomes.

Toward a conceptual framework of the acceptability of tuberculosis treatment in children using a theory generative approach.

To describe an early-stage holistic framework towards evaluating factors that impact the overall acceptability of TB treatment along the TB care cascade in children. We developed a conceptual framework utilising a theory generative approach. Domains were developed through review of existing definitions and analysis of existing qualitative data undertaken in acceptability studies of TB treatment in children. Clarity of domain definitions was achieved through iterative refinement among the research team. Three domains, each comprising several dimensions, were identified to holistically evaluate treatment acceptability: (1) usability, which involves the alignment between the requirements of treatment use and caregivers' and children's ability to integrate TB treatment into their everyday routines, (2) receptivity, which describes the end-user's perception and expectations of treatment and its actual use, and (3) integration, which describes the relationship between available health services and caregivers/children's capacity to make use of those services. Our framework addresses the gaps in current research which do not account for the influence of caregivers' and children's contexts on TB treatment uptake and overall acceptability. This approach may support the development of more standard, holistic measures to improve TB treatment delivery and experiences and future research in children.

Understanding the biology, morbidity and social contexts of adolescent tuberculosis: a prospective observational cohort study protocol (Teen TB).

INTRODUCTION: A considerable burden of the tuberculosis (TB) epidemic is found in adolescents. The reasons for increased susceptibility to TB infection and higher incidence of TB disease in adolescence, compared with the 5-10 years old age group, are incompletely understood. Despite the pressing clinical and public health need to better understand and address adolescent TB, research in this field remains limited. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Teen TB is an ongoing prospective observational cohort study that aims to better understand the biology, morbidity and social context of adolescent TB. The study plans to recruit 50 adolescents (10-19 years old) with newly diagnosed microbiologically confirmed pulmonary TB disease and 50 TB-exposed controls without evidence of TB disease in Cape Town, South Africa, which is highly endemic for TB. At baseline, cases and controls will undergo a detailed clinical evaluation, chest imaging, respiratory function assessments and blood collection for viral coinfections, inflammatory cytokines and pubertal hormone testing. At 2 weeks, 2 months and 12 months, TB disease cases will undergo further chest imaging and additional lung function testing to explore the patterns of respiratory abnormalities. At week 2, cases will complete a multicomponent quantitative questionnaire about psychological and social impacts on their experiences and longitudinal, in-depth qualitative data will be collected from a nested subsample of 20 cases and their families. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study protocol has received ethical approval from the Stellenbosch University Health Research Ethics Committee (N19/10/148). The study findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications, academic conferences and formal presentations to health professionals. Results will also be made available to participants and caregivers.

The act of telling: South African women's narratives of HIV status disclosure to intimate partners in the HPTN 071 (PopART) HIV prevention trial.

BACKGROUND: Public health programming often frames HIV status disclosure as a means to negotiate condom- and abstinence-based prevention or to involve intimate partners in HIV care to garner treatment adherence support. HIV treatment can be used to ensure viral suppression and prevent onward transmission, which provides strong evidence to encourage disclosure. The ideological shift towards HIV treatment as prevention is expected to facilitate disclosure. PURPOSE: There is a lack of research on how the scale-up of universal HIV testing and treatment influences disclosure practices in high burden settings. In this manuscript, we aim to address this gap. METHODS: To this end, we conducted a two-phased narrative performative analysis of the disclosure scripts of 15 women living with HIV in three communities of Western Cape, South Africa where the HPTN 071 (PopART) HIV prevention trial implemented a universal HIV testing and treatment model as part of the intervention. The women were part of a larger cohort nested in the trial. We use Goffman's dramaturgical metaphor, which understands social interactions as 'performances' by 'actors' (people) guided by 'scripts' (anticipated dialogues/interactions), to explore how women living with HIV manage their status disclosure. CONCLUSION: We describe how these women perform HIV status disclosure (or deliberate non-disclosure) to retain, reaffirm or redefine existing social scripts with partners. Their performances reveal priorities other than those imagined by public health programmes driving HIV disclosure (or non-disclosure): establishing trust, resenting betrayal and ensuring self-preservation while simultaneously (re)constructing self-identity. None of the women engaged with the concept of treatment as prevention in their disclosure narratives, either to facilitate disclosure or to 'justify' non-disclosure. HIV prevention, in general, and treatment adherence support were rarely mentioned as a reason for disclosure. To date, there has been a missed opportunity to ease and support disclosure in health programmes by tapping into existing social scripts, impeding potential patient and public health benefits of universal HIV testing and treatment.

Implementing 'universal' access to antiretroviral treatment in South Africa: a scoping review on research priorities.

'Universal' access to antiretroviral treatment (ART) has become the global standard for treating people living with HIV and achieving epidemic control; yet, findings from numerous 'test and treat' trials and implementation studies in sub-Saharan Africa suggest that bringing 'universal' access to ART to scale is more complex than anticipated. Using South Africa as a case example, we describe the research priorities and foci in the literature on expanded ART access. To do so, we adapted Arksey and O'Malley's six-stage scoping review framework to describe the peer-reviewed literature and opinion pieces on expanding access to ART in South Africa between 2000 and 2017. Data collection included systematic searches of two databases and hand-searching of a sub-sample of reference lists. We used an adapted socio-ecological thematic framework to categorize data according to where it located the challenges and opportunities of expanded ART eligibility: individual/client, health worker-client relationship, clinic/community context, health systems infrastructure and/or policy context. We included 194 research articles and 23 opinion pieces, of 1512 identified, addressing expanded ART access in South Africa. The peer-reviewed literature focused on the individual and health systems infrastructure; opinion pieces focused on changing roles of individuals, communities and health services implementers. We contextualized our findings through a consultative process with a group of researchers, HIV clinicians and programme managers to consider critical knowledge gaps. Unlike the published literature, the consultative process offered particular insights into the importance of researching and intervening in the relational aspects of HIV service delivery as South Africa's HIV programme expands. An overwhelming focus on individual and health systems infrastructure factors in the published literature on expanded ART access in South Africa may skew understanding of HIV programme shortfalls away from the relational aspects of HIV services delivery and delay progress with finding ways to leverage non-medical modalities for achieving HIV epidemic control.

Community-based health workers implementing universal access to HIV testing and treatment: lessons from South Africa and Zambia-HPTN 071 (PopART).

The global expansion of HIV testing, prevention and treatment services is necessary to achieve HIV epidemic control and promote individual and population health benefits for people living with HIV (PLHIV) in sub-Saharan Africa. Community-based health workers (CHWs) could play a key role in supporting implementation at scale. In the HPTN 071 (PopART) trial in Zambia and South Africa, a cadre of 737 study-specific CHWs, working closely with government-employed CHW, were deployed to deliver a 'universal' door-to-door HIV prevention package, including an annual offer of HIV testing and referral services for all households in 14 study communities. We conducted a process evaluation using qualitative and quantitative data collected during the trial (2013-2018) to document the implementation of the CHW intervention in practice. We focused on the recruitment, retention, training and support of CHWs, as they delivered study-specific services. We then used these descriptions to: (i) analyse the fidelity to design of the delivery of the intervention package, and (ii) suggest key insights for the transferability of the intervention to other settings. The data included baseline quantitative data collected with the study-specific CHWs (2014-2018); and qualitative data from key informant interviews with study management (n = 91), observations of CHW training events (n = 12) and annual observations of and group discussions (GD) with intervention staff (n = 68). We show that it was feasible for newly recruited CHWs to implement the PopART intervention with good fidelity, supporting the interpretation of the trial outcome findings. This was despite some challenges in managing service quality and CHW retention in the early years of the programme. We suggest that by prioritizing the adoption of key elements of the in-home HIV services delivery intervention model-including training, emotional support to workers, monitoring and appropriate remuneration for CHWs-these services could be successfully transferred to new settings.

Opportunities for Mobile App-Based Adherence Support for Children With Tuberculosis in South Africa.

Tuberculosis is the number one infectious cause of death globally. Young children, generally those younger than 5 years, are at the highest risk of progressing from tuberculosis infection to tuberculosis disease and of developing the most severe forms of tuberculosis. Most current tuberculosis drug formulations have poor acceptability among children and require consistent adherence for prolonged periods of time. These challenges complicate children's adherence to treatment and caregivers' daily administration of the drugs. Rapid developments in mobile technologies and apps present opportunities for using widely available technology to support national tuberculosis programs and patient treatment adherence. Pilot studies have demonstrated that mobile apps are a feasible and acceptable means of enhancing children's treatment adherence for other chronic conditions. Despite this, no mobile apps that aim to promote adherence to tuberculosis treatment have been developed for children. In this paper, we draw on our experiences carrying out research in clinical pediatric tuberculosis studies in South Africa. We present hypothetical scenarios of children's adherence to tuberculosis medication to suggest priorities for behavioral and educational strategies that a mobile app could incorporate to address some of the adherence support gaps faced by children diagnosed with tuberculosis. We argue that a mobile app has the potential to lessen some of the negative experiences that children associate with taking tuberculosis treatment and to facilitate a more positive treatment adherence experience for children and their caregivers.

Retention in care and factors critical for effectively implementing antiretroviral adherence clubs in a rural district in South Africa.

INTRODUCTION: Differentiated models of care that include referral of antiretroviral treatment (ART) clients to adherence clubs are an important strategy to help clinics manage increased number of clients living with HIV in resource-constrained settings. This study reported on (i) clinical outcomes among ART clients attending community-based adherence clubs and (ii) experiences of adherence clubs and perceptions of factors key to successful adherence club implementation among clients and healthcare workers. METHODS: A retrospective cohort analysis of routine data and a descriptive analysis of data collected through self-administered surveys completed by clients and healthcare workers were completed. Clients starting ART at the study clinic, between January 2014 and December 2015, were included in the cohort analysis and followed up until December 2016. The survey data were collected from August to September 2017. The primary outcome for the cohort analysis was a comparison of loss to follow-up (LTFU) between clients staying in clinic care and those referred to adherence clubs. Survey data reported on client experiences of and healthcare worker perceptions of adherence club care. RESULTS: Cohort analysis reported on 465 participants, median baseline CD4 count 374 (IQR: 234 to 532) cells/µl and median follow-up time 20.7 (IQR 14.1 to 27.7) months. Overall, 202 (43.4%) participants were referred to an adherence club. LTFU was lower in those attending an adherence club (aHR =0.25, 95% CI: 0.11 to 0.56). This finding was confirmed on analysis restricted to those eligible for adherence club referral (aHR =0.28, 95% CI: 0.12 to 0.65). Factors highlighted as associated with successful adherence club implementation included: (i) referral of stable clients to the club, (ii) an ideal club size of ≥20 members, (iii) club services led by a counsellor (iv) using churches or community halls as venues (v) effective communication between all parties, and (vi) timely delivery of prepacked medication. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed good clinical outcomes, positive patient experiences and healthcare worker perceptions of the adherence club model. Factors associated with successful adherence club implementation, highlighted in this study, can be used to guide implementers in the scale-up of adherence club services across varied high-burden settings.