Quality and turnaround times of viral load monitoring under prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV Option B+ in six South African districts with a high antenatal HIV burden.

BACKGROUND: Barriers to monitoring maternal HIV viral load (VL) and achieving 90% viral suppression during pregnancy and breastfeeding still need to be understood in South Africa (SA). OBJECTIVES: To measure quality of VL care and turnaround times (TATs) for returning VL results to women enrolled in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) programme in primary healthcare facilities. METHODS: Data were obtained from a 2018 cross-sectional evaluation of the PMTCT Option B+ programme in six SA districts with high antenatal and infant HIV prevalence. Quality of VL care was measured as the proportion of clients reporting that results were explained to them. TATs for VL results were calculated using dates abstracted from four to five randomly selected facility-based client records to report overall facility 'short TAT' (≥80% of records with TAT ≤7 days). Logistical regression and logit-based risk difference statistics were used. RESULTS: Achieving overall short TAT was uncommon. Only 50% of facilities in one rural district, zero in one urban metro district and 9 - 38% in other districts had short TAT. The significant difference between districts was influenced by the duration of keeping results in facilities after receipt from the laboratory. Expected quality of VL care received ranged between 66% and 85%. Client-related factors significantly associated with low quality of care, observed in two urban districts and one rural district, included lower education, recent initiation of antiretroviral treatment and experiencing barriers to clinic visits. Experiencing clinic visit barriers was also negatively associated with short TATs. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate above-average quality of care and delayed return of results to PMTCT clients. Context-specific interventions are needed to shorten TATs.

A community-based study to examine the effect of a youth HIV prevention programme in South Africa.

The aim of this study was to examine the relationships among changes in self-reported HIV and sexually transmitted infection (STI) and exposure to the loveLife youth HIV prevention programmes. A cross-sectional population-based household survey was conducted using a multistage stratified cluster sampling approach. The total sample included 3123 participants, aged 18-24, 54.6% men and 45.4% women, from four provinces (Eastern Cape, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga). Results indicate a self-reported STI past-year prevalence of 2.6%, experienced genital sores or ulcers in the past year prevalence of 3.9% and an HIV self-reported prevalence of 7.4%. In multivariable analyses it was found that knowing a person living with HIV and a person who has died from AIDS, lower education, having had two or more sexual partners in the past year, not having talked with a partner about condom use, difficulty of getting condoms and not having been male circumcised were associated with having been diagnosed with an STI in the past 12 months and/or HIV. Face-to-face and multimedia youth HIV prevention programmes had limited effect.