Does antiretroviral therapy use affect the accuracy of HIV rapid diagnostic assays? Experience from a demographic health and surveillance site in rural South Africa

Siedner, Mark J.; Baisley, Kathy; Koole, Olivier; Mpofana, Innocentia B.; Ording-Jespersen, Gregory; Matthews, Philippa; Herbst, Kobus; Smit, Theresa; Pillay, Deenan

doi:10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2020.115031

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 31 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In 2016, the World Health Organisation (WHO) responded to the concerns of the low testing rate by publishing the first global guidelines on HIV self-testing, in which HIV self-testing was recommended as an additional method besides the current conventional testing approaches [5]. It was suggested that HIV self-testing technology has superior specificity [6,7], and that it may improve HIV testing in vulnerable populations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact and Spillover Effects of HIV Self-Test Technology on HIV Outcomes of the South African Working Class

Mostert

2022

Venereology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: South Africa recently adopted HIV self-test technology (HIVST) to improve HIV testing and encourage earlier treatment initiation in working populations with a low uptake of conventional testing approaches. This study investigates the impact of HIVST on testing outcomes, focusing on both frequent and infrequent working-class testers. The paper also examines the spillover effect of HIVST on antiretroviral (ART) treatment initiation. To identify these effects, the author focused on South Africa and exploited the HIVST distribution data of 6259 beneficiaries of HIVST. Methods: The author used a two-stage least-squared model to quantify the impact of the HIVST on these vulnerable working populations. Results: The results show that HIVST fosters a 27.6% higher testing uptake in infrequently testing workers compared to frequently testing workers, and that the uptake of HIVST is 11.5% higher in rural regions than in urban settings, as well as 14.5% more prominent in infrequent male testers than infrequent female testers. Notably, the positive effects of HIVST are also confirmed by the presence of positive spillover effects in workers screening positive for HIV. The paper documents a 7.6% increase in ART initiation in infrequent testers. Conclusions: There is a case for adopting this technology to improve the uptake of HIV testing and ART initiation as the country seeks to attain the UNAIDS 95–95–95 targets by 2030.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%