Thol'Impilo: Bringing People Into Care

Background:

Mortality remains high among individuals with HIV in South Africa largely due to low CD4 at initiation of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) or failure to initiate cART altogether. The problem of advanced HIV at the time of entry-into-care persists despite increases in CD4 count initiation thresholds and higher CD4 counts among individuals testing HIV positive at HIV counselling and testing services (HCT). A reason for the discord between CD4 at HCT and CD4 at cART initiation is a failure to effectively link people who test positive into HIV care; less than half of individuals testing HIV positive enter HIV care within 3-6 month of HIV diagnosis. However, not only do these delays increase HIV associated mortality, delays from testing positive to entry-into-care for HIV also reduces the ability of test-and-treat strategies to reduce HIV transmission through HIV treatment.

Study Design:

Thol'impilo is an open (non-masked) individually-randomized implementation science evaluation of the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of combinations of three strategies to increase timely entry-into-care for HIV compared to the standard of care. Participants are randomly assigned to one of four arms to increase timely entry into care: (1) standard of care, (2) point-of-care CD4 and transport assistance, (3) point-of-care CD4 and care facilitator and (4) point-of-care CD4 alone.

Sample size:

The study aims to enrol 2500 participants (i.e. 650 participants per arm).

Setting:

The study is built onto the current community-based HIV Counselling and Testing (HCT) services. The HCT units serve peri-urban townships and informal settlements, rural farm workers, and both urban and rural communities.

Inclusion criteria

• aged 18 years and older, diagnosed HIV positive at enrolling mobile HCT units, no prior self-reported registration at a health care facility for HIV care, provide consent for participation

Exclusion criteria

• self-reported prior or current registration as an HIV patient at a healthcare facility