Home Assessment and Initiation of Antiretroviral Therapy for HIV in Malawi
- Conditions
- HIV
- Registration Number
- NCT01414413
- Lead Sponsor
- Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
- Brief Summary
Despite increasing availability of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV in high prevalence countries, the majority of people with HIV infection still initiate treatment at an advanced stage of disease. This leads to a high risk of death soon after HIV diagnosis. Prompt HIV diagnosis is, therefore, necessary for both individual and public health benefit and is being strongly promoted as international and national policy in Malawi. However timely HIV diagnosis may not in itself be sufficient to ensure ART initiation: this is reflected by the relatively high proportion of individuals who defer treatment-seeking for months or years following diagnosis of HIV.
Here the researchers investigate the extent to which home assessment and initiation of ART adds to the effectiveness of a home-based HIV testing and counseling strategy, using entry to, adherence with, and retention in HIV care as the outcome of interest.
- Detailed Description
Not available
Recruitment & Eligibility
- Status
- COMPLETED
- Sex
- All
- Target Recruitment
- 16660
- Usual resident of an eligible cluster
- Has had a positive HIV test (regardless of source) and requests facilitated access to HIV care from the resident community counsellor
- Confirmatory HIV test is positive
- No previous ART treatment, or less than one month's treatment in the past (including PMTCT interventions) and not currently receiving HIV care
- No contraindications to receiving ART (as defined by Integrated Management of Adult Illnesses, HIV Department, WHO)
- No acute danger signs requiring hospital referral
- Aged 18 years or older
- Written or witnessed informed consent to participate in the study
- Not a usual resident of an eligible cluster
- No previous HIV test, or HIV infection not confirmed by home-based ART nurse
- Already receiving ART, or has had more than 1 month's treatment in the past
- Known contraindication to firstline ART (known hypersensitivity, renal failure, chronic liver disease)
- Acute danger sign present (as defined by Integrated Management of Adult Illnesses, HIV Department, WHO)
- Age younger than 18 years
- Not willing to accept home-based ART initiation
- Suspected or confirmed TB disease will not be an exclusion criteria, but will be an indication for deferral, until completion of the screening algorithm, with initiation of TB treatment if indicated.
Study & Design
- Study Type
- INTERVENTIONAL
- Study Design
- PARALLEL
- Primary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method ART Initiation First six months following introduction of home-based HIV testing Comparison between study arms of the proportion of all resident adults (per capita, and irrespective of HIV status or participation in home-based HIV testing intervention) who initiate ART during the first 6 months of the home-based HIV-testing intervention.
- Secondary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Adult Mortality The first 6-months following availability of home-based HIV testing Comparison between study arms of non-traumatic and HIV-related adult (15-49) mortality rates during the first 6 months of the HIV-testing intervention
Uptake of Home-based HIV Testing The first 6-months following home assessment and initiation of ART being made available Comparison between study arms of the proportion of all resident adults who request HIV testing (either as standard HTC or as supervised HIV self-testing) from the resident community counsellor during the first year of the study.
Reporting of HIV-positive Results The first 6-months following availability of home-based HIV testing Comparison of the proportion of all cluster adults confiding HIV-positive results to the resident community counsellor between study arms during the 1-year study period
Loss to Retention The first 6-months following availability of home-based HIV testing Comparison between study arms of the proportion of participants who initiate ART during the first 6-months of the HIV-testing intervention who are lost to retention within 6 months after initiating ART 6-months
Adherence to ART First 6-months following availability of home-based HIV testing Comparison between study arms of the proportion of HIV-positive participants who are adherent to ART during the 1-year study period
Trial Locations
- Locations (1)
Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme
🇲🇼Blantyre, Chichiri, Malawi
Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme🇲🇼Blantyre, Chichiri, Malawi