Universal Test and Connect for HIV Service Delivery in South Africa and Baltimore

Not yet recruiting

• Conditions: Emergency Department; Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis; South Africa; Human Immunodeficiency Virus
• Interventions: Diagnostic Test: HIV testing

• Registration Number: NCT06408142
• Lead Sponsor: Johns Hopkins University

Brief Summary

The goal of this study is to determine how many patients with HIV or at high risk of getting HIV attend the Emergency Department (ED) in South Africa (SA) and Baltimore City (BC). the investigators will integrate HIV assessment in the ED and see how many people who would be a candidate for a drug that prevents HIV (PrEP). Universal test and connect (UTC) is a strategy that universally tests all patients and connects patients to long-term care, whether HIV positive or negative, including referrals for PrEP. The investigator's goal is to use UTC across two busy 24-hr EDs in Cape Town, SA and two busy 24-hr EDs in Baltimore City, USA.

Detailed Description

The overarching goal of this proposal is to deliver comprehensive HIV services for patients with HIV or at high risk of HIV acquisition attending the Emergency Department (ED) in South Africa (SA) and Baltimore City (BC). The investigators seek to integrate HIV assessment in the ED and define the opportunity for delivering biomedical HIV prevention interventions in this setting. EDs provide care to high volumes of adults who may not otherwise interact with the health system, and thus are an important testing and linkage to care venue. Access to both preventative (pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis) and therapeutic (ART (antiretroviral) initiation) HIV services from the ED can expand care to otherwise missed populations and aligns directly with a differentiated service delivery model that is integrated within existing, sustainable service delivery models.

Universal test and connect (UTC) is a holistic strategy that endeavors to accelerate the race to reduce new HIV infections and deaths from AIDS-related illnesses. Trials in Africa have shown that within three years of implementing a community-wide UTC program, HIV incidence decreased by 20-30%, and AIDS-related mortality decreased by 20% . This strategy resulted in increased diagnosis among men and provided preventative resources to young women. Given ED patients' vulnerabilities and lack of access to routine services, UTC is a new and needed tool to provide comprehensive ED-based HIV services. Currently, testing is haphazard, and while occupational exposure may be addressed, preventative strategies for other high-risk exposures are not.

The investigators seek to demonstrate that the ED has a high volume of patients that could potentially benefit from HIV services (i.e., HIV testing, ART initiation, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)/post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) initiation, and linkage to care) and that HIV service delivery in this venue is necessary and feasible to integrate. Furthermore, the investigators seek to explore the missed opportunity to deliver PrEP in the ED, thus expanding PrEP access to all segments of the population. The investigators propose to demonstrate that PrEP initiation in the ED is an important investment to providing holistic care for ED patients and that providers will be accepting of ED-based PrEP delivery if HIV testing and PrEP initiation can be effectively integrated into clinical workflow.

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2024-05-06
• Study First Submitted QC: 2024-05-06
• Study First Posted: 2024-05-09
• Status Verified: 2025-07
• Last Update Submitted: 2025-07-01
• Last Update Posted: 2025-07-02
• Study Start: 2025-10-01
• Primary Completion: 2027-12-01
• Study Completion: 2027-12-01

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 2000

Inclusion Criteria

• Nurses, physicians, or advanced practice providers (APPs) who work regularly in the Emergency Department at one of the clinical sites.
• Consent to a recorded in-depth interview and/or Normalizing Process Theory (NPT) survey

Exclusion Criteria

• Providers who have already been interviewed (if working at both clinical sites)
• Providers who do not consent to an interview or a survey.

Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Emergency Department Patients	HIV testing	Universal Test and Connect: universal screening with HIV testing followed by demographic/clinical information to determine number of patients who would be eligible for HIV PrEP

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
The proportion of potentially PrEP eligible patients in the ED	Baseline	Baseline survey, chart abstraction, and use of South Africa National Department of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) Eligibility Guidelines

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
The number of potentially PrEP eligible patients with tuberculosis or acute HIV	Baseline	Lab testing obtained through medical record
The number of potentially PrEP eligible patients with renal dysfunction	Baseline	Lab testing obtained through medical record
The number of potentially PrEP eligible patients who report baseline difficulty to engage in follow up required to be on PrEP	Baseline	Social Determinants of Health Survey including financial insecurity (1-5), food insecurity (two questions, one 1-4 and the other 1-5), transportation needs (yes vs no as need for transportation within past 12 months), physical activity level (days per week of exercise and average exercise time per exercise session), stress (1-5), social connections (1-5), substance use (number of drinks or use off illicit substances used per week), intimate partner violence (Number of instances in past 12 months). Scored on subscales, parentheses indicating Likert scores with lower scores indicating worse outcome
Acceptability of ED PrEP to ED Providers	after implementation of UTC