The Risk of HIV Acquisition Among Traditional Healers in South Africa: Implementing Novel Strategies to Improve Protective Behaviors

In South Africa there are an estimated 200,000 traditional healers providing health services. Like allopathic health care workers (HCW), traditional healers are exposed to bloodborne pathogens through the widespread practice of traditional "injections", where healers perform dozens of subcutaneous incisions to rub herbs directly into the bloodied skin. 98 percent of healers perform these treatments; they experience an average of 1,500 blood exposures over the course of their lifetime. This high frequency of blood exposure, coupled with treating high-risk patients, can result in an increased risk of patient-to-healer disease transmission if personal protective equipment (PPE) are not used. Healers in South Africa who reported patient blood touched their skin had 2.59 times higher risk of being HIV-positive than those with no exposure (59% vs. 25%); overall healers have a substantially higher HIV prevalence (30%) than the general population (19%).

Free PPE are made available at local health facilities, but most healers have low levels of literacy, limited ability to assess blood exposure risk, and have no PPE training. Given these limitations, use of PPE during treatments is inconsistent. A small proportion of healers employ PPE appropriately during each treatment; these "early adopter" healers suggest PPE use is sustainable in rural sub-Saharan Africa if a healer has the necessary skills, risk assessment training, and encouragement. This proposal compares two implementation strategies to increase PPE use during procedures and decrease the number of injections performed: (1) HCW led education on risk of blood exposure and development of PPE donning, use and doffing skills through a week-long training followed by 3 educational outreach visits at the healer's place of practice vs. (2) "Early adopter" healer and HCW co-led week-long training followed by 3 educational outreach visits. The investigators hypothesize that the strategy of engaging "early adopter" healers as trainers will lead to more accurate participant risk assessments, increase participant self-efficacy, and lead to more consistent use of PPE during treatments.

The Specific Aims of this study are to:

1. Adapt PPE training using the "ADAPT-ITT" model;
2. Compare fidelity of PPE training between the HCW-only team versus the healer + HCW team;
3. Compare the effects of two implementation strategies on healer exposure to patient blood.

This potentially high-impact intervention is well-suited to the R21 mechanism. While some allopathic providers may recommend an outright ban on the procedure, patients and healers have strongly believed in the efficacy of these treatments for hundreds of years- they are not likely to stop because of a Department of Health recommendation. It is up healthcare workers and governments to overcome their own biases to develop an effective strategy to prevent HIV seroconversion. The team of South African and U.S. investigators has a proven record of HIV research success and specific experience successfully engaging traditional healers, HIV prevention studies, as well as, dissemination and implementation research.