Motivating people living with HIV to initiate antiretroviral treatment outside national guidelines in three clinics in the HPTN 071 (PopART) trial, South Africa.

: The HPTN 071 (PopART) trial implemented universal test and treat (UTT) in three clinics in the Western Cape, South Africa at a time when antiretroviral treatment (ART) was only offered by CD4 threshold and World Health Organization clinical staging. This required a concomitant shift in the way health workers communicated ART initiation messages. We provide insight into front-line ART initiation communication pre-national policy shift.

Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Introduction in South Africa: Implementation Lessons From an Evaluation of the National School-Based Vaccination Campaign.

Background: In April 2014, a national school-based human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination program was rolled out in South Africa, targeting Grade 4 girls aged ≥9 years. A bivalent HPV vaccine with a 2-dose (6 months apart) schedule was used. At the request of the National Department of Health (NDoH), we conducted an external assessment of the first-dose phase of the vaccination program to evaluate program coverage and vaccine safety and identify factors that influenced implementation.

HIV drug resistance early warning indicators in cohorts of individuals starting antiretroviral therapy between 2004 and 2009: World Health Organization global report from 50 countries.

The World Health Organization developed a set of human immunodeficiency virus drug resistance (HIVDR) early warning indicators (EWIs) to assess antiretroviral therapy clinic and program factors associated with HIVDR. EWIs are monitored by abstracting data routinely recorded in clinical records, and the results enable clinics and program managers to identify problems that should be addressed to minimize preventable emergence of HIVDR in clinic populations. As of June 2011, 50 countries monitored EWIs, covering 131 686 patients initiating antiretroviral treatment between 2004 and 2009 at 2107 clinics.

Are countries using global fund support to implement HIV drug resistance surveillance? A review of funded HIV grants.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) is the largest funder of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention and treatment programs worldwide. Since 2002, the Global Fund has encouraged grant recipients to implement drug resistance surveillance (DRS) as part of treatment programs. We reviewed documentation of 147 grants funded in 2004-2008 (funding rounds 4-8) to assess grantees' use of funds to support HIV DRS.