FPD has worked in the HIV field for more than two decades now promoting community awareness, strengthening healthcare services, and building public health capacity. This is done through a combination of direct service delivery, technical assistance, and research. Our research portfolio includes a broad spectrum of research types including clinical trials, investigator-driven research, and operational evaluations. We conduct projects at the Ndevana Clinical Research Site (CRS) in the Eastern Cape, within primary healthcare facilities and communities across South Africa. All projects are conducted in close partnership with the Department of Health, non-governmental and community-based organisations, and other relevant stakeholders. Community advisory boards are in place.
South Africa has the largest HIV epidemic in the world with almost 8 million people living with HIV
Read More. Despite the massive progress in providing antiretroviral therapy (ART), and reduction in new HIV infections, the incidence of new HIV infections remains high. Adolescent girls and young women (AGYW), pregnant women and key populations are disproportionally affected. Therefore, in addition to the ART programme, a strong HIV prevention programme is imperative to achieve HIV epidemic control.
The FPD research unit has a portfolio of projects in the HIV prevention field with strong focus on HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). This includes evaluation of novel options for HIV prevention,
such as long-acting injectable lenacapavir, at our
Ndevana CRS, in the PURPOSE-1 and PURPOSE-2 trials.
These trials build on previous studies of community-based HIV testing campaigns and community-based models of out-of-facility delivery of HIV PrEP (‘Community PrEP study’).
Furthermore, we were conducting the ‘PrEP Choice’ project which aimed to better understand PrEP preferences, choices and options for PrEP delivery models for pregnant and breastfeeding women.
This is really important because there is paucity of data of PrEP in pregnancy, HIV incidence is high, and newly acquired HIV infection during pregnancy is responsible for a large proportion of the newborns with HIV.
The SOAR projects acknowledge the importance of stigma and disclosure of HIV status for ART adherence and outcomes in men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender people. In this project, the FPD team have adapted a behavioural intervention to local and cultural context. Acceptability and feasibility of online delivery of the intervention was assessed. At present, we are evaluation the intervention in a pilot randomized-controlled trial, with the first results expected to be available in 2024.