Impressões sobre o teste rápido para o HIV entre usuários de drogas injetáveis no Brasil

Comparisons of New HIV Rapid Test Kit Performance

The development of rapid point-of-care tests for HIV infection has greatly reduced the problem of failure to return for test results. Test manufacturers are now developing test kits that can test for two or even three diseases at the same time, multiple-disease test kits. This study reports on the sensitivity and specificity of HIV tests when included on multi-disease test kits. 1029 participants were recruited from 2011 to 2014. HIV test kit sensitivities ranged from 91.1 to 100%, and the HIV test kit specificities from 99.5 to 100%. The two HIV kits which used oral fluid instead of blood performed well.

[Fortalezas y fragilidades en la implantación de la prueba rápida para VIH en un centro especializado en Brasil]

OBJECTIVE

To analyze how health professionals and health service users assess counseling on Rapid HIV test, as well as its implementation, which started in Brazil in 2010, focusing on positive aspects, barriers, and limitations, and analyzing possible meanings that are given to STD and HIV/AIDS.

METHOD

Qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive research. Semi-structured interviews were administered to 27 service users and 14 health care professionals; a thematic analysis of the interviews was performed. The study was carried out in one of the first Counseling and Testing Centers (CTC) designed to implement Rapid HIV tests in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

RESULTS

Positive aspects of Rapid HIV testing implementation included a reduced waiting time for obtaining the test results, better assistance provision, an increase in the number of service hours, personalized pre- and post-tests, and better prepared health care professionals regarding health care during counseling. Limitations included beliefs about the effectiveness of Rapid HIV testing, physical structure, bad publicity on this technology, and poor health care capacity. Likewise, there are some who oppose this type of test, since they believe rapid tests may not be effective.

CONCLUSIONS

Integrating the perspectives of health care professionals and users on this policy will favor future rapid test implementations in other CTCs, and increase health care access possibilities.

Challenges in the delivery of public HIV testing and counselling (HTC) in Douala, Cameroon: providers perspectives and implications on quality of HTC services

Background

The Cameroon government has made HIV testing and counselling (HTC) a priority in its HIV/AIDS strategic plan. However, there is a dearth of literature on the perspectives of providers on the quality of HTC services. The aim of this study was to explore challenges in the provision of HTC services and their implications on quality of HTC services in Douala’s district hospitals.

Methods

Two primary data collection methods supported by the Donabedian’s model of healthcare were used to explain the challenges in the provision of HTC services and their implications on quality of HTC services. This consisted of semi-structured individual interviews with 6 nurses and 16 lay counsellors and a non-participant observation of the physical environment for HTC by site. The study sites were the prevention and voluntary testing and counselling centre (PVTCC) of the six district hospitals of the city of Douala.

Results

The study reveals concerns about confidentiality and privacy during the counselling sessions due to inadequate and limited space. An absence of consent, even verbal, was reported in one PVTCC. There is no specific accredited training curriculum that leads to a formal registration as a PVTCC staff, and some lay counsellors work without training. Lay counsellors carry the burden of HIV counselling, but the majority of them work for many years without remuneration and recognition. Another quality challenge is the high workload in the district hospitals’ lab, which leads to long waiting times for HIV test results, thus contributing to failure to return for results.

Conclusion

The findings of this study highlighted some issues such as lack of adequate space and equipment for HIV testing and counselling that hinder the quality of HTC services and should challenge the health authorities of Cameroon on the need to reorganize HTC services and create a national HIV quality assurance program.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12914-017-0118-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Returning for HIV Test Results: A Systematic Review of Barriers and Facilitators

This systematic review aims to identify factors that facilitate or hinder the return for HIV test results. Four electronic databases were searched. Two independent reviewers selected eligible publications based on inclusion/exclusion criteria. Quantitative studies published since 1985 were included. Thirty-six studies were included in the final review. Individual level barriers included sociodemographic characteristics, such as being a male, of young age and low education level, risk behaviours such as injecting drugs, having multiple sexual partners, and psychosocial factors. Older age, higher education level, being a woman, having high self-esteem, having coping skills, and holding insurance coverage were identified as facilitators. Interpersonal barriers and facilitators were linked to risk behaviours of sexual partners. Contextual barriers included essentially the HIV testing center and its characteristics. This review identified the most important factors that need to be addressed to ensure that people return for their HIV test results.

Failure to Return for Posttest Counseling and HIV Test Results at the Prevention and Voluntary Testing and Counseling Centers of Douala, Cameroon: An Evaluation of a Routine Five-Year Program

This study examined the magnitude and time trends in failure to return (FTR) rates and the relation between FTR and individual characteristics, tests procedures, waiting period for the results, and HIV test results among people who were screened for HIV in the prevention and voluntary testing and counseling centers (PVTCCs) of six district hospitals of the city of Douala in Cameroon, between January 2009 and December 2013. It was a retrospective analysis of medical records. Among the 32,020 analyzed records, the failure to return (FTR) rate was 14.3%. Overall, people aged 50 years and over, those tested between 2011 and 2012, and those tested in the PVTCC of Bonassama were less likely to return for their results. Significant factors associated with FTR included being a housewife, having a positive/undetermined/requiring confirmation result, and provider-initiated testing and counseling (PITC). There was an increasing trend for FTR in the PVTCCs of Bonassama, New-Bell, Nylon, and Cité des Palmiers. HIV testing and counseling services in Douala district hospitals must be reorganized such that individuals tested for HIV receive their results on the same day of the test. Also counselors need to better alert clients concerning the importance of returning for their test results.

Assessing the HIV-1 Epidemic in Brazilian Drug Users: A Molecular Epidemiology Approach

Person who inject illicit substances have an important role in HIV-1 blood and sexual transmission and together with person who uses heavy non-injecting drugs may have less than optimal adherence to anti-retroviral treatment and eventually could transmit resistant HIV variants. Unfortunately, molecular biology data on such key population remain fragmentary in most low and middle-income countries. The aim of the present study was to assess HIV infection rates, evaluate HIV-1 genetic diversity, drug resistance, and to identify HIV transmission clusters in heavy drug users (DUs). For this purpose, DUs were recruited in the context of a Respondent-Driven Sampling (RDS) study in different Brazilian cities during 2009. Overall, 2,812 individuals were tested for HIV, and 168 (6%) of them were positive, of which 19 (11.3%) were classified as recent seroconverters, corresponding to an estimated incidence rate of 1.58%/year (95% CI 0.92–2.43%). Neighbor joining phylogenetic trees from env and pol regions and bootscan analyses were employed to subtype the virus from132 HIV-1-infected individuals. HIV-1 subtype B was prevalent in most of the cities under analysis, followed by BF recombinants (9%-35%). HIV-1 subtype C was the most prevalent in Curitiba (46%) and Itajaí (86%) and was also detected in Brasília (9%) and Campo Grande (20%). Pure HIV-1F infections were detected in Rio de Janeiro (9%), Recife (6%), Salvador (6%) and Brasília (9%). Clusters of HIV transmission were assessed by Maximum likelihood analyses and were cross-compared with the RDS network structure. Drug resistance mutations were verified in 12.2% of DUs. Our findings reinforce the importance of the permanent HIV-1 surveillance in distinct Brazilian cities due to viral resistance and increasing subtype heterogeneity all over Brazil, with relevant implications in terms of treatment monitoring, prophylaxis and vaccine development.

Testagem anti-HIV: indagações sobre a expansão da oferta sob a perspectiva do acesso e da construção da demanda

Reconhecendo a relevância do incremento na oferta de testagem anti-HIV, problematiza-se a concepção de oferta à luz dos conceitos de acesso e demanda. O mero foco na oferta da testagem mostra-se insuficiente frente à complexidade e dinamicidade do processo, desde a identificação da sua necessidade até a realização do teste e seus possíveis desdobramentos, incluindo o tratamento. Ademais, o modelo de campanha para incentivo à testagem não se coaduna com proposições que valorizem o protagonismo social dos cidadãos nem atendam às especificidades da disseminação da epidemia de AIDS. Postula-se a importância de desenvolver estudos que focalizem mais detidamente a demanda por testagem anti-HIV.

Preference changes of adult outpatients for giving saliva, urine and blood for clinical testing after actual sample collection

PURPOSE

Patients' preferences of the type of sample collections for clinical testing are currently unknown. The aims of this study were: (1) to assess patients' preferences of three types of samples for clinical testing (saliva, urine and blood) both before and after collection and (2) to assess whether prior experiences with collection of saliva impacted patients responses.

METHODS

Adult outpatients underwent collection of one sample each of saliva, urine and blood. Patients' perceptions of comfort, convenience and easiness were assessed in pre-collection and post-collection questionnaires.

RESULTS

Post-collection, patients' endorsement of saliva as being the "most comfortable" and "most convenient" significantly declined (pre vs. post, 61.5% vs. 37.5% and 73.1% vs. 42.3%). However, saliva was still endorsed as the "most convenient" post-collection (compared to urine 33.7% and blood 24.0%). Although not statistically significant, the proportion of patients who changed their response in terms of what sample was "easiest to collect at home" was considerably higher in the group with vs. without prior experience giving saliva (54.6% vs. 32.6%, p=0.19 Fisher's exact test).

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, saliva remained as the most highly preferred sample to donate despite a decline in patients' preferences of saliva donation after sample collection. The results of the study are promising for future widespread patient acceptance of saliva as a diagnostic fluid.