Researchers Partner with World Bank and South African Government.

The World Bank has awarded $925,000 for research led by Matthew Fox, associate professor of epidemiology and global health.

The award supports evaluation of initiatives for treatment adherence and retention of patients with HIV in South Africa.

The initiatives, part of South Africa’s National Department of Health National Adherence Guidelines for Chronic Diseases, will be implemented at 12 primary health clinics and community health centers, and compared to 12 clinics not implementing the initiatives.

The initiatives are fast track initiation counseling for antiretroviral therapy, enhanced adherence counseling, adherence clubs for patients on HIV treatment, decentralized medication delivery, and early tracing of all patients who miss an appointment by two weeks.

While studying the HIV initiatives, the researchers will also evaluate the current state of adherence and retention of patients with tuberculosis and non-communicable chronic diseases.

“We already know that retention in HIV care is poor and we need to do a better job,” Fox says. “TB we know a little bit about. Diabetes and hypertension, we know very little about, and therefore we need a good baseline before we can figure out what we need to do about it.”

Sydney Rosen, research professor of global health, is a co-investigator. The researchers are working with counterparts at the University of the Witwatersrand’s Health Economics and Epidemiology Research Office (HE2RO), the South African National Department of Health, and the World Bank.