Marcus, Rebecca;
C, Pike;
Gill, K;
Smith, P;
Rouhani, S;
Mendelsohn, A;
Mendel, E;
... Bekker, LG; + view all
(2023)
Acceptability, feasibility and cost of point of care testing for sexually transmitted infections among South African adolescents where syndromic management is standard of care.
BMC Health Services Research
, 23
(1)
, Article 1078. 10.1186/s12913-023-10068-8.
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Young people (YP) in southern Africa are at substantial risk of HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Despite the epidemiological and biological link between STIs and HIV transmission and acquisition, infections such as Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) remain widely undiagnosed. Syndromic STI management is the standard of care in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) despite a high prevalence of asymptomatic infections. We conducted an observational study to explore the acceptability, feasibility, and cost of a STI test-and-treat service for YP in Cape Town. METHODS: YP attending a mobile clinic (MC) and a youth centre clinic (YC) were offered STI screening. Urine testing for CT and NG using a 90-min molecular point-of-care (POC) test on the GeneXpert platform was conducted and treatment provided. Data were collated on demographics, sexual behaviour, presence of symptoms, uptake of same-day treatment, prevalence of CT/NG, and service acceptability. RESULTS: Three hundred sixty six participants were enrolled (median age 20, 83% female).57% (209/366) of participants tested positive for either CT (126/366, 34%) or NG (57/366, 16%) or co-infection (26/366, 7%). Clinical symptoms were a poor predictor of GeneXpert diagnosed CT or NG, with a sensitivity of 46.8% and 54.0% for CT and NG respectively. Although half of participants initially chose to receive same day results and treatment, only a third waited for results on the day. The majority of participants (91%) rated the service highly via a post-visit acceptability questionnaire. CONCLUSION: Curable STIs are highly prevalent in this population. STI screening using POC testing was feasible and acceptability was high. The study provides further impetus for moving policy beyond syndromic management of STIs in South Africa.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Acceptability, feasibility and cost of point of care testing for sexually transmitted infections among South African adolescents where syndromic management is standard of care |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1186/s12913-023-10068-8 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-10068-8 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecom‑ mons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
| Keywords: | Adolescents, Costs, STIs, South Africa, Adolescent, Female, Humans, Young Adult, Adult, Male, South Africa, Feasibility Studies, Standard of Care, Gonorrhea, HIV Infections, Chlamydia Infections, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Point-of-Care Testing, Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Prevalence |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute for Global Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute for Global Health > Infection and Population Health |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10179055 |
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