Project Accept: …Community Mobilization, Mobile Testing, Same-Day Results, and Post-Test Support for HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa and Thailand

UCSF is one site of an NIMH-funded multi-site, international efficacy trial of a behavioral intervention to reduce the incidence of HIV infection. Collaborating international sites teamed with US sites are: Zimbabwe (S. Morin, UCSF PI), South Africa (T. Coates, UCLA PI), Tanzania (M. Sweat, Johns Hopkins University PI) and Thailand (D. Celantano, Johns Hopkins University PI). In this prevention trial, 34 communities in Africa (Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and South Africa) and 14 communities in Thailand will be randomized to either a community-based HIV voluntary counseling and testing (CBVCT) intervention or clinic-based standard VCT (SVCT). The intervention has three major strategies:

1. To make VCT more available in community settings
2. To engage the community through outreach and community mobilization
3. To provide post-test support services

These strategies are designed to change community norms and reduce risk for HIV among all community members, irrespective of whether they participated directly in the intervention. Thus, we plan a community-level sampling approach as opposed to a cohort design to evaluate outcomes.