RESEARCH: HIV Prevention
Mochudi Prevention Project
BHP041
Principal Investigator: Max Essex
Funding: NIH
Objectives:
A community based study of a comprehensive package of HIV prevention interventions to 15–49-year-olds in Mochudi, a village of 39,000 in southern Botswana with an HIV prevalence of 25% in adults. This combination of interventions includes (1) home based HIV testing; (2) education to encourage behavior modification, including condom use; (3) male circumcision; and (4) three-drug HAART for HIV-infected persons with acute infections and/or high viral loads (VL). A key element of this intervention package is to reduce the number of persons with a high viral load in the community, as a high viral load is the most important single risk factor for HIV transmission. Specifically, ART will be offered to eligible persons with a high viral load (VL greater than 50,000 copies/ml) who do not yet already qualify for ART as per Botswana ART guidelines.
Enrollment:
May 2010 - present
| Publications:
Extended High Viremics: A Substantial Fraction of Individuals Maintain High Plasma Viral RNA Levels after Acute HIV-1 Subtype C Infection. AIDS. 25:1515–22 (2011). |