HIV Incidence Provincial Surveillance System (HIPSS): A longitudinal study to monitor HIV incidence trends in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Overview
To establish population-level HIV incidence Provincial Surveillance System (HIPSS) platform in a household-based representative sample of men and women.
Objectives
The primary objective of the study is to measure HIV-1 incidence at two time points in a household-based representative sample of men and women. The secondary objectives of this study are to investigate the association of behavioural and psychosocial factors and exposure to HIV prevention programmes with new HIV infections
Methodological approach
HIPSS will establish two sequential household representative cross sectional surveys of 10 000 individuals in each survey. Consenting procedures, baseline assessments and cohort accrual and enrolment are scheduled to take 6 to 9 months. From these surveys HIV incidence will be measured with the laboratory TRIs and RITA algorithms. Each sequential cohort of approximately 6400 HIV uninfected individuals will be followed up at month 12 and assessed for HIV infection. This study is still in the data collection phase.