National Institute for Communicable Disease (NICD)
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NCID) received a grant for $249,794 for a 3-year effort to reduce transmission of viral hepatitis B and C, improve care of the patients through prevention and treatment and assess hepatitis C and HIV co-infection rates in high-risk groups in seven cities throughout South Africa.
Need
Viral hepatitis due to Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a global public health problem leading to cirrhosis and liver cancer and eventually causing disability and death. The disease poses serious challenges as most of the infected persons are unaware of their chronic carrier status. High-risk groups, namely, sex workers (SWs), men who have sex with men (MSM) and people who use drugs (PWUD), including people who inject drugs (PWID) are at increased risk for viral hepatitis through sexual contact, and PWID face additional risks from the use of contaminated needles. HBV and HCV is more efficiently transmitted through sexual and injecting routes than HIV.
Project
The National Institute for Communicable Disease is a South African governmental agency tasked with providing support and expertise for programs and policies in efforts to address communicable diseases regionally. The project is designed to establish a HCV and HIV surveillance system for MSM, SWs and PWUD/ID in South Africa as well as to describe prevalence of HBV and HCV in public and private health care settings in South Africa. The exploration of point of care HCV modalities will also be assessed to determine the most cost efficient model for national sustainability efforts.
Partners
- TB/HIV Care
- Anova Health Institute
- OUT LGBT Well-Being
- University of Cape Town (UCT) Division of Hepatology