HIV Combination Prevention Program
3ie, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is supporting studies and other work on HIV combination prevention to maximize the useful knowledge and policy implications from these interventions.
Overview of activities
3ie has supported five activities through this program.
Universal test and treat and the HIV epidemic in rural South Africa: a phase 4, open-label, community cluster randomized trial: 3ie funded and provided technical guidance to the ANRS 12249 Treatment as Prevention (TasP) trial. This trial assessed if a universal HIV testing and treatment program would be effective at reducing HIV incidence at the population level in South Africa.
Effect of Universal Testing and Treatment on HIV Incidence – HPTN 071 (PopART): 3ie funded and provided technical guidance to the HPTN 071 PopART trial. This study assessed if a combination prevention program, which included a universal HIV testing and treatment component, would reduce HIV incidence at the population level in South Africa and Zambia.
Partnership with UNAIDS: 3ie is funding UNAIDS to develop technical standards for monitoring HIV prevention programs that can be used by the global community. The final product will be translated into French, Spanish, and Russian.
Partnership with Africa Health Research Institute: 3ie is funding the Africa Health Research Institute to conduct a study in South Africa that is using a human-centered approach to integrate antiretroviral therapy-based HIV prevention with other health services to improve adolescents’ and young adults’ sexual and reproductive health. The overall goal of this study is to reduce HIV incidence and improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes.
Replication studies: As part of this program, 3ie initially funded five replication studies through the Replication program on HIV prevention (Replication Window 3). At the request of the Gates Foundation, 3ie funded three additional replications:
- Treatment as prevention: a replication study on early antiretroviral therapy initiation and HIV-1 acquisition: Authors applied the methods described in the original paper to conduct a pure replication. They then used additional robustness checks to test the strength of the conclusions of the original paper.
- A Replication Study of “Effect of Universal Testing and Treatment on HIV Incidence – HPTN 071 (PopART)”: In this study, the authors are replicating the landmark HPTN 071 PopART HIV combination prevention trial to examine the robustness of the original findings through a series of pre-specified analyses.
- Replication of ‘Universal test and treat and the HIV epidemic in rural South Africa: a phase 4, open-label, community cluster randomized trial’: In this study, the authors are replicating the landmark ANRS 12249 TasP trial to examine the robustness of the original findings through a series of pre-specified analyses.
