Journal
AIDS AND BEHAVIOR
Volume 23, Issue 4, Pages 908-919Publisher
SPRINGER/PLENUM PUBLISHERS
DOI: 10.1007/s10461-018-2276-1
Keywords
Peer support; HIV; Youth; Homeless; Africa
Funding
- Canadian Institutions of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Public and Population Health, through an Applied Public Health Research Chair (2014-2019)
- CIHR Component 1 HIV Implementation Science Grant [145367]
- American Association of Pediatrics through an I-CATCH Grant
- Lilly Foundation
- President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEP-FAR) through USAID [AID-623-A-12-0001]
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development [R01HD060478]
- Vanier Fellowship
- IDRC PhD Research Grant
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Research suggests a burden of HIV among street-connected youth (SCY) in Kenya. We piloted the use of peer navigators (PNs), individuals of mixed HIV serostatus and with direct experience of being street-connected, to link SCY to HIV testing and care. From January 2015 to October 2017, PNs engaged 781 SCY (585 male, 196 female), median age 16 (IQR 13-20). At initial encounter, 52 (6.6%) were known HIV-positive and 647 (88.8%) agreed to HIV testing. Overall, 63/781 (8.1%) SCY engaged in this program were HIV-positive; 4.6% males and 18.4% females (p<0.001). Of those HIV-positive, 48 (82.8%) initiated ART. As of October 2017, 35 (60.3%) of the HIV-positive SCY were alive and in care. The pilot suggests that PNs were successful in promoting HIV testing, linkage to care and ART initiation. More research is needed to evaluate how to improve ART adherence, viral suppression and retention in care in this population.
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