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COVID-19 (2022 Deadline)
Understanding the impact of COVID-19 and the national lockdown restrictions on sex worker uptake of health services in four sites in Gauteng, South Africa: A retrospective record review
PI: Khuthadzo Hlongwane, Perinatal HIV Research Unit (PHRU), a Division of the University of the Witwatersrand and co-PI Jenny Coetze, African Potential Foundation
U.S. Partner: Glenda Gray, South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and PHRU
Project Dates: November 1, 2022 - December 31, 2023
Project Overview:
 | | According to Jenny Coetze, storytelling is her favorite way to connect donors and stakeholders with the work they do in communities. In May 2023 during USAID, NAS, and DSI representatives' visit at PHRU, Jenny took the delegation through Diepkloof Hostel in Soweto. Photo credit: Lina Stankute Alexander |
HIV prevalence amongst sex workers in South Africa is amongst the highest globally, with national estimates suggesting that more than two-thirds of female sex workers were HIV-positive before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the start of the pandemic, and following the first detected case in South Africa, there has been concern that the restrictions implemented to curb the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus could potentially have inhibited easy access to healthcare spaces and may have impacted access to antiretroviral treatment (ART) and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in controlling the HIV epidemic. HIV epidemic control, specifically amongst key populations such as sex workers, is vital to reducing its incidence and prevalence in the country. Therefore, the objective of this research team’s concept is to understand the impact that COVID-19 and the subsequent national lockdown restrictions have had on the uptake of health services offered by sex work programs. They are also interested in exploring how these restrictions have affected the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets in Gauteng, South Africa.
In collaboration with their programmatic partner (Wits RHI) they will conduct a retrospective record review of routinely collected programmatic data from four sex work sites located across three districts in Gauteng, South Africa. The collected data will cover two time periods: the year preceding the start of the national lockdown (1 March 2019 – 29 February 2020 – pre- COVID-19 period), to two years after the start of the lockdown (1 March 2020 – 28 February 2022 – COVID-19 lockdown period).
The U.S. Government-funded partner on the project, Prof. Glenda Gray (President of the South African Medical Research Council and principal investigator of the NIH-funded PHRU-Setshaba Clinical Trials Unit), will provide technical input as a specialist in the field of COVID-19 and HIV in South Africa. Additionally, their work will help inform Prof. Gray’s work in understanding how programmatic services, and specifically HIV treatment and care amongst key populations, have been impacted in South Africa. The PI and her team anticipate that this project will highlight the gaps in service utilization amongst sex workers in Gauteng. The results will be disseminated with relevant stakeholder through presentations, conferences, and publications.
This project is jointly supported by the South Africa Department of Science and Innovation.
Project updates
During April-June 2023 reporting period, the project team hosted USAID and NAS representatives. This site visit included a community outreach visit where female sex workers reside and work. Following the outreach visit, the team presented to the group the background of the key population programs and preliminary results of the PEER project. Since the results presented during the site visit were preliminary, PHRU and the WRHI data teams have been meeting regularly after the site visit to finalize the data extraction and analysis. The analysis is underway and estimated to be finalized by the end of September.
In terms of outreach, the team attended the South African AIDS conference in June 2023 in Durban and discussed the project with other researchers that are interested in key population projects.
Back to PEER COVID-19 Grant Recipients
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