Resources

This is part of a series of reports discussing the activities, milestones, and outcomes of the Protection Options for Women Product Development Partnership (2011-2015) dedicated to expanding access to the Woman’s Condom. This report focuses on our work shaping and strengthening markets for the Woman’s Condom in South Africa. In March 2016, the Woman’s Condom received WHO/UNFPA prequalification, an important step toward increasing global access.

This brief summarizes a 2013 health systems assessment in South Africa that examined the potential for SILCS introduction in the country. It explores the perceived need for this method, how it could be integrated into the family planning system, and challenges that would need to be addressed prior to introduction.

This brief provides a description of PATH's work in South Africa. Projects focus on advancing health technologies for mothers and children, preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV, caring for caregivers of orphans and vulnerable children, advocating for sound microbicides research in Africa, supporting midwives who work on HIV and AIDS, and strengthening tuberculosis infection prevention and control.

In 2006 and 2007, PATH assessed the acceptability, perception of safety, effect on waste management, and cost implications of using retractable syringes in immunization and curative settings in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. The research included focus group discussions and individual interviews, observations, an anonymous questionnaire, and a spreadsheet-based model to estimate costs, benefits, and cost-effectiveness.

South Africa bears the world’s largest burden of HIV with over 6.4 million people living with the virus. The South African government’s response to HIV has yielded remarkable results in recent years; over 13 million South Africans tested in a 2012 campaign and over 2 million people are on antiretroviral treatment. However, with an HIV & AIDS and STI National Strategic Plan aiming to get 80 percent of the population to know their HIV status by 2016, activists and public health policy makers argue that non-invasive HIV self-testing should be incorporated into the country HIV Counseling and Testing [HCT] portfolios. In-depth qualitative interviews (N = 12) with key stakeholders were conducted from June to July 2013 in South Africa. These included two government officials, four non-governmental stakeholders, two donors, three academic researchers, and one international stakeholder. All stakeholders were involved in HIV prevention and treatment and influenced HCT policy and research in South Africa and beyond. The interviews explored: interest in HIV self-testing; potential distribution channels for HIV self-tests to target groups; perception of requirements for diagnostic technologies that would be most amenable to HIV self-testing and opinions on barriers and opportunities for HIV-linkage to care after receiving positive test results. While there is currently no HIV self-testing policy in South Africa, and several barriers exist, participants in the study expressed enthusiasm and willingness for scale-up and urgent need for further research, planning, establishment of HIV Self-testing policy and programming to complement existing facility-based and community-based HIV testing systems. Introduction of HIV self-testing could have far-reaching positive effects on holistic HIV testing uptake, giving people autonomy to decide which approach they want to use for HIV testing, early diagnosis, treatment and care for HIV particularly among hard-to reach groups, including men.