Transmission Reduction Intervention Project

Summary

Half or more of HIV transmission events may occur within the period of high infectivity (and often high risk behavior) that can last 11 months or more after a person is initially infected. Unfortunately, neither test-and-treat intervention methods nor Acute HIV Infection projects have found effective ways to intervene against transmission during this risky "recent infection" period. The investigators seek to develop effective intervention techniques against HIV transmission during the recent infection period using a combination of injection-, sexual- and social-network-based contact tracing methods; community alerts in the networks and venues of recent infectees; and the logic of going "up" and "down" infection chains.

The investigators first Aim is to develop and evaluate ways to locate "seeds," defined as drug users and other people who have recently been infected. The investigators second Aim targets members of seeds' networks and people who attend their venues. The investigators will test them for acute and for recent infection, and alert them to the probability that their networks contain highly-infectious members so they should reduce their risk and transmission behaviors for the next several months to minimize their chances of getting infected. This may also reduce transmission by untested people with recent infection. Community, network and venue education about the need and value of supporting those with recent infection should reduce stigma. The investigators third Aim is to reduce HIV transmission and to develop new ways to evaluate "prevention for positives" generally as well as The investigators own success in reducing transmission.

The investigators will do this using a combination of follow-up interviews and testing, including of viral loads; phylogenetic techniques; and discrete event simulation modeling to assess The investigators effectiveness.

Conditions

• HIV

Interventions

OTHER

Assays

May vary across sites

OTHER

HIV medical care

This will be expedited and assisted via community outreach for Recents and Acutes

OTHER

Social network and venue tracing

This is described in Arms 1 and 2

OTHER

Community alerts

When we find recently or acutely infected participants, we will issue community alerts as described in Arm descriptions

OTHER

Community education

Throughout the study we will educate affected communities about recent and acute HIV infection and about the importance of avoiding stigma

BEHAVIORAL

HIV counseling

As part of HIV testing, we will provide participants with standard counseling

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

  collaborator NIH

• National Development and Research Institutes, Inc.

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Samuel R Friedman, PhD · National Development and Research Institutes, Inc.

Study Design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2013-04-30

Primary Completion

2017-05-31

Completion

2017-07-31

Countries

• United States
• Greece
• Ukraine

Study Locations