Reaching Mobile Men: a new front in Africa’s HIV prevention efforts
Dr Thomas Nyirenda with the team of the Mobile Men programme.
In much of Africa, HIV prevention research has largely focused on children, pregnant women, young women, and sex workers. While this work is vital, it has left a significant gap: heterosexual men whose mobile work patterns put them at high risk of HIV infection.
To help address this gap, Global Health EDCTP3 is supporting the Mobile Men Programme, an innovative programme implemented at the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) in Mtubatuba, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. During a recent visit, Dr Thomas Nyirenda, Strategic Partnerships & Capacity Development Manager and Head of Africa Office, EDCTP Association, observed how the programme is working with truck drivers, mini-bus taxi drivers, migrant farm workers, and other mobile men.
The study compares two HIV prevention approaches. One group of men receives long-acting injectable cabotegravir (CAB-LA), while another group is offered on-demand oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Recruitment also extends beyond KwaZulu-Natal, with additional sites at the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation (DTHF) in Cape Town and the Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute in Entebbe, where fishermen are included as a key population.
After two years of implementation, researchers and partners are eagerly awaiting the results. The findings are expected to offer valuable lessons on how best to protect mobile men from HIV and could help take Africa’s HIV prevention efforts to a new level.