Reviewer’s report
Title: 
Women’s sexual scripting in the context of universal access to
antiretroviral treatment – findings from the HPTN 071 (PopART) trial in South
Africa
Version: 
0 
Date: 
09 Apr 2021
Reviewer's report:
It is useful to gain an understanding of sexual decision-making in the context of
HIV prevention strategies. The main difficulty with the paper is that the authors
set the context for the paper in part as an 
investigation whether the effect of ART
on reducing HIV transmission and the associated U=U message (undetectable
HIV = Untransmittable HIV) affects sexual behavior among women in South
Africa 
The study took place in South Africa in 2016-2018 before the U=U
campaign was well-established even in the USA. So it seems potentially
misleading to report that the women did not see treatment as a prevention
strategy at that time if the implication is that they would have been exposed to
the concept of U=U. 
The authors found that the women did not view HIV
treatment as a prevention strategy, but it is unlikely that they would have done so
in 2016-2018. 
The authors may have missed an opportunity to ask the
participants about whether they believed that ART was effective and
consequently that the being infected was not the death sentence it was
previously. The paper had some strengths as it reported the participants
perspectives on their sexual behavior and obtained insights into misinformation
believed by the women that could inform strategies on how to communicate
accurate information.
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