Village-based Refill of ART After Same-day ART Start vs Clinic-based ART Refill for HIV-positive Individuals Not on ART During Home-based HIV Testing (Part B of GET ON Research Project)
Phase: PHASE4
Conditions: HIV/AIDS
Sponsor: Niklaus Labhardt

 
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THIS DOCUMENT IS CONFIDENTIAL  
 
Clinical Study Protocol 
 
- 
 
VIllage-based refill of ART after same-day ART start vs clinic-based 
ART refill for HIV-positive individuals not on ART during home-based 
HIV testing – a cluster randomized controlled trial in rural Lesotho 
 
 
abbreviated title: 
VIBRA study („VIllage-Based Refill of ART”) 
 
 
PART B  
of GET ON research project 
 
 
This study is embedded in the overall research project called GET ON (“GETing tOwards Ninety”) project 
 
 
 
Protocol Version Number 
6 
Document Date 
20.04.2018 
Principal Investigator 
Niklaus Daniel Labhardt 
Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, 
Socinstrasse 57, 4002 Basel, Switzerland 
Protocol authors (so far) 
AA, FT, FV, JM, NDL, TIL, TRG 
 
 
The information contained in this document is confidential. It is intended solely for the 
Investigators, potential Investigators, consultants, or applicable independent ethics committees. It 
is understood that this information will not be disclosed to others without prior written authorisation 
from the sponsor, except where required by applicable local laws. 
 
 
 
 
Signature PI: ______________________ 
 
Date: 20.04.2018 
 
 

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I. List of investigators 
Status in the study 
Name 
Institutional/organizational affiliations 
Principal Investigator  
Niklaus Daniel Labhardt, 
MD, MIH 
Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute; 
n.labhardt@swisstph.ch; +41 79 870 18 59 
Co-Investigators  
 
 
- 
Coordinator of 
study implemen-
tation 
Josephine Muhairwe, MD, 
MPH 
SolidarMed Lesotho; Country Coordinator; 
j.muhairwe@solidarmed.ch, +26628325172 
- 
Study physician 
Bienvenu Lengo Nsakala, 
MD 
SolidarMed Lesotho; b.nsakala@solidarmed.ch; 
+266 59355461 
- 
Local Principal 
Investigator; 
Study physician 
Alain Amstutz, MSc 
Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute;  
alain.amstutz@swisstph.ch; +41 79 489 94 48 / +266 
58604300 
- 
Local Deputy 
Principal Investi-
gator; Commu-
nity ART Nurse 
Thabo Ishmael Lejone, RN, 
MIH 
SolidarMed Lesotho; Research Manager;  
t.lejone@solidarmed.ch; +266 62000584 
- 
Statistician 
Tracy Renée Glass, PhD 
Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute; 
tracy.glass@swisstph.ch  
- 
Community ART 
Nurse 
Lefu Khesa, PN 
SolidarMed Lesotho; khesalefu@yahoo.com; 
+266 56425205 
- 
Laboratory  
expertise 
Thomas Klimkait, PhD 
Prof. 
Department of Biomedicine – Haus Petersplatz, Uni-
versity of Basel, Switzerland;                     
    
thomas.klimkait@unibas.ch 
- 
Study Chair 
Manuel Battegay, MD 
Prof.  
Infectious Diseases & Hospital Epidemiology, Univer-
sity Hospital Basel, University of Basel, Switzerland; 
manuel.battegay@usb.ch  
- 
Laboratory tech-
nologist 
Katleho Tlali, MLS 
District Laboratory Services Butha-Buthe, Lesotho; 
k.tlali@solidarmed.ch 
 
II. List of other persons/institutions involved and acknowledged 
 
III. Remarks 
1) A list of all other involved staff (lay counsellors, campaign organizers, village health workers) will only be availa-
ble at the start of the study and is not feasible to include at this stage, because it is more than 100 people. They 
will all receive a specific training and the study personnel who enrols patients will get an introduction into GCP 
(without certificates). 
2) This is an investigator-initiated trial. The Principal Investigator, the Swiss TPH respectively, acts as Sponsor. 
3) This study protocol will be registered on clinicaltrials.gov, the registration number will be provided at a later 
stage 
4) According to Swiss lab (ClinO, Art. 19, 20, App 3, 1.1) this is a Category A trial 
5) Conflict of Interest: All authors declare that they have no competing interests. 
 
Name 
Institutional/organizational affiliations 
Lebohang Sao, MD 
District Health Management Team Butha-Buthe, lebohangchere@gmail.com; 
+266 58847542 
Kyaw Thin, MD, DCH, MSc 
Research Coordination Unit, Ministry of Health of Lesotho; dr.kyaw-
thin@gmail.com; +266 22226317 
Fiona Vanobberghen, PhD 
Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute; fiona.vanobberghen@swisstph.ch 
Fabrizio Tediosi, MSc, PHD 
Health Systems Research & Dynamical Modelling Unit, Department of Epidemiol-
ogy and Public Health, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute; 
fabrizio.tediosi@swisstph.ch  
Monitoring Institution 
Clinical Operations Unit (COU), Swiss TPH, Basel, Switzerland 

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IV. The “Towards 90-90-90” research consortium 
 
This research protocol has been developed in collaboration with the “Towards 90-90-90 in Butha-Buthe” 
research consortium.  
The project with the full title Improving the HIV care cascade in rural Lesotho – Towards 90-90-90: A research 
collaboration with the Ministry of Health entails operational and clinical research aiming at achieving the 90-
90-90 targets in Butha-Buthe and generating evidence on innovative approaches for Lesotho and similar 
settings. The five institutions that are part of this consortium are introduced below: 
1. District Health Management Team (DHMT) of Butha-Buthe and Mokhotlong, Lesotho: DHMT has the 
responsibility for the practical implementation of all activities. It ensures the coordination of the pro-
posed study with other district activities to avoid any negative interference with routine health care 
activities within the district. The project was set up in collaboration with Dr Lebohang Sao, District Health 
Manager of Butha-Buthe, and Dr Kabelo Matjeane, District Health Manager of Mokhotlong. 
2. Ministry of Health of Lesotho: The Research Coordination Unit (RCU) is the Unit responsible for research 
at the Ministry of Health with extensive experience in supporting the conduct of country-wide surveys 
and in monitoring studies conducted in Lesotho. The RCU will oversee the implementation of the study, 
including compliance with the national and ethical standards. The person responsible at RCU is the Unit’s 
Head, Dr. Kyaw Thin, who heads the unit since 2008. 
3. Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), Basel, Switzerland: The Swiss TPH has the overall 
scientific responsibility for design, implementation, and analysis of the study. Swiss TPH is an institute 
of the University of Basel with longstanding experience in conducting health projects and studies in Sub-
Saharan Africa. Dr. Niklaus Labhardt is the principal leader of the Towards 90-90-90 project. He has lived 
and worked in Lesotho from 2010-12, has successfully conducted studies and trials in Lesotho and has 
since remained closely connected to the country. He knows the country context very well in terms of 
clinical work, project management and research. Tracy Glass is the co-investigator of the Towards 90-
90-90 project and the principal investigator of HOSENG. She is a biostatistician with 15 years of experi-
ence working in clinical and observational studies in HIV, the last 5 years in resource-limited settings. 
Alain Amstutz is a physician researcher and the local principal investigator. He pursues his PhD in clinical 
HIV research within the research consortium and currently lives in Lesotho. 
4. SolidarMed, Swiss Organization for Health in Africa, Lesotho: SolidarMed is a Swiss not-for-profit or-
ganization, working in Lesotho for over 50 years (www.solidarmed.ch). Of note, SolidarMed is a long-
standing implementing partner of the Ministry of Health in Lesotho, working under a signed Memoran-
dum of Understanding that includes activities related to the project “Towards 90-90-90”. SolidarMed 
has the responsibility to coordinate the proposed project. For implementation of the study SolidarMed 
will provide infrastructure, such as cars and transport, study personnel, and administrative support. Sol-
idarMed will provide substantial additional funds for the proposed project, i.e. it will cover majority of 
cost for routine VL monitoring. The person responsible for the project at SolidarMed is Dr. Josephine 
Muhairwe, Country Director of SolidarMed Lesotho, who has extensive experience in project planning 
and implementation in Sub-Saharan Africa. 
5. Molecular Virology, Department of Biomedicine (DBM), University of Basel, Switzerland: The Molecu-
lar Virology laboratory contributes all critical laboratory expertise to the proposed project. It provides 
training, mentoring and quality control for the virologic analyses conducted at the laboratory of Butha-
Buthe. The person responsible is Prof. Dr. Thomas Klimkait, who for more than 15 years heads an ac-
credited diagnostic laboratory for clinical diagnostics in Basel, Switzerland. He has experience in molec-
ular test development and in establishing and auditing certified laboratories in Switzerland as well as 
Sub-Saharan Africa. 
 
 

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V. Signatures 
 
Principal Investigator and Co-Investigators who sign below have approved the current study protocol version 6, date 20.04.2018, 
and confirm hereby to conduct the project according to the plan, the current version of the World Medical Association Declaration 
of Helsinki and the principles of Good Clinical Practice (GCP). 
 
Principal Investigator 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Co-investigators in Switzerland 
Signature 
 
(electronically signed) 
 
 
12.01.2018 
 
Name  
Tracy Renée Glass 
 
Date of Signature  
Title 
PhD 
Institution 
Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute 
Address 
Socinstrasse 57; 4002 Basel 
Phone 
+41 612848714 
 
Signature 
 
(electronically signed) 
 
 
Basel, Jan. 12, 2018 
 
Name  
Thomas Klimkait 
 
Date of Signature  
Title 
PhD 
Institution 
Molecular Virology, Dept. of Biomedicine - Petersplatz, University of Basel 
Address 
Petersplatz 10, 4009 Basel, Switzerland 
Phone 
+41 612073272 
 
Signature 
 
 
 
(electronically signed) 
 
 
Basel, Jan. 12, 2018 
 
Name  
Manuel Battegay 
 
Date of Signature  
Title 
MD 
Institution 
University Hospital Basel, University of Basel 
Address 
Petersgraben 4, 4031 Basel 
Phone 
+41 612655053 
 
Co-Investigators in Lesotho 
Signature 
 
 
 
(electronically signed) 
 
12.01.2018 
Name  
Josephine Muhairwe 
 
Date of Signature  
Title 
MD, MPH 
Signature 
 
(electronically signed) 
 
 
12.01.2018 
 
Name  
Niklaus Daniel Labhardt 
 
Date of Signature  
Title 
MD, MIH 
Institution 
Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute 
Address 
Socinstrasse 57; 4002 Basel 
Phone 
+41 612848255 

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Institution 
SolidarMed Lesotho 
Address 
Premium House #224, Kingsway, Maseru West 
P.O.Box 0254, Maseru West 105, Lesotho 
Phone 
+266 28325172 
 
Signature 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Name  
Alain Amstutz 
 
Date of Signature  
Title 
MSc 
Institution 
Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute & SolidarMed Lesotho 
Address 
Raubex Camp LHDA, 400 Butha-Buthe, Lesotho 
Phone 
+266 58604300  
 
Signature 
 
 
 
 
 
Name  
Bienvenu Lengo Nsakala 
 
Date of Signature  
Title 
MD 
Institution 
SolidarMed Lesotho 
Address 
Raubex Camp LHDA, 400 Butha-Buthe, Lesotho 
Phone 
+266 59355461 
 
Signature 
 
 
 
 
 
Name  
Thabo Ishmael Lejone 
 
Date of Signature  
Title 
RN,  MIH 
Institution 
SolidarMed Lesotho 
Address 
Raubex Camp LHDA, 400 Butha-Buthe, Lesotho 
Phone 
+266 62000584 
 
Signature 
 
 
 
 
 
Name  
Lefu Khesa 
 
Date of Signature  
Title 
PN 
Institution 
SolidarMed Lesotho 
Address 
Raubex Camp LHDA, 400 Butha-Buthe, Lesotho 
Phone 
+266 63166525 
 
Signature 
 
 
 
 
 
Name  
Katleho Tlali 
 
Date of Signature  
 
Title 
MLS 
Institution 
SolidarMed Lesotho 
Address 
Raubex Camp LHDA, 400 Butha-Buthe, Lesotho 

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Phone 
+266 59501656 
 
VI. Table of Contents 
 
1. 
GENERAL INFORMATION8 
1.1. 
ABBREVIATIONS / GLOSSARY OF TERMS8 
1.2. 
SYNOPSIS10 
2. 
BACKGROUND INFORMATION13 
2.1. 
UNAIDS 90-90-90 TARGETS13 
2.2. 
THE FIRST UNAIDS TARGET13 
2.3. 
THE SECOND AND THIRD UNAIDS TARGETS13 
2.4. 
LESOTHO – A HOTSPOT OF ONGOING HIV TRANSMISSION13 
2.4.1. 
OWN ACCOMPLISHED WORK RELATED TO THE 90-90-90 TARGETS IN LESOTHO14 
2.5. 
VIBRA MODEL AND RATIONAL OF THE PROPOSED STUDY14 
3. 
STUDY OBJECTIVES15 
3.1. 
OVERALL OBJECTIVE15 
3.2. 
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE15 
3.3. 
SECONDARY OBJECTIVES16 
3.4. 
OTHER OBJECTIVES16 
4. 
STUDY SETTING, DESIGN, AND METHODS16 
4.1. 
SETTING16 
4.2. 
DESIGN16 
4.2.1. 
DESIGN OF GET ON PROJECT16 
4.2.2. 
DESIGN OF VIBRA STUDY16 
4.3. 
METHODS17 
4.3.1. 
RANDOMIZATION17 
4.3.2. 
PROCEDURES IN ALL STUDY CLUSTERS17 
4.3.3. 
ELIGIBILITY – CLUSTERS18 
4.3.4. 
ELIGIBILITY – INDIVIDUALS18 
4.3.5. 
VIBRA STUDY GROUPS19 
4.3.5.1. ALL STUDY CLUSTERS: HOME-BASED SAME-DAY ART INITIATION20 
4.3.5.2. INTERVENTION CLUSTERS: VIBRA MODEL22 
4.3.5.2.1. 
VIBRA MODEL, FEATURE 1: VILLAGE-BASED ART VISIT/REFILL22 
4.3.5.2.2. 
VIBRA MODEL, FEATURE 2: SMS INTERVENTION22 
4.3.5.2.3. 
COMMUNITY ART NURSE (CAN)23 
4.3.5.2.4. 
ART PROCUREMENT23 
4.3.5.2.5. 
MODIFICATION OF INTERVENTION23 
4.3.5.3. CONTROL CLUSTERS: STANDARD OF CARE23 
4.3.6. 
VHW – TRAINING AND RESPONSIBILITY23 
4.3.7. 
ASSIGNMENT OF NATIONAL (PRE)ART NUMBERS AND ADHERENCE TO LOCAL HEALTH REG-
ISTERS24 
4.3.8. 
RECRUITMENT24 
4.3.9. 
BLINDING24 
5. 
ENDPOINTS24 
5.1. 
PRIMARY ENDPOINT24 

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5.2. 
SECONDARY ENDPOINTS24 
5.3. 
SAFETY ENDPOINT25 
5.4. 
EXPLORATORY ENDPOINTS25 
6. 
LONG-TERM FOLLOW-UP26 
7. 
BIOMOLECULAR RESEARCH26 
8. 
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH26 
9. 
COST-EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS AND SYSTEM IMPACT EVALUATION27 
10. 
SAMPLE SIZE AND ANALYTIC PLAN28 
10.1. SAMPLE SIZE CALCULATION28 
10.2. ANALYSIS28 
10.2.1. 
PRIMARY ANALYSIS29 
10.2.2. 
SNAPSHOT ANALYSES29 
10.2.3. 
BASELINE CHARACTERISTICS; SECONDARY, SUBGROUP AND SENSITIVITY ANALYSES29 
11. 
DATA COLLECTION AND MANAGEMENT29 
11.1. DATA FORMS, DATA ENTRY, DATA MONITORING, DATA STORAGE, CONFIDENTI-
ALITY29 
11.2. COLLECTION AND STORAGE OF BIOLOGIC MATERIAL30 
11.3. MONITORING AND AUDITING – GET ON PROJECT31 
11.4. DATA AND SAFETY MONITORING COMMITTEE – GET ON PROJECT31 
11.5. ADVERSE EVENTS (AES) AND SERIOUS ADVERSE EVENTS (SAES) – GET ON PRO-
JECT31 
12. 
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS32 
12.1. RESEARCH ETHICS APPROVAL / INFORMED CONSENT / AMENDMENTS32 
12.2. PUBLICATION AND DISSEMINATION POLICY33 
12.3. COMPENSATION33 
12.3.1. 
STUDY PARTICIPANTS33 
12.3.2. 
STUDY PERSONEL33 
13. 
CRITERIA FOR DISCONTINUATION OF TRIAL33 
13.1. DISCONTINUATION OF A PARTICIPANT33 
13.2. DISCONTINUATION OF THE ENTIRE STUDY33 
14. 
FUNDING SOURCES AND ROLE OF THE FUNDING SOURCES34 
15. 
EXPECTED OUTCOMES OF THE STUDY – GET ON PROJECT34 
15.1. BENEFIT / STRENGTHS34 
15.2. CHALLENGES / LIMITATIONS35 
16. 
STUDY TIMELINE36 
17. 
REFERENCES38 
18. 
APPENDIX42 
18.1. TB SCREENING42 
18.2. MEDICAL HISTORY CHECKLIST42 
18.3. PHYSICAL EXAMINATION CHECKLIST43 

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18.4. READINESS ASSESSMENT CHECKLIST43 
18.5. FOLLOW-UP CHECKLIST45 
18.6. TRACKING TOOL49 
18.7. STAFF LIST (INCL. CVS, DIPLOMA, GCP)50 
18.8. INFORMED CONSENT FORMS50 
18.9. CASE REPORT FORM50 
18.10. 
MATERIAL TRANSFER AGREEMENT50 
 
1. GENERAL INFORMATION 
1.1. ABBREVIATIONS / GLOSSARY OF TERMS 
 
3TC 
Lamivudine 
ABC 
Abacavir 
ART 
Antiretroviral Therapy 
AZT 
Zidovudine 
CHAL 
Christian Health Association of Lesotho 
CI 
Confidence Interval 
CAC 
Community Adherence Clubs 
CAG 
Community ART Groups 
CAN 
Community ART Nurse 
COU 
Clinical Operations Unit (CRO of Swiss TPH) 
CrAg 
Cryptococcal Antigen 
CRF 
Case Report Forms 
CTX 
Co-trimoxazole (Trimethoprim-Sulfamethoxazole) 
DALY 
Disability Adjusted Life Years 
DBM 
Department of Biomedicine, University Basel 
DBS 
Dried-Blood-Spot 
DHMT 
District Health Management Team (Lesotho) 
DRM 
Drug Resistance Mutations 
EAC 
Enhanced Adherence Counseling 
EFV 
Efavirenz 
eGFR a.CG 
estimated creatinine glomerular filtration rate according to Cockroft-Gault 
HCG 
Human Chorionic Gonadotropin 
HDL 
High Density Lipoprotein 

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HIV 
Human Immunodeficiency Virus 
HIVST 
HIV Self-Testing 
HTS 
HIV Testing and Services 
ICF 
Informed Consent Form 
ITT 
Intention To Treat 
IPT 
Isoniazide Preventive Therapy 
IRIS 
Immune Reconstitution Inflammatory Syndrome 
LDL 
Low Density Lipoprotein 
LTFU 
Loss-To-Follow-Up 
LMIC 
Low- and Middle-Income Countries 
MATI 
Models for Accelerating Treatment Initiation 
MoH 
Ministry of Health (Lesotho) 
NNRTI 
Non-Nucleoside Reverse-Transcriptase Inhibitors  
PIH 
Partners In Health 
PP 
Per Protocol 
RCU  
Research Coordination Unit (of the Ministry of Health of Lesotho) 
(r) VL 
(regular/routine) Viral Load (Plasma HIV-1 RNA) 
(S) AE 
(Serious) Adverse Events 
SUSAR 
Suspected Unexpected Serious Adverse Reaction 
Swiss TPH 
Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute 
TB 
Tuberculosis 
TDF 
Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate 
UNAIDS 
United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS 
VHW 
Village Health Worker 
VMMC 
Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision 
WHO 
World Health Organization 
 
 
 
 
 

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1.2. SYNOPSIS 
 
study title 
Village-based refill of ART after same-day ART start vs clinic-based ART refill for HIV-positive individuals 
not on ART during home-based HIV testing – a cluster randomized controlled trial in rural Lesotho 
abbreviated title 
VIBRA study („VIllage-Based Refill of ART”) 
background & rational 
By launching the 90-90-90 strategy UNAIDS has shown a way forward in controlling and finally eradi-
cating the deadly AIDS epidemic. The second UNAIDS target – to link and to retain 90% of those diag-
nosed HIV-positive on ART – is even more challenging and often referred to as the Achilles’ heel of the 
90-90-90 strategy. Structural barriers such as the time consuming and expensive (pre-)ART visits and 
subsequent regular drug refill visits seem to be the main impediment for linkage to and retention in 
care, and this challenge is likely to increase with more countries implementing the WHO treat-all ap-
proach. 
 
Same-day ART initiation has shown to significantly improve linkage to care (in a hospital set-
ting as well as during home-based HIV testing campaigns), but is still not reaching the required 90% 
linkage-to-care-rate and retention in care remains a challenge. In order to address the multiple barriers 
in the HIV care cascade, we are convinced that only a multicomponent package of differentiated ser-
vice delivery interventions can be successful. Like different partners, funding agencies and the scientific 
community we see the way forward in further task-shifting and decentralizing care.  
 
Having the longstanding and well-established village health worker (VHW) programme in Le-
sotho in mind, we developed the “VIBRA model” – a differentiated ART care/delivery model, that was 
designed to increase care privacy and minimize clinic-based impediments, but most importantly to 
further reduce structural barriers. The VIBRA model entails an evidence-based intervention (SMS re-
minders) and the main and innovative intervention pillar: the possibility of village-based ART refill 
through the VHW – following same-day, home-based ART initiation. 
aim/objective(s) 
This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of a multicomponent differentiated ART care/delivery model 
(“VIBRA model”) among newly HIV-positive, untreated individuals found during a home-based HIV test-
ing campaign on the 2nd and subsequently 3rd UNAIDS 90-90-90 target. The main pillar of the VIBRA 
model is the village-based ART refill through VHWs following same-day ART initiation. 
study design 
The VIBRA study is linked to a another trial, the HOSENG (HOme-based SElf-testiNG) study. Together, 
HOSENG and VIBRA are called the GET ON (“GETing tOwards Ninety”) research project. The HOSENG 
study, with its home-based HIV testing campaign, provides the recruitment platform for the VIBRA 
study. The reasons for this interlinked design are: a) for potential study participants for VIBRA trial 
(HIV-positive individuals not on ART) are to be recruited during the HOSENG study, b) to allow us to 
assess the entire HIV care cascade in one larger project, and c) because both trials rely on interventions 
involving VHWs, who need to be randomized and specifically trained. Therefore, it is efficient and fea-
sible to run both trials parallel and randomize at one time point. 
 
The VIBRA study is a cluster randomized, parallel-group (1:1:1:1 allocation), open-label, su-
periority, prospective clinical trial. Clusters are stratified by district, size of village, and village access to 
the nearest health facility. 

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major eligibility criteria 
Eligibility criteria clusters:  
1) 
the cluster is clearly confined to the catchment area of one of the study clinics 
2) 
the cluster has at least one registered VHW who is willing to participate and fulfills the following 
criteria: 
a) 
is at least 18 years of age 
b) 
has adequate reading and writing skills 
c) 
successfully passes the training assessment 
3) 
village authority (village chief) is willing to participate in trial 
Eligibility criteria individuals:  
4) 
Individual is a household member of the visited households of the respective clusters 
5) 
Individual is confirmed HIV-positive 
6) 
Individual has never taken ART (ART-naïve) or has stopped ART more than 30 days prior (ART-
defaulters) 
7) 
Individual is ≥10 years old and has a body weight of ≥35kg 
8) 
Individual is not in care for high blood pressure or diabetes (high blood sugar) 
9) 
HIV-positive individual wishes to get care outside the study districts 
intervention and control 
V 
 
VIBRA Control 
(Standard of care) 
VIBRA Intervention 
(Offer of VIBRA model) 
1 
Offer of home-based same-day ART initiation Offer of home-based same-day ART initiation 
2 
Clinic-based ART visit/refill 
Who: Nurse 
Where: Nurse-led health facility 
When: Follow-up interval of max. 3 months 
What: TB screening, Screening for other op-
portunistic infections, Screening for ART-re-
lated toxicities, adherence assessment, assess-
ment whether patient visited any medical facil-
ity since last appointment, addressing basic 
psychosocial problems, ART (+CTX/IPT) dis-
pensing 
(+ dispensing of other medication & WHO stag-
ing) 
Offer of Village-based ART visit/refill 
Who: VHW 
Where: At VHW’s home* 
When: Follow-up interval of max. 3 months 
What: TB screening, Screening for other oppor-
tunistic infections, Screening for ART-related 
toxicities, adherence assessment, assessment 
whether patient visited any medical facility 
since last appointment, addressing basic psy-
chosocial problems, ART (+CTX/IPT) dispensing 
*Except at 6 and 12 months follow-up: visit at 
health facility for laboratory assessment (viral 
load) 
3 
No SMS intervention 
However: SMS might be used to follow-up pa-
tients in order to ensure laboratory assess-
ment at 6 and 12 months. 
Offer of Individually customized SMS 
Monthly reminder SMS: to pick up ART 
A VL results-triggered SMS:  
 
Undetectable VL (<20 copies/mL): 
 Message: “Congratulations, your lab 
test was good. Keep it up!” 
 
Detectable VL (≥20 copies/mL):  Mes-
sage: “Your lab test results are back. Make 
sure to come to the health facility at the 
next scheduled date and remind the nurse 
about your lab test.” 
 
Technical failure of VL measurement 
 Message: “The lab test was unsuccess-
ful. Make sure to come to the health facil-
ity as soon as possible and remind the 
nurse about your lab test.” 
primary endpoint 
Viral suppression at 12 months, defined as the proportion of all participants with a VL <20 copies/mL 
12 months (range: 10 – 15 months) after enrolment. 

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secondary endpoints 
a) 
Viral suppression at 6 months, defined as the proportion of all participants with a VL <20 cop-
ies/mL 6 months (range 5 – 8 months) after enrolment 
b) 
Alternative viral suppression at 12 months, defined as the proportion of all participants with a VL 
<1000 copies/mL 12 months (range 10 – 15 months) after enrolment. 
c) 
Alternative viral suppression at 6 months, defined as the proportion of all participants with a VL 
<1000 copies/mL 6 months (range 5 – 8 months) after enrolment. 
d) 
Sustained viral suppression, defined as the proportion of all participants with a VL <20 copies/mL 
at 6 (range 5 – 8 months) as well as at 12 months (range 10 – 15 months) after enrolment 
e) 
Linkage to care within 1 month, defined as the proportion of all participants attending the first 
clinic- or VHW-based ART visit at least once within 1 month after enrolment 
f) 
Linkage to care within 3 months, defined as the proportion of all participants attending the first 
clinic- or VHW-based ART visit at least once within 3 months after enrolment 
g) 
Retention in care at 6 months, defined as the proportion of all participants active in care at a 
health facility or at the VHW 6 months (range 5 – 8 months) after enrolment 
h) 
Retention in care at 12 months, defined as the proportion of all participants active in care at a 
health facility or at the VHW 12 months (range 10 – 15 months) after enrolment 
i) 
All-cause mortality at 12 months, defined as the proportion of all participants dead 12 months 
(range 10 – 15 months) after enrolment 
j) 
LTFU at 12 months, defined as the proportion of all participants LTFU 12 months (range 10 – 15 
months) after enrolment 
k) 
Transfer out at 12 months, defined as the proportion of all participants who transferred out to 
any other health facility (than the initially attached one) with known outcome (documented proof 
of follow-up visit or laboratory test) at 12 months (range 10 – 15 months) after enrolment 
 
other endpoints & ob-
jectives 
Further overarching GET ON objectives include safety objectives, exploratory endpoints, a long-term 
follow-up, a cost-effectiveness & system impact evaluation, qualitative research, as well as biomedical 
research. 
sample size & statistical 
considerations 
Based on preliminary data from the previous CASCADE trial, we expect the proportion of viral suppres-
sion in the control arm to be 50%. Given the range of clusters to achieve the varying sample size, we 
will plan on sampling about 100 clusters/villages therefore expecting approximately n=400 HIV-posi-
tive individuals not on ART. Assuming a 20% refusal/ineligible rate, this will provide us with approxi-
mately 320 eligible individuals and sufficient power to detect a 20%  increase in viral suppression in 
the intervention group. We plan to recruit a minimum of 262-320 patients to ensure a minimum power 
of 80%. Of course, if the effect of the intervention is greater – say 0.25 – we will have more than 90% 
power to detect this under all scenarios. All sample size calculations were done assuming a type 1 error 
of 0.05 and an intra-cluster correlation coefficient of 0.015. 
 
Clusters will be set as unit of stratified randomization, whereas individuals are set as unit of 
analysis. The primary analysis will use a multi-level logistic regression model based on the intention-
to-treat set to assess the difference between viral suppression in the intervention versus control arm, 
adjusted for a) the pre-specified randomization stratification factors, b) clustering according to village 
and household and c) other baseline factors found to be unbalanced between intervention and control 
clusters. We will use 2-sided p-values with alpha 0.05 level of significance and results will be presented 
as odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. A detailed data analysis plan will be developed separately. 
recruitment & study du-
ration 
Based on the experience of previous HTS campaigns and the CASCADE trial, we are confident to reach 
the required target sample size within 5-6 months. Anticipated start of the entire GET ON project and, 
thus, recruitment is June/July 2018. 
GCP statement 
This study will be conducted in compliance with the protocol, the current version of the Declaration of 
Helsinki, the ICH-GCP or ISO EN 14155 (as far as applicable) as well as all national legal and regulatory 
requirements. 
 
 

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2. BACKGROUND INFORMATION 
2.1. UNAIDS 90-90-90 TARGETS 
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) launched the 90-90-90 targets for 20201 based on the 
result of newly-acquired scientific evidence that – irrespective of CD4 count – early antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV-
positive people is beneficial for as individuals and prevents onwards HIV transmission.2–4 The first target is to ensure 
90% of HIV-positive individuals are aware of their status. The second target is to get and keep 90% of those aware of 
their status on ART. The third target is to achieve 90% viral suppression among those who are taking ART. Based on 
accumulated evidence that viral suppression through successful ART reduces the risk of transmission4,5, it is expected 
that – if achieved – the 90-90-90 targets would lead to a reduction in the yearly global HIV-incidence from 2 million 
currently to 500,000 by 2020.6 However, the financial, human and physical resources available to fulfill the UNAIDS 
targets are unlikely to grow in proportion to the increasing number of people on ART. There is increasing global con-
sensus that in order to successfully treat all persons living with HIV, new differentiated care and service delivery models 
that increase the capacity, efficiency and cost-effectiveness of delivering ART without reducing quality of care are thus 
urgently needed.7,8 
 
2.2. THE FIRST UNAIDS TARGET 
Globally, progress made in improving knowledge of HIV status in 2016 was lower than progress in other areas of the 
cascade.9 Most recent data from Eastern and Southern Africa show that the percentage of people living with HIV who 
know their HIV status has steadily improved in the last years, currently at a level of 62% - 72%, but still leaving a gap of 
approximately 2.7 million HIV-positive people who do not know their HIV status.9,10 In order to reach the first UNAIDS 
target, 90% HIV testing coverage, home-/community-based testing - HIV testing close to where people live or work - is 
a key strategy endorsed by WHO.11,12 Many studies have shown that home/community-based testing is highly promis-
ing in closing the crucial gap of achieving the first 90. However, it is important to distinguish between HIV test ac-
ceptance/uptake and HIV testing coverage. While in most cases uptake of HIV testing is shown to be above 90%, testing 
coverage remains below 90% because of absent people at the time of the campaign. And this is especially true for men 
and young adults – both of which have a disproportionately high risk of HIV acquitision and poorer clinical outcomes 
once infected.13  
 
2.3. THE SECOND AND THIRD UNAIDS TARGETS 
The second UNAIDS target – to link and to retain 90% of those diagnosed HIV positive on ART – is even more challenging 
and often referred to as the Achilles’ heel of the 90-90-90 strategy.14–16 Once tested, individuals need to access care 
and prevention services to maximize the individual and public health benefits of knowledge of HIV status. However, 
only one-fifth of patients link into care without any periods of loss to follow-up16–18 and linkage to care after a positive 
HIV test during community-based HIV testing is far below 50% in the vast majority of studies in sub-Saharan Africa.13,19 
Recently published data from the ANRS 12249 trial in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, show that less than 33% of ART-
naïve individuals linked to facility-care within 3 months after having been tested HIV positive at their home.20 Structural 
barriers such as the time consuming and expensive (pre-)ART visits and subsequent regular drug refill visits seem to be 
the main impediment for linkage to and retention in care.21–31 These barriers are likely to increase with the new WHO 
“treat all” approach as asymptomatic individuals may be less motivated to travel long distances to the nearest clinic. 
Hence, different initiatives, such as the Models for Accelerating Treatment Initiation (MATI) technical consultation con-
sortium, set one of the highest research priorities in the evaluation of simplified clinical algorithms for managing HIV-
positive individuals in order to improve linkage to and retention in care, e.g. same-day ART initiation.21 In a hospital 
setting, same-day ART initiation has been shown to significantly improve linkage to care, does not require additional 
resources, and is cost effective.32,33 As mentioned in the most recent UNAIDS Global AIDS report, besides the treat all 
strategy, the adoption of same-day initiation along with increasing investment in community-based strategies (incl. 
increased community management of ART), will be critical to achieve the second UNAIDS target.9 Most low- and mid-
dle-income countries (LMIC) face a severe shortage of nurses and physicians. Thus, the potential benefits of shifting 
care from skilled facility-based health worker cadres to lay community-based VHWs are evident.34,35 
The third UNAIDS target (viral suppression) appears to be less challenging once individuals are tested and on 
ART. In a systematic review on viral suppression among patients on ART in resource-limited settings almost 85% had a 
viral load (VL) <1000 copies/mL.36 
 
2.4. LESOTHO – A HOTSPOT OF ONGOING HIV TRANSMISSION 
Lesotho, a small land-locked country surrounded by South Africa, has the second-highest adult HIV prevalence in the 

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world.9,37 Among the hyperendemic countries of Southern Africa it has the highest ongoing HIV transmission rate and 
the lowest ART coverage (below 50%).38,39 In sub-Saharan Africa young people (aged 15–24 years), especially women, 
continue to be at great risk of HIV infection, i.e. in 2016 they accounted for 26% of new HIV infections despite making 
up just 10% of the population.9 Compared to the other Southern African countries, Lesotho presents one of the highest 
incidence of HIV among adolescent girls and young women.10 According to most recent UNAIDS data 72% of people 
living in Lesotho with HIV knew their status and 74% of them were on ART.9 No official data for the last UNAIDS target 
in Lesotho are available, because routine VL was only recently introduced (cf. chapter 2.4.1). 
 
2.4.1. Own accomplished work related to the 90-90-90 targets in Lesotho  
Our research consortium, called “Towards 90-90-90”, conducts several research projects focusing on achieving the 90-
90-90 targets in resource-limited settings. The consortium is headed by The Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, 
but further consists of SolidarMed (Swiss Organization for Health in Africa), the Molecular Virology Group of Depart-
ment of Biomedicine of the University of Basel, the District Health Management Team of Butha-Buthe and the Research 
Coordination Unit of the Ministry of Health of Lesotho. The consortium received a CHF 500’000 grant from the Swiss 
National Science Foundation (R4D Open Call IZ07Z0_160876/1) as well as a cumulative CHF 500’000 from different 
smaller grants, including ESTHER Switzerland (https://www.esther-switzerland.ch/wordpress/wp-content/up-
loads/2016/05/ESTHER-Lesotho-Project.pdf). More information about ongoing projects can be found on: 
- 
https://www.swisstph.ch/en/projects/hiv-care-research-in-lesotho/ 
In a cluster randomized trial comparing home-based HIV testing to testing in mobile clinics we have shown that test 
uptake may be as high as 92.5% with home-based testing40, consistent with literature and WHO recommendations (cf. 
2.2). However, subsequent linkage to care was only 25%. Experience from this first trial led to the CASCADE trial, that 
assessed the entire HIV care cascade.41 In this trial we visited close to 7000 households in rural and semi-rural areas to 
provide home-based HIV testing and services (HTS). Individuals who tested HIV-positive and were ART naïve were ran-
domized into standard of care (referral to clinic for pre-ART counseling and baseline laboratory tests) and intervention 
(proposition to start ART the same day at home with a first clinic visit for refill after 4 weeks). Linkage to care, defined 
as the individual presenting at the clinic within 3 months, was 68.6% in the intervention versus 42.5% in the standard 
of care group (p<0.001). At six months follow-up 63.5% in the intervention and 43.9% in the standard of care group 
were active in care (p=0.002) and 48.2% versus 32.4% had documented viral suppression (p=0.007).42 The results of 
the CASCADE trial endorse simplified, decentralized access to ART as a good approach to improve linkage to care. 
However, we still did not reach 90% linkage to care. 
Since the beginning of 2016 the district hospital of Butha-Buthe offers VL testing, thanks to a close collabora-
tion between the Ministry of Health of Lesotho, the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), Department 
of Biomedicine University of Basel and SolidarMed, Swiss Organization for Health in Africa. As of November 2015, all 
patients on ART in Butha-Buthe district have access to routine VL monitoring and VL results are stored in an encrypted 
and password-protected online database (https://visibleimpact.org/projects/1261-molecular-hiv-monitoring-in-leso-
tho). This viral load monitoring platform was rolled out to the Mokhotlong district in January 2018. Among those taking 
ART in the district, viral suppression is > 90% among adults43, but only 72% in children.44 Several studies addressing the 
problem of treatment failure and strategies to switch to second-line ART are currently in preparation.45,46  
 
2.5. VIBRA MODEL AND RATIONAL OF THE PROPOSED STUDY 
In the CASCADE trial, a significantly higher linkage to care rate (68.6%) has been observed in the intervention group 
(home-based, same-day ART initiation), showing that same-day ART initiation is not only feasible and effective in a 
hospital setting32, but also in a community-based setting. However, although less than 1% declined starting ART at 
enrolment (home visit), there are still 31.4% who did not link to care for further drug refill and continuation of ART. 
How could clinical management of HIV-positive individuals be further simplified in order to increase the linkage to care 
rate and retention in care to 90% - especially in regard to the severe shortage of nurses and physicians in LMIC? 
Decentralization of HIV care to community-level and task-shifting to village/lay health workers has shown to be 
feasible, cost-effective, and has been widely accepted and endorsed – especially regarding the current ambitious goal 
of universal coverage in rural Africa.24,47–59 In Zambia, for example, the move to a greater use of community service de-
livery is helping lower the costs of treatment programmes, contributing to a 32% decline in per-patient treatment costs 
compared to facility-based services.60 Since the 2014 supplement to the 2013 WHO guidelines for the treatment of HIV 
in resource-limited settings the WHO has officially recognised the value of extending ART delivery beyond the facility 
into the community.61 With the launch of the 2015 “Treat All” WHO Guidelines, the WHO concurrently recommended 
a differentiated care/delivery approach. Differentiated care, or differentiated service delivery, is a client-centred ap-
proach that responds both to the diversity of needs of people living with HIV and the contraints on the health care 
system.62 As part of this, the WHO recommends that clinically stable people living with HIV can have reduced clinical 

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constulations (every 3-6 months), increased duration of ART refills (3-6 monthly supply) and receive ART refills from 
trained and supervised lay health workers within communitity settings. 
However, at community-level task-shifting usually still focuses on intake monitoring, but not provision of an-
tiretroviral drugs.53,63–69 Some programs use Coumminity/Village Health Workers (C/VHW) to supply ART at home.70–77 
However, home-based ART supply by C/VHWs is a resource-intensive intervention, requires intensive supervision, en-
counters difficult disclosure and stigma issues at the home-visit, and most importantly, patients have to be at home 
during VHW visits and their homes need to be locatable easily. All these factors are very unfavourable in a setting such 
as Lesotho with limited resources and where the population is scattered around a vast mountainous area. Another 
wide-spread ART service delivery approach are the community ART groups (CAG) or community adherence clubs (CAC) 
for collective drug refill in order to reduce travels to clinics.78–82 As an example, a well-elaborated CAC/CAG project in 
KwaZulu Natal78 and another in Lesotho82 reported retention in care at 12 months of 94% and 98%, respectively. These 
studies, however, only enrolled patients retained in care and stable on ART. Moreover, setting up CAG/CACs is time 
and resource-consuming.78 Furthermore, they are at risk for overestimating the intervention effect, because they are 
based on the will of patients to join CAC/CAGs (i.e. only 33% of patients in the Lesotho opted to join a CAG).82 Instead 
of organizing CAGs/CACs another approach might be to have decentralized posts for ART refill. Vogt et al. studied a 
promising decentralized ART supply program in Kinshasa, Congo, operating community-based refill centers that solely 
provided ART refill.83 However, this trial was a retrospective cohort study (hence subject to all limitations inherent to 
this kind of analyis), and was conducted in a urban setting and only among stable patients. This model performed 
considerably better than standard of care and was suitable for heterogeneous patient groups.  
All these models usually include only stable patients. However, the definition of a stable patient bears many chal-
lenges itself, leading to late inclusion in these models. Meanwhile, many barriers to initiating treatment, particularly 
among those with high CD4 cell counts at baseline, may hinder linkage to care and early retention in care.84 
Barriers to linkage to and retention in care entailed in the HIV care cascade are multifactorial. There are health 
system-level factors such as attitudes of providers, cumbersome clinic procedures with long waiting times, and individ-
ual factors, usually categorized into structural, biomedical, and/or behavioural barriers.23,85,86 In order to address these 
multiple barriers, we are convinced that a multicomponent package of differentiated care interventions is needed. The 
most recent systematic review of interventions improving adherence to ART in resource-limited settings supports this 
statement as well as promising results from other similar recent randomized controlled trials assessing multicompo-
nent care packages.87–89 As mentioned in chapter 2.3, structural barriers seem to be the biggest impediment.  
Therefore, we propose a differentiated ART care/delivery model, called the “VIBRA model”, that is designed to 
increase care privacy and minimize clinic-based impediments (stigma by health facility staff, congestion at health facil-
ity), but most importantly to reduce the structural barriers: time consuming and expensive (pre-)ART visits and subse-
quent regular drug refill visits. The VIBRA model entails an evidence-based intervention (SMS reminders90–96) and the 
main and innovative intervention pillar: the possibility of village-based ART refill through the VHW – following same-
day home-/community-based ART initiation. Despite extensive literature on this topic, a systematic literature research 
revealed no studies that evaluated such a differentiated ART care/delivery model so far. 
This approach utilizes the well-established system of VHWs in Lesotho and similar settings. Moreover, it is in-line 
with a) the Lesotho national Ministry of Health’s efforts97, b) the WHO’s strong recommendation50,98 to decentralize 
care to a village level, c) the UNAIDS’ global call for 2 Mio VHWs in support of HIV care99, and d) the Journal of Interna-
tional ADIS Society promotion for a differentiated care research agenda100. 
 
 
1. STUDY OBJECTIVES 
1.1. OVERALL OBJECTIVE 
This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of a multicomponent differentiated ART care/delivery model (“VIBRA model”) 
among newly HIV-positive, untreated individuals found during a home-based HIV testing campaign on the 2nd and 
subsequently 3rd UNAIDS 90-90-90 target. The main pillar of the VIBRA model is the village-based ART refill through 
VHWs following same-day ART initiation. 
 
1.2. PRIMARY OBJECTIVE 
As primary objective this study seeks to determine the prevalence in viral suppression rate (3rd UNAIDS 90-90-90 target) 
12 months after enrolment between the intervention clusters, who were offered the VIBRA model, and the control 
clusters, who were offered standard of care. 
 

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1.3. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES 
Secondary objectives include comparison of prevalence in linkage to care, retention in care, lost-to-follow-up (LTFU), 
mortality, other definitions of viral suppression, and transfer out between the intervention and control clusters. 
 
1.4. OTHER OBJECTIVES 
This study is embedded in an overarching research project, called GET ON, with an interlinked trial called HOSENG 
(HOme-based SElf-testiNG) study. Further overarching GET ON objectives include safety objectives, a cost-effectiveness 
and system impact evaluation, qualitative research, as well as biomedical research objectives. 
 
 
3. STUDY SETTING, DESIGN, AND METHODS 
3.1. SETTING 
The study will be conducted in the districts of Butha-Buthe and Mokhotlong, in northern Lesotho, Southern Africa, in 
the catchment areas of total 22 health facilities (10 nurse-led rural health centers, 1 missionary hospital, and 1 govern-
mental hospital in Butha-Buthe district and 9 nurse-led rural health centers, and 1 governmental hospital in 
Mokhotlong district). Both districts are characterized by mostly rural settings with an estimated population of 220,000, 
mainly subsistence farmers and mine workers as well as construction or domestic labourers who work in neighbouring 
South Africa. Each district has only one single mid-size town: Buthe-Buthe with ca. 25,000 inhabitants, and Mokhotlong 
with ca. 10,000 inhabitants. The remaining population lives in villages scattered over a mountainous area of 5,842 km2. 
According to the Demographic Health Survey of 2014, the adult HIV prevalence amounts to 21.2% in Butha-Buthe and 
17% in Mokhotlong101, whereas the household-based national survey from 2016-2017 (LePHIA) revealed an adult HIV 
prevalence of 17.8% in Butha-Buthe and 26.1% in Mokhotlong. 
This trial utilizes an existing and long-standing public-sector cadre, called village health workers (VHW). In Leso-
tho, the VHW project was introduced in 1978 with more than 4000 VHWs currently operating in all districts of the 
country.102 VHWs are members of the community, appointed to provide a package of basic services at the household 
level, but who have no formal professional health education. They are elected by the village members, complete a 2-
weeks training, followed by periodic refresher courses, and are supported and supervised by the health center staff of 
the corresponding catchment area. They are employed either by the Ministry of Health or Partners in Health (PIH), a 
U.S.-based NGO, and receive a stipend of 300 LSL (approximately 20 USD) per month. Among the tasks of the VHW, 
which are mostly preventive, are the promotion of antenatal care, the care of children aged 5 years old and under, 
education about topics such as hygiene and sanitation, HIV testing and counseling, the referral of sick people to the 
health center or hospital, the organization (together with the village chief) of community meetings and tracing of pa-
tients. Specifically regarding HIV service delivery it has been shown that VHW play a pivotal role in reducing stigma and 
discrimination, increasing demand for services and improve retention in care.103–105 Moreover, several studies have 
consistently found that services delivered by VHWs are highly cost effective.106–108 
 
3.2. DESIGN 
3.2.1. Design of GET ON project 
The GET ON (“GETing tOwards Ninety”) project entails two sequentially interlinked cluster-randomized trials, HOSENG 
study and VIBRA study. The HOSENG study is described in a separate study protocol and addresses the first of the 
UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets. In a nutshell, the HOSENG study aims to significantly improve testing coverage during a 
home-based HTS campaign using oral self-testing for individuals who are absent or who decline HIV testing during the 
household visit. Individuals found HIV-positive and not on ART during HOSENG study will thereafter be offered partic-
ipation in the VIBRA study. 
The reasons for this interlinked design are: a) potential study participants for VIBRA trial (HIV-positive individ-
uals not on ART) are identified during the HOSENG study, b) this design allows us to assess the entire HIV care cascade 
in one larger project, and c) both trials rely on interventions involving VHWs, who need to be randomized and specifi-
cally trained. Therefore, it is more efficient and feasible to run both trials parallel and randomize only at one time point. 
 
3.2.2. Design of VIBRA study 
The abbreviated title of this study is “VIBRA study” (“VIllage-Based Refill of ART”). The VIBRA study is a cluster random-
ized controlled, open-label, superiority trial in a resource-limited setting. The rational for a cluster randomized design 
is the reliance of the study on the VHWs and, thus, the high risk of cross-contamination between the study arms if 
randomization would be done at individual level. To ensure a balance in the exposure to the HOSENG intervention in 

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the two VIBRA arms, the clusters (=villages) will be randomized into 4 potential groups (1:1:1:1 allocation: all combina-
tions of intervention and control group of HOSENG and VIBRA study, see also Figure 1): 
- 
HOSENG Control & VIBRA Control  
- 
HOSENG Control & VIBRA Intervention  
- 
HOSENG Intervention & VIBRA Control  
- 
HOSENG Intervention & VIBRA Intervention  
 
Clusters will be stratified by district, size of village, and village access to the nearest health facility (easy to reach vs 
hard to reach i.e. mountain or river to cross or/and more than 10km away from health facility). Individuals are set as 
unit of analysis. Potential clustering effects will be adjusted for in the analysis. 
 
 
 
FIGURE 1: GET ON cluster sampling and randomization 
Footnote:  
- 
The VIBRA control and intervention are described in chapter 1.1.1 
- 
The HOSENG control and intervention are described in the HOSENG study protocol 
- 
Eligibility criteria for clusters are described in chapter 3.3.2 
- 
All VHWs in HOSENG or/and VIBRA intervention clusters will receive a second more in-depth training (cf. chapter 3.3.4) 
 
 
 
3.3. METHODS 
1.4.1. Randomization 
Before start of the entire GET ON project that starts with the HTS campaign of HOSENG study, eligible clusters will be 
randomized into the 4 groups. Hence, the intervention will authomatically be determined by the cluster in which the 
individual lives. We refer to the HOSENG study protocol for the details of the randomization process, and see also 
Figure 1. 
 
3.3.1. Procedures in all study clusters 
The procedure conducted for all household members encountered during the door-to-door home-based HTS campaign 
(HOSENG study) is outlined in the HOSENG study protocol and below in Figure 2.  
 
People found HIV-positive and not on ART during the door-to-door HTS campaign of HOSENG study will be 
screened for eligibility for the VIBRA study. The study nurse (who is part of each campaign team and has the same 
level of clinical certification as existing primary health care nurses at the local health facilities) or the study physician 
will assess eligibility (cf. chapter 3.3.3) using a tablet-based questionnaire. 
 
 

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3.3.2. Eligibility – clusters 
We refer to the HOSENG study protocol for these details, chapter 4.3.6. 
 
3.3.3. Eligibility – individuals 
Inclusion criteria:  
1) Individual is a present household member of a visited household 
i) 
Definition of “household member”: See HOSENG study protocol, chapter 4.4.1 
2) Individual is confirmed HIV-positive 
i) 
Definition of “confirmed HIV-positive”: twice a reactive blood-based HIV test according to national 
guidelines 
3) Individual has never taken ART (ART-naïve) or has stopped ART more than 30 days prior (classified as “defaulter” 
according to Lesotho National Guidelines) 
4) Individual is ≥10 years and body weight ≥35kg 
 
Exclusion criteria:  
1) The household member is absent at the time of the campaign 
2) HIV-positive individual is taking ART or stopped less than 30 days ago 
3) HIV-positive individual is physically, mentally, or emotionally not able to participate in the study, in the opinion of 
the investigators or study staff 
4) HIV-positive individual is in care for high blood pressure (hypertension) or high blood sugar (diabetes) – proof of 
documentation or medication needed 
5) HIV-positive individual wishes to get care outside the study districts  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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FIGURE 2: Algorithm HTS and multi-disease screening/prevention campaign (HOSENG study) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
1.1.1. VIBRA study groups 
If an individual is eligible for VIBRA study, same-day ART initiation will be proposed as successfully tested and imple-
mented in this setting by our previous study, the CASCADE trial. Hence, we consider same-day ART initiation after 
home-based HIV testing as standard of care –  and hence, same-day ART start is applied in both study groups. Table 1 
summarizes the procedures in the two VIBRA study groups.  
 
If an individual is not eligible for VIBRA study, standard of care applies, i.e. referral to health facility for further assess-
ment and ART initiation. 
 
 
 
 

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TABLE 1. Description of VIBRA study groups, including barriers targeted and steps of HIV care cascade addressed 
 
VIBRA Control 
 
(Standard of care) 
VIBRA Intervention 
 
(Offer of VIBRA model) 
Barriers tar-
geted by inter-
vention 
Step targeted in 
HIV care cas-
cade 
1 
Offer of home-based same-day ART initiation Offer of home-based same-day ART initiation structural, bio-
medicala  
ART initiation, 
linkage to care 
2 
Clinic-based ART visit/refill 
Who: Nurse 
Where: Nurse-led health facility 
When: Follow-up interval of max. 3 months 
What: TB screening, Screening for other op-
portunistic infections, Screening for ART-re-
lated toxicities, adherence assessment, as-
sessment whether patient visited any medical 
facility since last appointment, addressing 
basic psychosocial problems, ART (+CTX/IPT) 
dispensing 
(+ dispensing of other medication & WHO 
staging) 
 following the pre-specified checklist 
(cf. appendix 17.5) 
Offer of Village-based ART visit/refill 
Who: VHW 
Where: At VHW’s home* 
When: Follow-up interval of max. 3 months 
What: TB screening, Screening for other op-
portunistic infections, Screening for ART-re-
lated toxicities, adherence assessment, as-
sessment whether patient visited any medical 
facility since last appointment, addressing 
basic psychosocial problems, ART (+CTX/IPT) 
dispensing 
 following the pre-specified checklist 
(cf. appendix 17.5) 
*Except at 6 and 12 months follow-up: visit at 
health facility for laboratory assessment (viral load) 
structural 
retention in 
care, viral sup-
pression 
3 
No SMS intervention 
However: SMS might be used to follow-up pa-
tients in order to ensure laboratory assess-
ments at 6 and 12 months. 
Offer of Individually customized SMS 
Monthly reminder SMS: to pick up ART 
A VL results-triggered SMS:  
 
Undetectable VL (<20 copies/mL): 
 Message: “Congratulations, your lab 
test was good. Keep it up!” 
 
Detectable VL (≥20 copies/mL):  Mes-
sage: “Your lab test results are back. 
Make sure to come to the health facility 
at the next scheduled date and remind 
the nurse about your lab test.” 
 
Technical failure of VL measure-
ment  Message: “The lab test was un-
successful. Make sure to come to the 
health facility as soon as possible and re-
mind the nurse about your lab test.” 
structural 
retention in 
care, viral sup-
pression 
Footnotes:  
- 
a by using point-of-care tests to avoid waiting for baseline laboratory tests before ART initiation 
 
 
 
3.3.3.1. All study clusters: Home-based same-day ART initiation 
In both groups (VIBRA intervention and VIBRA control clusters) same-day ART initiation will be proposed. Features of 
same-day ART initiation are outlined below in Table 2. Before initiating ART the study nurse/physician will re-test the 
participant as per national guidelines97, using Alere Determine® HIV1/2 and UniGold® HIV1/2 from a different batch 
specifically labelled as re-test batch. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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TABLE 2. Features of same-day ART initiation 
Component 
Description 
Comments / Rational 
Medical history 
The study nurse assesses the patients medical history using a pre-speci-
fied checklist 
 
If any warnings on medical history checklist: Nurse can decide if re-
ferral to health facility and no same-day ART initiation. In case of 
doubt, the nurse may contact the study physician 
See pre-specified checklist in appendix 17.2 
Physical exami-
nation 
The study nurse conducts a structured physical examination using a pre-
specified checklist 
 
If any warnings on physical examination checklist: Nurse can decide 
if referral to health facility and no same-day ART initiation. In case 
of doubt, the nurse may contact the study physician 
See pre-specified checklist in appendix 17.3 
WHO stage 
The study nurse performs clinical WHO staging according to physical ex-
amination and medical history 
CD4 measure-
ment 
The study team performs point-of-care CD4-count, using PIMA AlereTM
(fingerprick test), that gives results within 20min. The following conse-
quences depending on the CD4-count result are applied: 
 
If CD4-count < 350 cells/mcL: Co-trimoxazole (CTX) prophylaxis, 
960mg o.d., p.o., 1 tbl 
o 
If participant < 14 years: ½ tbl o.d., p.o. 
 
If CD4-count < 200 cells/mcL: Cryptococcal Antigen (CrAg) point-of-
care measurement (Lateral Flow Assay, IMMY©) 
o 
If CrAg positive: Immediate referral to nearby district 
hospital by study team, no same-day ART initiation 
Although baseline CD4-counts are no longer used according to 
national guidelines to establish ART eligibility, they continue 
to be performed for all patients initiating ART. Baseline CD4-
count remains a strong indicator of early outcomes on ART 
and is therefore a) an important variable for the study analysis 
and b) an important clinical monitoring measurement for the 
prevention of opportunistic infections. 
The national guidelines suggest to screen for CrAg 
only if CD4-count < 100 cells/mcL.97 However, data is scarce, 
hence, we will extend screening to those CD4-count < 200 
cells/mcL in order to gain more data for exploratory reasons. 
For CrAg-positive patients, preventive or therapeu-
tic antifungal treatment is indicated and a lumbar puncture is 
required. Thus, referral to the hospital is needed. Due to evi-
dence that early ART initiation should be avoided in case of 
cryptococcal meningitis (Boulware et al., NEJM 2014), same-
day ART initiation will not be done in CrAg positive individuals 
until cryptococcal meningitis has been excluded. 
Creatinine meas-
urement 
The study team performs point-of-care creatinine, using StatSensor Cre-
atTM NovaTM Biomedical (fingerprick test), that gives results within 2min. 
 
If estimated creatinine glomerular filtration rate according to Cock-
roft-Gault (eGFR a.CG) < 50 ml/min: Substitution of tenofovir 
disoproxil fumarate (TDF) with abacavir (ABC) or zidovudine (AZT) 
depending on the haemoglobin result 
 
If eGFR a.CG < 30 ml/min: Nurse can decide if referral to health fa-
cility and no same-day ART initiation 
According to national guidelines, before initiating standard 
first-line ART containing tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF), a
baseline creatinine is needed.97 
 
Haemoglobin 
measurement 
The study nurse performs point-of-care haemoglobin, using HemocueTM, 
HB301 (fingerprick test), that gives results within 2min.  
 
If haemoglobin < 8 g/dL: zidovudine contraindicated and nurse can 
decide if referral to health facility and no same-day ART initiation 
According to national guidelines, before initiating ART regi-
men containing zidovudine, a haemoglobin is needed.97 
Adherence coun-
seling and  edu-
cation session 
The study nurse conducts a structured education/adherence session. It is 
delivered, using a leaflet, in a one-on-one session in approximately 5-
10min. 
A condensed version of the education and counseling typically 
provided over the course of the former pre-ART visits has been
developed and successfully tested in the previous trial (CAS-
CADE trial).41 
Readiness assess-
ment 
Before dispensing ART the study nurse confirms readiness and answers 
remaining questions, using a pre-specified checklist 
 
If patient not ready: referral to health facility and no same-day ART 
initiation 
See pre-specified checklist in appendix 17.4 
Dispensing of 
ART 
The study nurse prescribes a 1-month supply of the standard 1st-line ART 
according to national guidelines97: TDF / lamivudine (3TC) / efavirenz (EFV) 
as fixed-dose combination, once daily. 
 
If TDF contraindicated, substitution with ABC or AZT depending on 
haemoglobin 
 
If uncontrolled mental disease, e.g. active psychosis: referral to 
health facility and no same-day ART initiation  
 
Depending on CD4-count, additionally 1-month supply for CTX will 
be dispensed 
The study nurses, like other qualified nurses in Lesotho, are 
authorized to write prescriptions for ART. 
We only include patients 10yrs and older and 35kg 
or above (cf. eligibility criteria, chapter 3.3.3). Thus, 
TDF/3TC/EFV is the standard treatment, that almost every-
body will get unless we discover renal impairment or an active 
psychosis. 
Follow-up visit 
The study nurse provides a follow-up date in 12-16 days, either at the 
health facility (VIBRA control) or with the VHW (VIBRA intervention), for a 
next ART visit. 
The study nurse documents the entire process in the patients 
booklet (“bukana”), incl. drugs prescribed and follow-up date.
Notes: 
1. 
TB screening will be performed for all household members that we encounter during the home-based HTS campaign (HOSENG 
study), irrespective of HIV-status. See also chapter 4.3.2.1 in HOSENG study protocol about sputum collection. If an individual 
with presumptive TB is eligible for VIBRA study (i.e. HIV-positive and not on ART): The nurse will decide, after conducting above 
mentioned medical history and physical exam, if the HIV-positive individual is referred to the nearby health facility and ART 
initiation is being delayed. 

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2. 
Besides above mentioned features of same-day ART initiation, for all VIBRA study participants a) a demographics and b) HIV-
knowledge questionnaire will be filled-in, using the validated survey measurement scale for HIV-related knowledge109. See “GET 
ON_CRF” for more details. 
3. 
For all study participants of VIBRA study, a venous blood draw will be performed at enrolment during the home-visit. These 
samples will be transported the same day to the hospital laboratories of our study sites (either Butha-Buthe or Mokhotlong 
Government Hospital) and stored in a -80°C freezer and used for Genotypic Resistance Testing (GRT), if applicable, see chapter 
6. 
4. 
If patient needs to be referred, the study team provides details about the nearest health facility, provides a transport voucher 
if needed, and might decide to accompany the patient. 
5. 
Dispensation of IPT (Isoniazid Preventive Therapy): According to national guidelines every individual with HIV greater than 1 
year of age who has no signs or symptoms of active TB should be started on IPT as soon as possible - given the high prevalence 
of latent TB infection in Lesotho.97 On the other hand, initiating ART, CTX and IPT at the same time correlates with higher risk 
of drug toxicity and if side-effects occur it’s hard to distinguish which drug caused the side-effect. Therefore, IPT will not be 
initiated at enrolment, but should be started as early as possible during the first 6 months on ART. 
6. 
If, by the time of the study start, Dolutegravir is available in country, we will adapt the study protocol accordingly in order to 
supply a Dolutegravir-based first-line ART. In that case an amendment will be submitted to the ethics committees. 
 
 
3.3.3.2. Intervention clusters: VIBRA model 
After same-day ART initiation the participants in the intervention clusters are offered the VIBRA model. There are two 
features of the VIBRA model. The first feature of VIBRA model is the possibility of village-based ART visit/refill at the 
VHW with clinic-based ART visits only every 6 to 12 months – following same-day ART initiation at home during the 
HTS campaign. The second feature of VIBRA model is the possibility to receive a standardized, short text-message (SMS) 
intervention. 
 
3.3.3.2.1. VIBRA model, feature 1: Village-based ART visit/refill 
In the VIBRA model, participants have the possiblity to receive village-based ART visits incl. ART dispensing by their 
VHWs. Participants will receive an appointment for a first clinical visit at the VHW 12 to 16 days after the home-based 
ART initiation. At each visit the VHW follows the same pre-specified checklist (cf. appendix 17.5) written in the local 
language (Sesotho). By following the checklist the VHW documents on a standardized paper-based form patient's 
symptoms (to alert for drug toxicity, opportunistic infections, IRIS, etc.) along with adherence to ART questions, ad-
dressing basic psychosocial problems, and whether the patient visited any health facility since the last appointment. 
 
In order to ensure safe and high-quality clinical management, participants in intervention clusters will not only 
be linked to their VHW, but also under responsibilty of the Community ART Nurse (CAN) of the corresponding district. 
See detailed description of the CAN and his tasks below in chapter 3.3.3.2.3. The VHW and the CAN will have a list of 
the participants they are responsible for.  
 
If the visit triggers any alert, indicated on the checklist, the VHW must immediately inform her/his CAN. If the 
visit triggers no alert, the VHW dispenses a supply of the patient's medications. Similar to the local health facilites, 
depending on the VHWs judgement and the patients preference he/she can provide one up to a maximum of three 
months drug-supply. For example in case the patient is working in South Africa, a three months supply may be provided. 
Participants are, however, encouraged to visit the VHW or the clinic at any time in case of problems or questions. Six 
months after ART initiation the participant has to attend the first clinic-based visit for laboratory assessment.  
 
All VHWs of the catchment area of one health facility have a monthly meeting at the health facility together 
with a designated staff member of the health facility. These pre-existing meetings will be used for VIBRA model and 
strengthened. Moreover, the CAN (or his representative) will join the meeting as well and provide support as needed. 
These meetings will provide the platform to review the patient’s medical data and patients can be up-referred (to the 
health facility) or down-referred (to the VHW) as appropriate. If the patient misses an ART visit, either village-based or 
clinic-based, he/she will be traced by the VHW with a standardized tracking tool (cf. appendix 17.6), that provides clear 
guidance. 
 
3.3.3.2.2. VIBRA model, feature 2: SMS intervention 
In the VIBRA model, participants may choose to receive standardized, short text-message (SMS), that are individually 
customized:  
 
a) Monthly reminder SMS to adhere to ART: “Take your medication regularly as prescribed and don’t run out of medi-
cation.”  
b) a VL results-triggered SMS:  
- 
Undetectable VL (<20 copies/mL): Message: “Congratulations, your lab test was good. Keep it up!” 

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- 
Detectable VL (≥20 copies/mL): Message: “Your lab test results are back. Make sure to come to the health 
facility at the next scheduled date and remind the nurse about your lab test.” 
- 
Technical failure of VL measurement: Message: “The lab test was unsuccessful. Make sure to come to the 
health facility as soon as possible and remind the nurse about your lab test.” 
In order to maintain participant confidentiality, cellular appointment reminders do not refer to HIV or HIV care ser-
vices directly. Participants are not asked to confirm receipt or reply to any messages. The SMS reminders are trans-
lated into the local language. The SMS reminders are sent out automatically from our VL database (VisibleImpact, see 
also chapter 1.5). 
 
3.3.3.2.3. Community ART Nurse (CAN) 
The Community ART Nurse (CAN) is a health professional position within the study project,that will be held by a trained 
ART nurse. The nurse has to be registered by the Nurses Council of Lesotho and experienced in HIV care as per National 
HIV guidelines of Lesotho.97 The CAN will closely monitor and supervise all VHWs of the VIBRA model for an entire 
district, and is responsible for all participants initiated on ART in the VIBRA model. The CAN will be in close contact with 
the corresponding health facilites, i.e. to ensure ART procurement and management of study participants at the clinic. 
One CAN per district is needed; one for Butha-Buthe district and one for Mokhotlong district. They are specif-
ically trained in the study procedures and in tablet-based electronic data collection and management. They receive a 
tablet and will enter all follow-up data electronically. The CANs attend the monthly VHW meetings at the health facility 
in order to facilitate down- and up-referral of VIBRA participants, collect the paper-based Case Report Forms (CRFs) of 
the VHWs, update ART stock of VHWs, assure documentation of participants in the health facility files (patient file and 
registers), and go through the individiual patient list with each VHW to detect any irregularities.  
 
3.3.3.2.4. ART procurement 
In the VIBRA model ART procurement is organized via the health facility the VHW is affiliated to. Before the health 
facility places its monthly ART order, the VHW has to submit his/her list to the health center – usually at the monthly 
meeting. Together with the order the VHW brings a list of all refills provided during the last month to allow the health 
center to incorporate the VHWs dispensed ART into its monthly statistics. The CAN will supervise correct storage of 
ART, monitor stock-outs and assist the VHW in case of problems with stock management/ordering of ARTs.  
 
3.3.3.2.5. Modification of intervention 
If a participant is being referred to the health facility at the home-visit or after by the VHW, CAN, or self-referral, he/she 
will be primarily monitored by the health facility. Once the health facility staff considers the patient to be clinically 
stable again, he/she can again be down-referred to the VHW for ART refill. 
 
 
3.3.3.3. Control clusters: Standard of Care 
Individuals who start ART in the control clusters will not receive the offer of VIBRA model, and, thus, have to attend 
the health facility to get their ART visit/refill. They will be given an appointment for a first clinic visit in 12 to 16 days 
after the home-visit. The health facility staff will fill-in the same pre-specified checklist as the VHWs do. The study 
participants will not be offered any other differentiated care/delivery models such as CAG or CACs. 
 
 
 
3.3.4. VHW – training and responsibility 
Details about training number 1, which is the basic training for all randomly selected VHWs in the study districts, is 
outlined in HOSENG study protocol. The VIBRA-specific training is training number 2: All VHWs in the intervention 
clusters are trained to deliver the VIBRA model, i.e. trained to a) dispense ART (and CTX), b) screen for ART-related 
adverse events and drug-toxicities, c) screen for co-infection (especially TB), d) assess adherence and basic vital signs, 
e) understand referral algorithm in case of clinical deterioration of their patients, f) address disclosure and keep confi-
dentiality, g) perform basic data entry/management. This training takes place prior to the start of the trial and lasts for 
2-3 days. 
The VHWs will receive continuous monitoring by the CAN (cf. 3.3.3.2.3), and are additionally supported by 
supervisory staff from the nearest health facility. All those not having a cellphone will receive a cellphone in order to 
stay in close contact with their responsible CAN. Every VHW has a list of patients he/she is responsible for and will only 

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be allowed to dispense ART to participants on the list. Based on data from CASCADE trial, we estimate a maximum of 
5 patients per VHW. 
 
 
3.3.5. Assignment of national (pre)ART numbers and adherence to local health registers 
If a HIV-positive participant newly tested during the HTS campaign starts ART, the campaign team will make sure that 
this participant is registered in the ART register of the responsible clinic and he/she receives an official pre-ART (if 
applicable) and ART number. This process has been successfully implemented in the CASCADE trial.41,42 If a VHW tests 
a participant newly HIV-positive after the oral HIVST, the CAN has to ensure that this participant is correctly registered 
at and reported to the health facility. Moreover, the campaign team provides a monthly summary of all people tested 
HIV-negative during the HTS campaign to the District Health Management Team (DHMT) in order to keep the govern-
ment statistics up-to-date. 
 
3.3.6. Recruitment 
Given the range of clusters to achieve the varying sample size, we will plan on sampling 100 clusters in order to reach 
a target sample size on an individual level of n=262 HIV-positive individuals who are not on ART. Based on the experi-
ence of previous HTS campaigns and the CASCADE trial41,42 (> 10’000 individuals tested in > 70 villages and 267 individ-
uals newly tested HIV-positive enrolled) we are confident to reach the required target sample size within 5-6 months. 
Anticipated start of the entire GET ON project and, thus, recruitment is June/July 2018. 
 
3.3.7. Blinding 
This is a pragmatic implementation trial, assessing the effectiveness of a new strategy for increasing testing coverage. 
Due to the nature of the trial it is not possible to fully blind participants nor staff to the intervention. But allocation will 
be concealed due to the design of a cluster randomization, which implies randomization before participant inclusion. 
 
 
4. ENDPOINTS 
4.1. PRIMARY ENDPOINT 
Viral suppression at 12 months, defined as the proportion of all participants with a VL <20 copies/mL 12 months (range: 
10 – 15 months) after enrolment 
i. 
Rational for VL suppression level at 20 copies/mL: VL determination will be done on COBAS TaqMan® HIV-1 Test, v2.0 
(Roche Diagnostics) using plasma, and has a reliable lower limit of detection of 20 copies/mL 
 
4.2. SECONDARY ENDPOINTS 
a) Viral suppression at 6 months, defined as the proportion of all participants with a VL <20 copies/mL 6 months 
(range 5 – 8 months) after enrolment 
b) Alternative viral suppression at 12 months, defined as the proportion of all participants with a VL <1000 copies/mL 
12 months (range 10 – 15 months) after enrolment 
i. 
Rational for alternative VL suppression definition at 1000 copies/mL: All health facilities in our study districts send their 
blood for VL measurement to Butha-Buthe government hospital laboratory, that uses the above mentioned COBAS Taq-
Man® HIV-1 Test, v2.0 (Roche Diagnostics). Some of the remote health facilities, however, face regular challenges in send-
ing the blood to the government hospital. To ensure sufficient VL measurements among our study participants, these health 
facilities will be equipped with dried-blood-spot (DBS) as a backup for VL measurement. According to the WHO the recom-
mended threshold for treatment failure using DBS is 1000 copies/mL.11 
c) Alternative viral suppression at 6 months, defined as the proportion of all participants with a VL <1000 copies/mL 
6 months (range 5 – 8 months) after enrolment 
d) Sustained viral suppression, defined as the proportion of all participants with a VL <20 copies/mL at 6 (range 5 – 8 
months) as well as at 12 months (range 10 – 15 months) after enrolment 
e) Linkage to care within 1 month, defined as the proportion of all participants attending the first clinic- or VHW-
based ART visit at least once within 1 month after enrolment 
f) 
Linkage to care within 3 months, defined as the proportion of all participants attending the first clinic- or VHW-
based ART visit at least once within 3 months after enrolment 
g) Retention in care at 6 months, defined as the proportion of all participants active in care at a health facility or at 
the VHW 6 months (range 5 – 8 months) after enrolment 
i. 
Definition of “active in care”: at least one ART visit in the defined window 

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I. 
Including patients who have stopped ART 
II. 
Including participants who transferred out to any other health facility with known outcome (documented proof of 
follow-up visit or laboratory test) 
III. 
Excluding participants who died, were lost to follow-up (LTFU), or were more than 2 months late for a scheduled 
consultation or medication pick-up with a reason available (e.g. currently no money for clinic-visit, busy working in 
South Africa, etc.) 
ii. 
Participants who transferred out to any other facility without known outcome (no documented proof of follow-up visit or 
laboratory test) are excluded from both the numerator and denominator of calculations of retention 
h) Retention in care at 12 months, defined as the proportion of all participants active in care at the health facility or 
at the VHW 12 months (range 10 – 15 months) after enrolment 
i) 
All-cause mortality at 12 months, defined as the proportion of all participants dead 12 months (range 10 – 15 
months) after enrolment 
i. 
Verbal autopsy to capture cause of death whenever possible. No death certificate or autopsy report required. 
j) 
LTFU at 12 months, defined as the proportion of all participants LTFU 12 months (range 10 – 15 months) after 
enrolment 
i. 
We define participants lost to follow-up if they were more than 2 months late for a scheduled consultation or medication 
pick-up and no information was found about the participant 
k) Transfer out at 12 months, defined as the proportion of all participants who transferred out to any other health 
facility (than the initially attached one) with known outcome (documented proof of follow-up visit or laboratory 
test) at 12 months (range 10 – 15 months) after enrolment 
 
4.3. SAFETY ENDPOINT 
We specifically assess safety of our VIBRA model, defined as proportion of all participants experiencing a Serious Ad-
verse Events (SAE) within 12 months (range 10 – 15 months) after enrolment. See chapter 10.4 for detailed description 
of SAEs.  
 
4.4. EXPLORATORY ENDPOINTS 
We will assess several exploratory endpoints.  
1) Coverage of differentiated ART delivery: 
a. Proportion of ART refills per participant according to protocol schedule, at the VHW and the health 
facility, within 12 months after enrolment 
b. Number of visits (clinic or VHW) at which medication pickup occurs per HIV-positive person on ART 
of the study districts witihin 12 months after end of recruitment period 
c. 
Number of clinical visits per HIV-positive person on ART of the study districts witihin 12 months after 
end of recruitment period 
2) Overall effect of combined interventions HOSENG and VIBRA (Arm 4 vs Arm 1) on viral suppression (<20 c/mL) 
12 months (range 10 – 15 months) after enrolment 
3) Assessment of acceptance of same-day ART initiation: How many were same-day initiated, reason for not 
same-day initiaiton, reasons for referral, etc. 
4) Assessment of acceptance of VIBRA model  
 
 
 
 

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TABLE 3. Summary of endpoints 
Note: we consider 1 month = 30 days for all endpoints 
 
 
5. LONG-TERM FOLLOW-UP 
We consider assessing long-term follow-up outcomes at 24 months (range: 22 – 28 months) after enrolment: viral 
suppression, retention in care, and SAEs. A detailed follow-up plan will be developed at a later stage. 
 
 
6. BIOMOLECULAR RESEARCH 
We will include biomolecular research in GET ON. This part will be developed in detail with our research consortium 
partners from the Department of Biomedicine (University of Basel, Switzerland) under the lead of Prof. Thomas Klimkait 
(cf. page 3). So far it is planned to assess prevalence of major drug resistance mutations (DRM) a) on all baseline sam-
ples (primary DRM) and b) on all samples with unsuppressed VL (>100 copies/mL) at 12 months (range: 10 – 15 months). 
Moreover, all participants who start ART at the home-visit during the HTS campaign, but subsequently default treat-
ment will be traced to assess development of DRM. Definition of DRM follows the Stanford University HIV Resistance 
Database (http://hivdb.stanford.edu) 
 
 
7. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH 
Qualitative studies are planned alongside the GET ON project to provide important contextual data and a more in-
depth exploration of community response to the HOSENG and VIBRA interventions. A detailed qualitative research plan 
will be developed at a later stage. Concerning the VIBRA study the following qualititative studies are planned: 
1. A qualitative case-control study that examines uptake of village-based ART refill among participants. A random 
sample of e.g. 20 cases and 20 controls would be chosen from the VIBRA intervention clusters. Cases would be 
participants who refuse village-based ART refill at the VHW and controls would be participants who accept village-
based ART refill at the VHW. A standardized questionnaire would be used to explore reasons for not accepting 
village-based ART refill, and motivation to accept village-based ART refill, respectively. Participants who accepted 
the VIBRA model would be asked to identify whether each intervention of the VIBRA model was helpful in terms 
of assisting in retention in care, reducing structural barriers, respect, stigma, discrimination, overall satisfaction, 
and what aspects of each intervention were useful and not useful. Besides standardized multiple choice questions, 
we would leave space for open questions to capture unexpected associations. A separate informed consent to 
participate in the qualitative research would have to be obtained and would be submitted together with the re-
search plan as an amendment. 
2. Standardized interviews will be conducted with a random sample of all stakeholders involved in delivering the 
VIBRA model, i.e. VHWs, Community ART Nurse, staff at the health facility, and members of the District Health 
Management Team (DHMT). Focus lies on feasibility assessment, i.e. about overall satisfaction with VIBRA model 
and time spent with ART patients, but also a brief questionnaire capturing stigma and discrimination within the 
new model. 
Following enrolment 
endpoints 
By 1 month  
By 3 months  At 6 months  
(range: 5-8) 
At 12 months   
(range: 10-15) 
Viral suppression <20 copies/ml 
Secondary 
Primary 
Viral suppression <1000 copies/ml 
Secondary 
Secondary  
Sustained viral suppression <20 copies/ml 
Secondary 
Secondary 
Linkage to care (attending first clinic or VHW visit) 
Secondary  
Secondary 
Retention in care (either health facility or VHW) 
Secondary 
Secondary 
All cause mortality 
Secondary 
LTFU 
Secondary 
Transfer out  
Secondary 
SAE 
Safety 
Coverage of differentiated ART delivery 
Exploratory 
Overall effect of HOSENG + VIBRA 
Exploratory 
Assessment of acceptance of interventions 
Exploratory 

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8. COST-EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS AND SYSTEM IMPACT EVALUATION 
For the cost-effectiveness analysis, we will create a model to estimate the effect of the VIBRA intervention on health 
benefits and costs. First we will assess the direct costs of the interventions. Secondly, we will assess a cost-effectiveness 
of the intervention (=VIBRA model) tested. Thirdly, we will assess the economic burden of the interventions to patients 
– the opportunity costs of their time. The economic analyses will address the following questions: 
- 
Which are the direct costs (to both health systems and patients) of delivering the interventions? 
- 
Are there direct cost-savings to the health system and to patients of the new model of care? 
- 
Are there differences across interventions in opportunity costs of time of patients? 
- 
Are the new interventions cost-effective?  
The direct costs for the health system of delivering the intervention and for the patients that wiil be estimated in-
clude: 
a. Personnel 
 
Staff costs (home-visit campaign staff, clinical staff, laboratory staff, VHW, CAN) 
i) 
Including fringe benefits (e.g. medical and dental insurance, housing allowance, educational assis-
tance, vacation pay, sick pay, meals and employee discounts) 
ii) The appropriate approach to measuring personnel time will differ between study personnel. For example, 
for the CAN who specifically is hired for this intervention, costs can be obtained directly from compensa-
tion data. All the other service providers (nurses and physician at health facility, VHWs, etc.) have multiple 
responsibilities, hence, the time dedicated to the VIBRA model can be obtained via interviews supple-
mented by direct “time and motion” observations, including completion of logs by staff recording major 
activities for one week periods approximately six months apart.  
 
Costs of training of all involved personel 
b. Equipment 
 
Costs of HIV tests (blood-based point-of-care tests and oral HIVST) 
 
Costs of ART 
 
Costs of drugs for prevention of opportunistic infections and other concomitant medications 
 
Other costs associated with home-based testing (logistics, multi-disease screening tests, etc.) 
 
Other laboratory costs (CD4 cell count, VL, blood chemistry, blood count and other) 
c. 
Non medical costs to patients 
 
Cost of transportation; food, drinks, airtime while accessing care 
 
Potential direct cost savings: 
VIBRA model is hypothesised to reduce the number of clinic visits, due to a) less scheduled visits because VHW-based 
ART refill and b) less unscheduled visits because intervention leads to better sustained clinical outcome. This would 
decrease costs for the health facility and the patient. The direct cost savings related to reduction in use of health service 
due to better viral suppression and less opportunistic infections, will be assessed and included in the cost-effectiveness 
analysis. To this end the estimates of the reduced need for health services will be taken from the trial resutls and the 
literature. The reduction in utilization rates will be then multiplied by the unit cost of the services using available cost 
estimates. 
 
Patient time opportunity costs: 
These estimates will include the value of the time required to patients to get access to the interventions and the work-
ing time lost by them of by another member of the households providing assistance related to the interventions. Dif-
ferent methods to value patient time will be used, consistently with the human capital approaches  
 
Examples of Outcomes:  
1. The health outcomes considered by the cost-effectiveness analysis will be the primary endpoints of HOSENG 
and VIBRA study, but the cost-effectiveness will be also expressed in terms of incremental net cost per DALY 
(Disability Adjusted Life Years) averted.  
2. Mean time for a clinical consultation per person living with HIV per visit 
3. Mean total time spent by the patient to receive HIV treatment services (including transportation and waiting) 
per person living with HIV per 6 months period 
4. Mean out-of-pocket cost to patient to receive HIV treatment services (including clinic, medication, transpor-
tation) per person living with HIV per 6 months period 
5. Number of person living with HIV receiving clinical consultations per day per health care worker 

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6. Number of patients (of any condition other than HIV) receiving clinical consultations per day per health care 
worker 
7. Mean cost of treatment services from a provider perspective per person living with HIV per year 
8. Mean cost of treatment services from a provider perspective per virally suppressed person living with HIV per 
year 
 
Data collection and Analysis: 
Cost data will be collected from expenditure records as well as through interviewing key staff involved in the VIBRA 
model. The average cost to the provider per patient achieving the primary outcome will be compared between inter-
vention and control clusters to provide an estimate of the cost-effectiveness of the two interventions. Costs will be 
reported as means (incl. SD) and medians (incl. IQRs) in local currencies and 2018 US dollars and International Dollars. 
If possible, we will document changes in unit cost (most relevant program cost divided by numbers of patients receiving 
study intervention) over time as the intervention probably will achieve greater scale and administrative efficiency. 
These findings are intended to provide insights into costs structures that may be used to enhance the models efficiency 
in future. 
 
A separate detailed plan will be outlined for this cost-effectiveness analysis and system impact evaluation. 
 
9. SAMPLE SIZE AND ANALYTIC PLAN 
9.1. SAMPLE SIZE CALCULATION 
In the previous comparable CASCADE trial we found 524 HIV-positive individuals (median 4 per village, IQR: 2-6) who 
were not currently on ART. If we consider only the rural villages and those aged 12 or older, there were 289 who would 
be eligible for this study. The primary endpoint is viral suppression at 12 months after offer of same-day ART initiation. 
Based on preliminary data from the CASCADE trial, we expect the proportion of viral suppression in the control arm to 
be 50%. The Table 4 below provides estimates of the sample size under varying conditions. Given the range of clusters 
to achieve the varying sample size, we will plan on sampling 100 clusters/villages therefore expecting approximately 
n=400 HIV-positive individuals. Assuming a 20% refusal/ineligible rate, this will provide us with approximately 320 eli-
gible individuals and sufficient power to detect a 20%  increase in the intervention group. We plan to recruit a minimum 
of 262 patients to ensure a minimum power of 80%. Of course, if the effect of the intervention is greater – say 0.25 – 
we will have more than 90% power to detect this under all scenarios. All sample size calculations were done assuming 
a type 1 error of 0.05 and an intra-cluster correlation coefficient of 0.015. 
 
TABLE 4. Sample Size estimations 
 
9.2. ANALYSIS 
All analyses will be done using R (the R Foundation for Statistical Computing) or Stata (version 14, Stata Corporation, 
Austin/Texas, USA). For all tests, we will use 2-sided p-values with alpha 0.05 level of significance. A detailed data 
analysis plan will be developed separately. 
Clusters will be set as unit of randomization (stratified by district, size of village, and village access to the 
nearest health facility), whereas individuals are set as unit of analysis. Multilevel statistical models will be used to adjust 
for the clustered data. We will present a CONSORT flowchart of the participants, including screening, enrollment and 
follow-up. The following analysis sets will be used in this trial: 
1. 
Intention-to-treat (ITT) set: All study participants will be evaluated according to cluster assignment at random-
ization 
2. 
Cluster per-protocol (CPP) set: This set includes all participants from clusters who completed the study without 
a major protocol deviation 
3. 
Individual per-protocol (IPP) set: This set includes all participants who completed the study without a major 
protocol deviation 
 
Control 
Intervention 
Power 
Total sample size 
Total clusters 
0.5 
0.7 
0.9 
478 
120 (80 - 236) 
0.5 
0.7 
0.8 
262 
65 (44 -130) 
0.5 
0.75 
0.9 
195 
25 (33-100) 
0.5 
0.75 
0.8 
130 
35 (22-65) 

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9.2.1. Primary analysis 
The primary analysis for VIBRA study will be the comparison of viral suppression rates between the intervention and 
the control clusters. Analyses will be performed following CONSORT guidelines110 using the ITT set. The primary analysis 
will use a multi-level logistic regression model to assess the difference between viral suppression rate in the interven-
tion versus control arm, adjusted for a) the pre-specified randomization stratification factors, b) clustering according 
to village and household and c) other factors found to be unbalanced between intervention and control clusters. Re-
sults will be presented as odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. 
 
1.4.2. Snapshot analyses 
Our protocol foresees a predefined snapshot analysis once all participants have completed 6-months follow-up. The 6-
months snapshot analysis will entail the following of the above defined secondary endpoints:  
a) Viral suppression at 6 months, defined as the proportion of all participants with a VL <20 copies/mL 6 months 
(range 5 – 8 months) after enrolment 
b) Alternative viral suppression at 6 months, defined as the proportion of all participants with a VL <1000 copies/mL 
6 months (range 5 – 8 months) after enrolment. 
c) Linkage to care within 1 month, defined as the proportion of all participants attending the clinic- or VHW-based 
ART refill at least once within 1 month after enrolment 
d) Linkage to care within 3 months, defined as the proportion of all participants attending the first clinic- or VHW-
based ART visit at least once within 3 months after enrolment 
e) Retention in care at 6 months, defined as the proportion of all participants active in care at a health facility or at 
the VHW 6 months (documented refill 5 – 8 months after enrolment) after enrolment 
 
1.4.3. Baseline characteristics; secondary, subgroup and sensitivity analyses 
Baseline characteristics will be presented according to randomized groups: categorical variables will be described as 
absolute and relative frequencies and continuous variables as medians and interquartile ranges (IQRs). 
As with the primary analysis, secondary endpoints will be analyzed with multi-level logistic regression model 
and results will be presented as odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. The effect of sociodemographic and clinical 
determinants (e.g. age, sex, WHO stage, CD4-count, tuberculosis status) on key study outcomes will be assessed in 
subgroup analyses. Sensitivity analyses will be conducted in order to provide evidence that the result seen from the 
primary analysis are robust. These analyses will center on the deviations in model assumptions. The statistical analysis 
plan will provide all further details. 
 
10. DATA COLLECTION AND MANAGEMENT 
1.5. DATA FORMS, DATA ENTRY, DATA MONITORING, DATA STORAGE, CONFIDENTIALITY 
Details about data collection during the HTS campaign (recruitment platform for VIBRA study) are outlined in the HOS-
ENG study protocol. The VHWs and the health care staff at the health facilities collect data from the scheduled and any 
other unscheduled ART visits on standardized paper study forms (Case Report Forms), that act as source documents. 
These data will be collected regularly by the study team (i.e. the CAN) using a tablet-based CRF (MACRO, Elsevier). Data 
from the tablet devices will be uploaded onto an password-protected online platform/database and transferred regu-
larly via a secure electronic transfer to our server.  
 
Similarly, relevant data for the SMS intervention will be uploaded and  stored in another encrypted and pass-
word-protected online database (https://visibleimpact.org/projects/1261-molecular-hiv-monitoring-in-lesotho), our 
viral load monitoring platform, that was mentioned previously (cf. chapter 2.4.1), because this platform offers the 
possibility to send out SMS automatically. The viral load monitoring platform was developed by Visible Solutions AG, 
Switzerland. The platform and data are stored on a Visible Solutions’ dedicated server in a data center in Switzerland 
(Interxion, managed by Hostpoint AG). The data center meets FINMA-RS 08/07 requirements and is ISO-27001-certi-
fied. Data in-transit is encrypted with SSL. All patient names are encrypted at-rest using OpenSSL with AES-256-CTR 
cipher method. One half of the encryption key is stored on the server, the other half is stored on the client (browser). 
Access to the platform is limited and regulated through personal user profiles (username and password). Access to 
patient names is further regulated and restricted through a 2-factor authentication procedure. Personally identifiable 
information (such as names) or identifiable health information (such as HIV status) are not dispatched as part of the 
SMS text. SMS are dispatched using the trusted third-party provider Twilio. Twilio is headquartered in the United 
States. Twilio (www.twilio.com) has certified with the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework and the Swiss – U.S. Privacy 
Shield Framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of 
“personal data” (as defined under the Privacy Shield principles). 

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Besides the CRF, data for the follow-up period comes from routinely collected medical records at the health 
facilites, primarily from the patient file, if necessary also from patients health booklet (bukana), antenatal care register, 
postnatal care register, under 5 register, HTS register, ART register, ART treatment card and file, TB treatment register, 
TB treatment card, pharmacy register/dispensing logs, and the viral load monitoring platform. All the above mentioned 
documents act as source documents. For additional information that is not part of these documents, data is taken 
specifically for the study and the CRFs act as source document. 
 
Following an initial period of weekly quality review, a study data manager will monitor data quality and com-
pleteness on a bi-monthly/monthly basis. Queries about the data will be sent to the local Principal Investigators for 
follow-up and correction, as needed. Data integrity checks will be written into the database to limit the entry of incor-
rect data and ensure entry of data into required fields. The type of activity that an individual user in the online study 
database may undertake, is regulated by the privileges associated with his/her user identification code and password.  
 
Apart from the informed consent form and the list for the VHWs/CANs and the follow-up CRFs, study docu-
ments will not contain any names but solely the study-ID. The VHWs in the VIBRA model arm and their CANs need to 
keep an overview of their responsible patients. Hence, a list with the corresponding names and contact details is 
needed for them. After printing the names and storing them on the confidential master list, the database will automat-
ically delete all names and only keep the anonymous study-ID. There will be one confidential electronic master list with 
the subject identification code and the names. The informed consent forms will be stored in a secure way in the head-
quarter of the study center (SolidarMed Office in Butha-Buthe, Lesotho) and the master list will be stored in an en-
crypted online cloud with password controlled access and only accessible for pre-defined study personnel, i.e. all in-
vestigators (cf. staff list in appendix). Participant files will be maintained in storage for a period of at least 10 years after 
completion of the study.  
 
10.1. COLLECTION AND STORAGE OF BIOLOGIC MATERIAL 
Participants in all clusters undergo HIV testing and phlebotomy at enrolment, and phlebotomy at 6 and 12 months. No 
additional blood collection  is planned according to the study procedure, but if it is done due to clinical standard of care 
reasons (i.e. abnormal laboratory results or a high VL at the 6 month visit), we will collect these results as part of this 
study. Figure 3 displays the SPIRIT flow diagram with the overview of data collection, laboratory assessments and fol-
low-up visits. 
For each participant, study-ID-coded blood samples will be stored at -80 °C at the laboratory of Butha-Buthe 
government hospital. All samples collected in the GET ON project fall under the biobank agreement (“Biobanking reg-
ulations, v2.0”) approved by the ethics committee Lesotho, and under the Material Transfer Agreement (cf. appendix 
17.7) submitted together with this study protocol.  
 
 
FIGURE 3. SPIRIT Flow Diagram of VIBRA study 
 
Enrolment 
Post-allocation 
Close-out 
Long-term 
Follow-up 
TIMEPOINT 
0 
Within  
1 month 
(linkage 
to care) 
 Within  
3 month 
(linkage 
to care) 
 6 months 
(range: 5-8 
months) 
 12 months 
(range: 10-
15 months) 
 24 months 
(range: 22-
28 months) 
ENROLMENT: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
eligibility screen 
X 
 
 
 
 
 
allocation (set by cluster) 
X 
 
 
 
 
 
INTERVENTIONS: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
VIBRA model (Intervention) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Standard of care (Control) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ASSESSMENTS: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Socio-demographic factors 
X 
 
 
 
 
 
HIV knowledge1 
X 
 
 
 
 
 
tuberculosis screening2 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
medical history3 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
physical examination4 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
WHO staging5 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
CD4 
X 
 
 
 
X 
(X) 
CrAg6 
(X) 
 
 
 
 
 
Creatinine 
X 
 
 
X 
X 
X 

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Haemoglobin 
X 
 
 
(X) 
(X) 
(X) 
adherence counseling 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
readiness assessment7 
X 
 
 
 
 
 
dispensing of ART8 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
viral load 
X 
 
 
X 
X 
X 
plasma for storage (=3 EDTA 
tubes for GRT)9 
X 
 
 
(X) 
(X) 
(X) 
1 using the validated survey measurement scale for HIV-related knowledge109 
2 cf. appendix 17.1 
3 cf. appendix 17.2 for enrolment and appendix 17.5 for follow-up visits 
4 cf. appendix 17.3 for enrolment and appendix 17.5 for follow-up visits  
5 only at clinic follow-up visit 
6 for all participants with a baseline CD4-count <200 cells/mcL 
7 cf. appendix 17.4 
8 incl. CTX and IPT (+B6) and other co-infection (prophylaxis) medication if appropriate 
9 cf. chapter 6 
 
10.2. MONITORING AND AUDITING – GET ON PROJECT 
During the entire GET ON project at least one external monitoring visit will assess compliance with the approved trial 
protocol, accuracy of completed CRFs, and the electronic dataset. The Clinical Operations Unit (COU) at the Swiss Trop-
ical and Public Health Institute, which acts as an independent academic contract research organization, will perform 
the monitoring. The Principal Investigator agrees to allow inspectors from regulatory agencies to review records and 
will assist the inspectors in their duties, if requested. 
 
10.3. DATA AND SAFETY MONITORING COMMITTEE – GET ON PROJECT 
The GET ON project represents implementation research, the recruitment is projected to happen fairly quickly, safety 
profiles of all used drugs are well-known, and the intervention does not include any new drugs. We do not expect major 
adverse effects on patients’ health from this intervention given the encouraging results from the trials in Uganda, Kenya 
and Tanzania.70,73,111 Moreover, participants in the VIBRA model can opt to switch back or being referred to facility-
based care at any time during the trial period. Therefore it is not planned to establish a data safety and monitoring 
committee (DSMB). Nevertheless, a detailed safety monitoring plan for (Serious) Adverse Events complementing chap-
ter 10.4 will be outlined in collaboration with COU before the trial start and we may decide to install a DSMB based on 
their input. 
 
10.4. ADVERSE EVENTS (AES) AND SERIOUS ADVERSE EVENTS (SAES) – GET ON PROJECT 
Prescription and use of ART will follow current national guidelines of Lesotho.97 All ART used in Lesotho have a well-
established safety profile. The most frequent adverse events are summarized on page 54 of the Lesotho National guide-
lines on the use of antiretroviral therapy for HIV prevention and treatment, 5th edition, 201697 and on page 138 of the 
Consolidated Guidelines on the Use of antiretroviral Drugs for treating and preventing HIV Infection of the WHO11. AE 
and SAE will be graded according to the Division of AIDS Table for Grading the Severity of Adult and Pediatric Adverse 
Events, Version 2.0., November 2014112, and managed according to study sites standard procedure following the na-
tional guidelines.97 
 
Before start of the study, the study personel will be re-trained on the national guidelines and potential AEs 
and SAEs of ART. In case of AEs, the study personel documents the AE on a separate form. In case of SAEs, the study 
personel must inform the study physicians within 72 hours of his/her awareness of the SAE. SAEs are defined as fol-
lowing: a) life-threatening event, b) hospitalization, c) persistent or significant disability or incapacity, d) congenital 
anomaly / birth defect, e) death. The study physicians must then inform the Sponsor/PI and COU within 24h. The Spon-
sor/PI will inform the local ethics committee in Lesotho within 24h. COU informs the ethics committee in Switzerland 
(EKNZ) according to Swiss regulations (HFG, VKlin Art 40, 41): a) within 7 days after notice to the Sponsor/PI in case of 
death and b) within 15 days after notice to Sponsor/PI in case of a suspected unexpected serious adverse reaction 
(SUSAR). A SUSAR is an event that exceeds the nature, severity, or frequency described in the protocol, consent form 
and investigator brochure (when applicable). COU informs the respective Pharmaceutical compagny by sending a copy 
of the safety report submitted to EKNZ. An annual safety report (listing all SAEs with seriousness criteria, causality 
assessment) will be submitted yearly to EKNZ (HFG, VKlin Art 43). 

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A separate, safety monitoring plan will be developed to handle (S)AEs, in-line with swiss and basotho ethics 
regulations. The study physicians are responsible for all direct safety procedures among study participants. If a partic-
ipant develops an AE of Grade 2 or higher at last study visit, he/she remains under observation by the study physicians 
until the AE is resolved or stabilized. 
 
 
11. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS 
11.1. RESEARCH ETHICS APPROVAL / INFORMED CONSENT / AMENDMENTS 
This trial will be conducted in compliance with the protocol, International Conference on Harmonisation Good Clinical 
Practice E6 and the current version of the Declaration of Helsinki. Ethics approval will be sought from the National 
Health Research and Ethics Committee of Lesotho and the Ethikkomission Nordwest- und Zentralschweiz (EKNZ) in 
Switzerland and the trial will only commence once both committes have awarded approval.  
 
The informed consent process for the cluster randomized GET ON project has several layers, based on two 
fundamental principles that need to be balanced in a cluster-randomized health systems implementation research 
trial113,114: First, specific ethical requirements (e.g., informed consent, confidentiality, avoidance of harm) should be 
fulfilled. Second, a generally accepted claim is that a study being methodologically sound constitutes a necessary con-
dition for its being ethically sound. Because only sound design can produce valid findings, and, in general, only valid 
findings can bring about therapeutic benefits, methodological demands carry moral weight. Prior consent to randomi-
zation by individual cluster participant is not feasible in cluster randomized trial such as ours. In such circumstances, 
once clusters have been randomly assigned, participants in the clusters can no longer be asked for their consent to be 
randomized to receive either of the interventions, only for consent to receive the intervention to which their group has 
been assigned, and for consent to follow-up. If participants are aware of this (i.e. know that there is another treatment 
arm) it would introduce the possibility of post-randomization selection bias and would compromise the methodology. 
Some even argue that no individual informed consent should be obtained in a cluster-randomized trial in order to 
sustain a high-quality and sound methodology.114 However, in our view we value individual consent higher and hence 
propose the following approach: 
- 
Before cluster randomization (more details about the randomization process in HOSENG study protocol), ver-
bal consent from all village chiefs will be obtained, similar to any HTS campaign done by SolidarMed in Lesotho, 
because the GET ON project starts with an HTS campaign (see HOSENG study protocol).  
- 
At the day of the HTS campaign, a general household consent (to collect household data, to assess number of 
household members and uptake of HTS among household members) will be obtained. Allocation to treatment 
arm will be concealed in order to keep the risk of selection bias as low as possible. 
- 
As requested per national HIV testing guidelines, we will obtain individual HTS consent to perform blood-
based point-of-care HIV testing (see HOSENG study protocol). If a participant uses the oral HIVST on his own 
(i.e. an absent person during the day of the HTS campaign) this implies consent for testing. However, prior to 
every blood-based HIV test a signed national HTS consent form is needed. No copy of this national HTS consent 
form will be provided. 
- 
Before inclusion into VIBRA study we will obtain individual informed consent, but using two different Informed 
Consent Forms (ICF), again, in order to keep the risk of selection bias as low as possible by concealing the 
allocation: One ICF for participants in VIBRA intervention clusters and one ICF for participants in VIBRA control 
clusters. 
The study team will obtain the verbal consent from the village chiefs. One person from the HTS campaign team (lay 
counselor or study nurse) will obtain the informed consent from the houshold head or representative and finally, the 
study nurse will obtain the individual informed consent from the participant before inclusion into VIBRA study.  
 Iliterate study participants will provide a thumb-print and a witness (independent to the trial and >21 years 
old), chosen by the participant, will co-sign the form. For study participants aged <18 years, a literate caregiver >21 
years old (person that takes care of the child/young adult) will provide oral and written informed consent. The informed 
consent is provided in the local language, Sesotho, and the participant will receive a copy of the consent form. The 
village chief, the household head, and/or the individual have the right to withdraw consent at any time without giving 
reasons. In case of withdrawal, only data collected until the time of withdrawal will be used for research purposes (fully 
anonymized, identifyer removed). 
 
All communities will benefit from strengthened HTS intervention and VHW programme that will improve ac-
cess to HIV care and long-term ART management. This study is embedded within the national governmental health 
system to ensure that these benefits are sustained. 
 
Any modifications to the protocol which may impact on the conduct of the study, potential benefit to the 
patient or patient safety, including changes of study objectives, study design, patient population, sample sizes, study 

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procedures, or significant administrative aspects, will require a formal amendment to the protocol and will be submit-
ted to the Ethics Committee of Lesotho and the EKNZ and the trial register (clinicaltrials.gov) will be updated accord-
ingly. 
 
 
11.2. PUBLICATION AND DISSEMINATION POLICY 
Results of this research project will be shared at three levels. At district level, health care workers and stakeholders will 
be informed about the findings during district meetings headed by the DHMT of Butha-Buthe and Mokhotlong. At 
national level, the national research symposium of the Ministry of Health will serve as a platform to share the results 
and discuss their implications among the policy makers. International scientific conferences, such as the conference of 
the International AIDS Society, and publications in scientific peer-reviewed journals will serve for wider results dissem-
ination. The requirements of the CONSORT statement115 will be fulfilled. The study will be registered on ClinicalTri-
als.gov prior to the start of the trial and the study protocol will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. The current 
version of the ICMJE recommendations is applicable regarding authorship eligibility.116 The use of professional writers 
is not intended.  
  
 
11.3. COMPENSATION 
11.3.1. Study participants 
Participation in this study is not anticipated to cause any substantial additional risk or cost to the participant. Therefore 
we will not pay compensation to the participants.  
 
11.3.2. Study personel 
The VHWs and the CANs and the lay counsellors will receive free AirTime (prepaid money for cellphone usage) for the 
duties of the study. Moreover, each CAN will receive a tablet and each VHW, who has no cellphone, a cellphone. We 
will consider a remuneration for nurses at the health facilities for the clinic-based ART visits of our study participants 
during the follow-up of the study. The team who performs the HTS campaign will be equipped with basic supplies 
(raincoats, gumboots, backpack). The VHW has a central role in this new differentiated ART care/delivery model. Be-
sides basic supplies required for work (i.e. lockable drawer cabinet to store medication and patient documents), we 
will support them with transport money to make sure the link between VHW and the health facility is guaranteed (150.-
LSL quarterly per VHW in intervention clusters). 
 
 
12. CRITERIA FOR DISCONTINUATION OF TRIAL 
12.1. DISCONTINUATION OF A PARTICIPANT 
The study participant has the right to withdraw from the study at any time without giving reasons. In case of with-
drawal, only data collected until the time of withdrawal will be used for research purposes (fully anonymized, identifyer 
removed). Discontinued participants will not be replaced. A subject or cluster (if applicable) can be discontinued from 
the study by the Principal Investigator for the following reasons: 
1. withdrawal of informed consent 
2. ethical concerns 
3. major violation of the study protocol 
4. intolerable side-effects, adverse events 
5. any conditions that might jeopardize the patient’s health if they were to continue in the study  
 
12.2. DISCONTINUATION OF THE ENTIRE STUDY 
The Sponsor-Investigator may terminate the study prematurely according to certain circumstances, for example: 
1. ethical concerns 
2. insufficient participant recruitment 
3. when the safety of the participants is doubtful or at risk, respectively 
4. alterations in accepted clinical practice that make the continuation of a clinical trial unwise 

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The Prinicipal Investigator would provide the study site written notice submitted at a reasonable time in advance of 
the intended termination. If the Sponsor/Principal Investigator chooses to terminate the study for safety reasons, it 
will immediately notify all investigators and subsequently provide written instructions for study termination. 
 
 
13. FUNDING SOURCES AND ROLE OF THE FUNDING SOURCES 
The study will be predominantly funded by a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (Grant Number 
IZ07Z0_160876/1), obtained by NDL. The Swiss TPH acts as sponsor of the study. AA receives his salary through a grant 
from the MD-PhD programme of the Swiss National Science Foundation (Grant number 323530_177576). The study is 
embedded in the SolidarMed country programme and thus benefits from logistics and human resources from Soli-
darMed Lesotho. 
 
The funding sources will have no role in the design of the study, and will not be involved in data collection, 
data analysis, interpretation of the results and writing of the manuscript.  
 
 
14. EXPECTED OUTCOMES OF THE STUDY – GET ON PROJECT 
14.1. BENEFIT / STRENGTHS 
 
First randomized controlled health systems implementation trial assessing the effectiveness and feasibility of 
village-based ART supply after home-based HIV testing and same-day ART initiation in rural sub-Saharan Af-
rica. 
 
This trial is one of few RCTs that assesses the whole care cascade from home-based HIV testing to viral sup-
pression, with viral suppression as primary endpoint. This trial will provided data which are currently lack-
ing.117,118 
 
The research we will undertake is expected to reveal whether our differentiated ART care/delivery model can 
improve treatment outcomes at a cost that is affordable for treatment service providers and funding agencies 
– in a “real life” service delivery system. The results of the study may thus lead to improvements in HIV care 
and keep patients in care and hence alive longer. The results will also provide evidence about the feasibility 
of test-and-treat strategies in a low-resource setting and thus contribute to efforts to improve HIV prevention. 
If effective, this model has the potential to be easily scaled up, as the VIBRA model requires little additional 
human resources and logistics added to the current VHW programme. If this intervention is proven to be 
effective and cost-effective, the position of the CAN can be easily scaled up (only 1 per district).  
 
Specific benefits of our differentiated ART care/delivery model (“VIBRA model”): 
o 
It is embedded in an existing district health system and does not create an artificial research setting 
o 
It utilizes the well-established system of VHWs in Lesotho and similar settings and strengthens it 
o 
It reduces structural barriers for patients (time-consuming, expensive ART visits at the clinic) 
o 
It reduces the burden (=patient load) at healthcare facility, which helps alleviate the severe shortage 
of skilled healthcare workers in sub-Saharan Africa 
o 
It reduces clinic-based impediements, i.e. stigma by health facility staff, congestion at health facility 
o 
It is in-line with a) the Lesotho national Ministry of Health’s attempt and WHO’s strong recommen-
dation to decentralize care to the village level, c) UNAIDS’ global call for 2 million VHWs in support of 
HIV care, and d) Journal of International ADIS Society promotion for a differentiated care research 
agenda 
 
The long-term follow-up offers more robust long-term result 
 
Eligibility criteria were selected to be broad with the aim to include as many patients as possible forgenerali-
zability 
 
Through our planned cost-effectiveness analysis and the qualitative research we will be able to make an as-
sumption about the feasibility of our proposed differentiated ART care/delivery model 
 
We follow a strict and precise definition of retention and LTFU 
 
A team experienced in community-based HIV testing and ART initiation and a functional molecular laboratory 
on site, including a plasma bank, the research consortium has both the know-how and infrastructure required 
to conduct the research project proposed 
 
The results of this trial will not only inform ART programs in sub-Saharan Africa but also contribute an im-
portant piece of evidence to the ongoing policy debate on how to task-shift chronic disease care from facility- 
to community-based healthcare workers, as the burden of chronic non-communicable diseases in LMICs 
grows.119 

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14.2. CHALLENGES / LIMITATIONS 
 
Slow/poor recruitment during the door-to-door HTS campaign of HOSENG study resulting in not achieving 
targeted sample size for VIBRA study, therefore risking (a) premature discontinuation of the trial or (b) an 
underpowered trial and an inconclusive result. 
o 
Due to previous experience of the research consortium (esp. CASCADE trial), assumptions about re-
cruitment rates are reliable. 
o 
If needed: Extension of HTS campaign possible or HTS campaign during holidays (e.g. Easter) 
 
Participants may decide to access HIV care at a clinic that is not part of the study sites (“transfer out”). Other 
reasons for LTFU might occur. 
o 
By the nature of randomization, these participants should be equally distributed across all study 
arms, therefore transfers out should not introduce bias in our primary outcomes estimates. In addi-
tion, we have explicitly allowed for LTFU in our sample size calculation. 
o 
We have included transfer out as a secondary endpoint, including seeking participants at other health 
facilities if possible, in order not to underestimate linkage to and retention in care. 
 
The trial is not implemented in the whole country but selected districts 
o 
These districts, however, are representative for the country 
 
Children below 10 are excluded from the VIBRA model, hence it will not be possible to draw conclusions about 
the possible impact of the intervention on this age group 
 
The trial only includes persons tested during community-based HTS. It does not consider persons who receive 
their test at the facility. The population tested through home-based HTS may differ from the one reached 
through facility-based HTS. 
 
As in most operational research studies, we will have little control over what happens in our standard care 
arm. Standard of care continues to evolve rapidly in Africa. Guideline revisions are frequent, and clinicians and 
nurses at the study sites may learn from the intervention and make adjustments to routine care before the 
study is completed. E.g. risk of bias through introduction of other differentiated care/delivery models (e.g. 
CAG/CACs) 
o 
Training for health facility staff not to include any study patient into another differentiated ART 
care/delivery model such as CAC/CAGs 
o 
Any changes that occur will be reported by study staff and taken into consideration for analysis. 
 
The health facilities will serve both patients from the intervention and control clusters. Standard of care for 
the patients coming from control clusters might be affected due to less patient load, because the patients 
from intervention clusters are primarily served by the VHW and hence, quality of standard of care might in-
crease 
 
Risk of overburdening the VHW, which might lead to a reduction in quality and/or quantity of care (esp. for 
non-ART patients) 
o 
we carefully monitor the visits of patients at the VHW, the CAN supports them closely and we will 
assess their job satisfaction and perception of the intervention through semi-structured qualitative 
interviews 
 
Cost of establishing and running this differentiated care/delivery model 
o 
Cost consideration only minor, because VHW program exists already and likely to continue to run 
independently of whether VHW are tasked with ART supply. 
o 
Only position of CAN is new. But only 1 per district needed. Cost-Effectiveness Analysis will show if 
this added position is cost-effective. 
 
Model depends on performance of VHW and his/her trustworthyness within the community  
o 
We are confident that this is the case, because the VHW programme is a well-established, long-stand-
ing system, and the VHWs are selected by community themselves 
 
Generalizability of the results to other settings and to non-research conditions is uncertain 
 
Village-based ART refill by the VHW requires close clinical monitoring. 
o 
A specific safety and monitoring procedure has been developed with a pre-specified checklist that 
has to be followed by the VHW. Moreover, all VHW will undergo an intensive training before trial 
start. 
o 
Reassuringly Woodd et al. in a subanalysis in patients who started ART with a low CD4-cell count (<50 
cells/μL) as part of the cluster-randomized trial in Uganda did not find an increased rate of mortality 
among those who received ART at home after ART initiation as compared to those who received 
standard clinic-based care.120  

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 
Although the same-day ART initiation strategy is expected to increase the proportion of patients who do initi-
ate ART, there is a possibility that patients who accept same-day ART initiation will subsequently discontinue 
treatment. Results from CASCADE trial, however, suggest that the loss of treatment-eligible patients before 
starting ART exceeds loss after initiation. It is also likely that patients who discontinue treatment soon after 
same-day initiation may never have started at all, if only standard initiation had been offered. From CASCADE 
trial we suggest therefore that the intervention will have a net positive impact and hence, offer this approach 
in both study arms. 
 
The study design does not allow for evaluation of the effectiveness of each component of the VIBRA model 
which would require a study of substantially larger size.  
 
Challenge of keeping the confidentiality of a person’s HIV status: 
o 
VHW are dealing with this issue since a long time. They will all receive a lockable drawer cabinet to 
lock away confidential information. 
o 
All confidentail study documents will be stored securely (cf. chapter 1.5) 
o 
To protect against other violations of confidentiality, study staff will be trained in expectations that 
they are not to disclose any information collected in the study to anyone outside the study team. 
o 
All study participants will be encouraged to contact the study personel to report any undesirable 
conduct associated with the study. These reports will be brought to the attention of the PI, and ap-
propriate steps will be taken to solve the problems, including reporting to relevant ethical review 
boards. 
 
Assessing testing coverage implies that we know the total number of household members for our denomina-
tor. If this is not being assessed thoroughly by the campaign team or a household head does not mention all 
household members, we will underestimate the population 
o 
Before the trial starts, all study staff will undergo a in-depth training about the study and applying 
our definition of a household member will be one of the training aspects 
 
 
 
15. STUDY TIMELINE 
The study protocol of the VIBRA study is to be submitted for review for ethical approval. Ethics approval is sought from 
the National Health Research and Ethics Committee of Lesotho and the “Ethikkomission Nordwest- und Zen-
tralschweiz” (EKNZ) in Switzerland and the trial will only commence once both committes have awarded approval. We 
expect recruitment to start June/July 2018 and a total study duration of approximately 18 months. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Time line VIBRA study (excluding long-term follow-up) 
Calendar year 
2017 
2018 
2019 
Quarter of year 
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 
1 
2 
3 
4 
Preparation of study protocol and ethic approval, briefing of stakeholders, 
logistics preparation, recruitment of CAN, training of VHWs 
 
 
x x x x  
 
 
 
 
 
HTS campaign with recruitment of participants 
 
 
 
 
 
x x x 
 
 
 
 
Follow-up visits 
 
 
 
 
 
 
x x 
x 
x 
x 
x 
Assessment of outcomes 
 
 
 
 
 
 
x x 
x 
x 
x 
x 
Data management, analysis, writing of report, dissemination of results 
 
 
 
 
 
 
x x 
x 
x 
x 
x 
Note: Dissemination of results through different stakeholder meetings and publications will obviously continue in 2020. 
 
 
 

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Luque-Fernandez MA, Van Cutsem G, Goemaere E, et al. Effectiveness of Patient Adherence Groups as a Model of Care for Stable Pa-
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Martin Vandendyck. Community Based ART Resulted in Excellent Retention and Can Leverage Community Empowerment in Rural Leso-
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Vogt F, Kalenga L, Lukela J, et al. Brief Report: Decentralizing ART Supply for Stable HIV Patients to Community-Based Distribution Cen-
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Hall BJ, Sou K-L, Beanland R, et al. Barriers and Facilitators to Interventions Improving Retention in HIV Care: A Qualitative Evidence 
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McNairy ML, El-Sadr WM. The HIV care continuum: no partial credit given. AIDS Lond Engl. 2012;26(14):1735-1738. 
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Kanters S, Park JJH, Chan K, et al. Interventions to improve adherence to antiretroviral therapy: a systematic review and network meta-
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Elul B, Lamb MR, Lahuerta M, et al. A combination intervention strategy to improve linkage to and retention in HIV care following diag-
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McNairy ML, Lamb MR, Gachuhi AB, et al. Effectiveness of a combination strategy for linkage and retention in adult HIV care in Swazi-
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Lester RT, Ritvo P, Mills EJ, et al. Effects of a mobile phone short message service on antiretroviral treatment adherence in Kenya 
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Fjeldsoe BS, Marshall AL, Miller YD. Behavior change interventions delivered by mobile telephone short-message service. Am J Prev 
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Haberer JE, Kiwanuka J, Nansera D, Wilson IB, Bangsberg DR. Challenges in using mobile phones for collection of antiretroviral therapy 
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Mukund Bahadur K-C, Murray PJ. Cell phone short messaging service (SMS) for HIV/AIDS in South Africa: a literature review. Stud Health 
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Geldsetzer P, Francis JM, Ulenga N, et al. The impact of community health worker-led home delivery of antiretroviral therapy on viro-
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17. APPENDIX 
17.1. TB SCREENING 
TB screening tool, adapted from “NATIONAL GUIDELINES ON THE USE OF ANTIRETROVIRAL THERAPY FOR HIV PRE-
VENTION AND TREATMENT (May 2016), ANNEX 17: TB SCREENING TOOL97: 
 
For HIV-negative individuals: 
 
Adults / Adolescents YES NO 
1. Are you coughing, persistently since 2 weeks? 
2. Have you lost weight (without trying) of more than 1.5 kg in a month? 
3. Do you have drenching/soaking sweats at night, persistently since 2 weeks? 
4. Do you have fevers, persistently since 2 weeks? 
 
Infants / Children YES NO 
1. Has the child been coughing, persistently since 2 weeks? 
2. Has the child had a fever, persistently since 2 weeks? 
3. Failure to thrive / faltering growth or signs of severe malnutrition? 
4. Has the child been in contact with someone with TB disease? 
 
[__] If “Yes” to any question above, then the patient is a TB suspect. 
 
For HIV-positive individuals: 
 
Adults / Adolescents YES NO 
1. Are you coughing? 
2. Have you lost weight (without trying) of more than 1.5 kg in a month? 
3. Do you have drenching/soaking sweats at night? 
4. Do you have fevers? 
 
Infants / Children YES NO 
1. Has the child been coughing? 
2. Has the child had a fever? 
3. Failure to thrive / faltering growth or signs of severe malnutrition? 
4. Has the child been in contact with someone with TB disease? 
 
[__] If “Yes” to any question above, then the patient is a TB suspect. 
 
 
17.2. MEDICAL HISTORY CHECKLIST 
Feature of same-day ART initiation: Medical history checklist 
1. Is the patient pregnant? Yes/No/not applicable 
 
If yes,  
o 
expected date of delivery?  
o 
next scheduled ANC visit?  
2. Have you been on ART before ? Yes/No 
 
If yes,  
o 
when did you start taking ART before and when did you stop taking ART before?  
o 
why did you stop taking ART? (options available) 
o 
what was the ART regimen? (options available) 
3. Have you been on PMTCT, PrEP or PEP before? Yes/No 
 
If yes,  
o 
when did you start taking PMTCT, PrEP or PEP before and when did you stop taking PMTCT, PrEP or 
PEP before?  
o 
what was the PMTCT, PrEP or PEP regimen? (options available) 
4. History of TB? Yes/No 
5. Are you currently on TB treatment? Yes/No 

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 
If yes,  
o 
when did you start taking TB treatment?  
 
(if within last two weeks, then no same-day ART initiation and management by health facility) 
6. Have you been told that you have other diseases or health problems besides HIV? Yes/No 
 
If yes,  
o 
what other diseases or conditions do you have? 
7. Are you currently taking any medication? Yes/No 
 
If yes,  
o 
specify  
 
(specifically ask for a) anti-epilepsy medication, b) metformin, c) incl. traditional herbal medication) 
8. Do you currently smoke dagga? Yes/No 
9. Do you currently smoke cigarettes/nicotin? Yes/No 
 
17.3. PHYSICAL EXAMINATION CHECKLIST 
Feature of same-day ART initiation: Physical examination checklist 
1. Body weight  
2. Does the patient report any diarrhoea? Yes/No 
 
If yes,  
o 
specify (date of onset, frequency, colour) 
 
If yes: After examination, do you suggest referral with further consultation before starting ART? Yes/No 
3. Does the patient report any headache? Yes/No 
 
If yes,  
o 
specify (date of onset, location, pain intensity) 
 
If yes: After examination, do you suggest referral with further consultation before starting ART? Yes/No 
4. Does the patient report any symptoms (other than the above mentioned)? Yes/No 
 
If yes,  
o 
Specify 
 
If yes: After examination, do you suggest referral with further consultation before starting ART? Yes/No 
5. Does the patient present oral thrush? Yes/No 
6. Does the patient present any abnormal skin lesions (incl. lips, scalp)? Yes/No 
 
If yes,  
o 
specify 
7. Does the patient present any lymphadenopathie? Yes/No 
 
If yes,  
o 
specify location 
8. Does the patient present any other condition? Yes/No 
 
If yes,  
o 
Specify 
 
If yes: Does this condition(s) suggest referral with further consultation before starting ART is needed? Yes/No 
9. WHO stage 
 
17.4. READINESS ASSESSMENT CHECKLIST 
Feature of same-day ART initiation: Readiness assessment 
1. What do you think: How will you remember to take your medication every day?  (choose from below) 
 
Mobile phone reminder 
 
Alarm on a clock or watch 
 
Ask someone to remind me 
 
Use a calendar or diary 
 
Take my tablets at the same time as I do something else every day (like brushing my teeth) 
 
No reminders, I'll just remember 
 
Other way (specify) 
2. Is there anything that will stop you from taking your tablets every day? Yes/No 
 
If yes,  
o 
specify 
3. If you should start ART today, how ready are you? (choose from below) 
 
Ready today 

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 
Thinking about starting in the coming days -> If yes: indicate date of suggested ART start 
 
Not ready 
4. Did the patient raise any issues or serious concerns that lead you to think that ART should be delayed? Yes/No 
 
If yes,  
o 
specify 
 
 
 
 

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17.5. FOLLOW-UP CHECKLIST 
Feature of VIBRA model: medical checklist for the follow-up, that will be filled in by VHWs and staff at the health 
facilities. This checklist will be translated into Sesotho, the local language. 
 
 
 

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17.6. TRACKING TOOL 
Feature of VIBRA model: tool for standardized tracking system (excerpt, will be translated into Sesotho) 
If patient does not show up for ART visit, make a first attempt 1-2 days later: 
Nr 
Date of attempt  What kind of attempt? 
Outcome (if successful) 
1 
.. 
(dd.mm.yyyy) 
 Phone call 
 
 SMS/WhatsApp 
 Home visit 
 
 info via family member / 
close friend 
 will come back to care 
 died; Date: ..; Cause of death:_________________________ 
 decided to get care somewhere else; clinic name: _____________________ 
date of transfer out: .. 
 Lost to follow-up (no info found about the patient) 
 other: ________________________________________________________ 
 
If attempt unsuccessful, make a second attempt 1 day later: 
Nr 
Date of attempt  What kind of attempt? 
Outcome (if successful) 
2 
.. 
(dd.mm.yyyy) 
 Phone call 
 
 SMS/WhatsApp 
 Home visit 
 
 info via family member / 
close friend 
 will come back to care 
 died; Date: ..; Cause of death: _________________________ 
 decided to get care somewhere else; clinic name: _____________________ 
date of transfer out: .. 
 Lost to follow-up (no info found about the patient) 
 other: ________________________________________________________ 
 
If attempt unsuccessful, make a third attempt 1 day later: 
Nr 
Date of attempt  What kind of attempt? 
Outcome (if successful) 
3 
.. 
(dd.mm.yyyy) 
 Phone call 
 
 SMS/WhatsApp 
 Home visit 
 
 info via family member / 
close friend 
 will come back to care 
 died; Date: ..; Cause of death: _________________________ 
 decided to get care somewhere else; clinic name: _____________________ 
date of transfer out: .. 
 Lost to follow-up (no info found about the patient) 
 other: ________________________________________________________ 
 
If attempt still unsuccessful, inform your CAN 
 

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1.6. STAFF LIST (INCL. CVS, DIPLOMA, GCP) 
We refer to attached document, called “VIBRA study_staff list” 
All necessary and available CVs, diploma and GCP certificates are attached, too. 
 
1.7. INFORMED CONSENT FORMS 
We refer to attached documents, called “VIBRA_ICF-CG” and “VIBRA_ICF-IG” 
 
1.8. CASE REPORT FORM 
We refer to attached document, called “GET ON_CRF” 
 
17.7. MATERIAL TRANSFER AGREEMENT 
We refer to attached document, called “GET ON_MTA”