Project TEACH-Kenya

Public health programs and policies have utilized the "combination prevention" model of bringing together tailored, proven interventions in order to reduce the global impact of HIV. Project TEACH-Kenya adapts two effective HIV interventions, Project BRIEF (Behavioral intervention, Rapid HIV test, Innovative video, Efficient cost and health care savings, Facilitated seamless care) and STEP (Skill-based Teenage Education Program for HIV prevention) to increase HIV testing and counseling rates, implement proven risk reduction programs, and improve rates of linkage to care and ART initiation among adolescents in Kenya. The collaboration with St. Francis Community Hospital and input from the Kasarani community will increase the breadth, reach, and impact of this HIV prevention intervention in Kenya.

In 2010, HIV/AIDS accounted for up to 29% of all deaths and 24% of all disabilities in Kenya. There is a particular need to concentrate HIV education, testing, and linkage-to-care efforts among high-risk adolescents; by age 18, 47% of women and 58% of men have had sexual intercourse. Only one in four young Kenyans used condoms the first time they had sex, and only half of 15-24 year olds had comprehensive HIV knowledge. The goal of this intervention, Project TEACH-Kenya, is to adapt two proven HIV interventions, Project BRIEF and STEP, to an urban setting in the Kasarani District of the Nairobi Province, Kenya. According to the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) Five-Year Strategy, a successful prevention program brings together a combination of evaluated, tailored interventions, to stem the spread of HIV infection among high-risk populations. This synergistic model, referred to as combination prevention, serves as the basis for adapting the current intervention encompassing HIV testing and counseling, risk behavior reduction programs, and linkage to care and ART initiation to the Kenyan context. Project TEACH-Kenya will develop tailored, theory-based educational videos, linkage procedures, and a tailored prevention program for adolescents 13-18 years old and pilot and test the intervention at St. Francis Community Hospital, a high volume community-based hospital in Kasarani. The majority of adolescents that access St. Francis's services are orphan and vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS (OVC-HIV) who are disproportionately poor and malnourished and are at increased risk for acquiring HIV, stressing the need for this intervention. The outcome of this project will be a feasible, evidence-based, cost- and time-effective program to improve HIV education and increase testing and linkage-to-care rates among adolescents in Kenya.

Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

* Women and minorities will not be excluded from this research study. We will include only adolescents ages 13-18 at time of recruitment in this study, because that is the age group that we are targetting for this intervention. Residents must be of the St. Francis Hospital catchment area

Exclusion Criteria:

* Over the age of 18 and under the age of 13. Unable to understand the consent process for the study; or otherwise unable to consent to HIV testing.