Symposium 5

Sponsored session: STICH Trial Group
Disclosing results of the STICH Trial: Assessment of the impact of STI management for youth aged 16-24 years on population prevalence of STIs in Harare and Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

Venue: Gwayi Conference Room

Youth are at high risk of STIs. However, syndromic management of STIs, the recommended approach, has poor sensitivity and specificity.

We evaluated diagnostic STI testing offered as part of a comprehensive package of community-based sexual and reproductive health service (CHIEDZA – www.chiedza.co.zw) for youth aged 16-24 years in Zimbabwe (the STICH trial). The aim of the trial was to measure the impact of unselected STI testing and treatment of adolescents and young people on population-level STI prevalence.

The STICH intervention consisted of outreach, promotion and mobilisation strategies applied to STI services, with unselected testing for chlamydia and gonorrhoea (males and females), and self-collected vaginal swab testing for trichomonas (females), and treatment offered for those positive and their partners. The intervention was implemented in two provinces in Zimbabwe (Harare and Bulawayo) and four clusters in each province, for a 12-month period ending in December 2021. It was followed by a population based cross sectional survey of over 4800 youth in 16 clusters which ended in March 2022.

The findings from this trial will be shared for the first time as part of this symposium which will also cover findings from critical STI management elements such as STI testing and treatment uptake and STI partner notification for adolescents and youth which was also evaluated as part of the trial.

The symposium will be led by The Health Research Unit Zimbabwe (THRU-ZIM) at the Biomedical Research and Training Institute (www.thruzim.org).