{"doi":"10.17615/ydrj-7c44","title":"Index case finding facilitates identification and linkage to care of children and young persons living with HIV/AIDS in Malawi","abstract":"OBJECTIVES: Evaluation of a novel index case finding and linkage-to-care programme to identify and link HIV-infected children (1-15 years) and young persons (>15-24 years) to care. METHODS: HIV-infected patients enrolled in HIV services were screened and those who reported untested household members (index cases) were offered home- or facility-based HIV testing and counselling (HTC) of their household by a community health worker (CHW). HIV-infected household members identified were enrolled in a follow-up programme offering home and facility-based follow-up by CHWs. RESULTS: Of the 1567 patients enrolled in HIV services, 1030 (65.7%) were screened and 461 (44.8%) identified as index cases; 93.5% consented to HIV testing of their households and of those, 279 (64.7%) reported an untested child or young person. CHWs tested 711 children and young persons, newly diagnosed 28 HIV-infected persons (yield 4.0%; 95% CI: 2.7-5.6), and identified an additional two HIV-infected persons not enrolled in care. Of the 30 HIV-infected persons identified, 23 (76.6%) were linked to HIV services; 18 of the 20 eligible for ART (90.0%) were initiated. Median time (IQR) from identification to enrolment into HIV services was 4 days (1-8) and from identification to ART start was 6 days (1-8). CONCLUSIONS: Almost half of HIV-infected patients enrolled in treatment services had untested household members, many of whom were children and young persons. Index case finding, coupled with home-based testing and tracked follow-up, is acceptable, feasible and facilitates the identification and timely linkage to care of HIV-infected children and young persons.","journal":"UNC Libraries","year":2020,"id":139342,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9523,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":602699,"name":"Mwelura Harawa","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":602700,"name":"Spencer Dick","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":371900,"name":"Katherine Simon","orcid":"0000-0001-9232-2653","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":264139,"name":"Saeed Ahmed","orcid":"0000-0002-9483-2355","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":602701,"name":"Elijah Kavuta","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":371897,"name":"Rachael A. Sabelli","orcid":"0000-0001-8531-7602","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":371893,"name":"Maria H. Kim","orcid":"0000-0001-6190-7798","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":602702,"name":"Frank Linzie","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":312051,"name":"Nora E. Rosenberg","orcid":"0000-0002-9759-9966","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":371901,"name":"Peter N. Kazembe","orcid":"0000-0002-7445-0405","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:17:10.185988Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}