“We aim to pave the path to HIV elimination through the entry point of improving community health.”
Diane Havlir, MD,
Principal Investigator
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Mission
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The research study uses bold, new ideas—like multi-disease, community-based testing and treatment—to address more than HIV. We are addressing other health conditions (hypertension, tuberculosis, diabetes, HPV vaccination), economic productivity, and cultural stigma.
What is SEARCH?
INFO
SEARCH team at Working Retreat in Kampala
The newest addition to SEARCH, SEARCH Sapphire: “A Multisectoral Strategy to Address Persistent drivers of the HIV epidemic in East Africa” aims to accelerate the path to HIV elimination with new innovative combination strategies for HIV prevention and treatment that are effective, efficient, scalable and reduce preventable infections and deaths. The NIH-funded research program will design and test evidence-based treatment and prevention interventions, including long-acting Cabotegravir, that will guide a global effort to end AIDS using a multi-disease, multi-sector approach using a community precision health model.
Community precision health is a new concept being introduced by the SEARCH team that builds on tenets of population health, implementation science, and precision medicine. It brings 21st century technology and data systems to reach the right persons with the right interventions. A central goal of our community precision health intervention is to build the capacity of community health workers to extend the reach of the Ministry of Health systems.
SEARCH (Sustainable East Africa Research in Community Health) is a multinational, multidisciplinary consortium assembled to conduct research that evaluates bold health interventions at the community level that inform policy makers and funding agencies through the inclusion of health, economic and education parameters and through innovative, efficient study designs. SEARCH currently is located in multiple communities in rural Uganda and Kenya. Collaborators for this study include Kenya Medical Research Institute in Kenya, Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration and Makerere University in Uganda, University of California Berkeley, University of Pennsylvania, and University College London.
Background
Despite effective treatments, nearly one in four of the 40 million people living with HIV are still not accessing treatment. This gap exists largely because health workers in developing countries struggle to reach HIV-infected individuals. SEARCH interventions are designed to improve the entire continuum of care, to reduce structural barriers for all populations including those most “at risk” and build upon evidence based prevention interventions. This information will guide a global effort to end AIDS.
OPPORTUNITY
Now & the Future
SEARCH represents an opportunity to realize HIV elimination and to improve community health and productivity.
SEARCH Phase I (2013-2017) showed that multi-disease, community-based testing and treatment is effective and reduces stigma and HIV disease. This strategy improved control of hypertension and reduced deaths among adults with hypertension. We also showed that this strategy increased workforce participation.
SEARCH Phase II (2017-2020) focused on new health and treatment models for adolescents and young adults; HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP); treatment models for tuberculosis; and novel electronic technologies for community health.
SEARCH SAPPHIRE (2021-2026) aims to accelerate the path to HIV elimination with new innovative combination strategies for HIV prevention and treatment that are effective, efficient, scalable and reduce preventable infections and deaths associated with HIV, hypertension and TB in children and adults using a community precision health model.
The results of SEARCH will help to guide the global effort to end AIDS, putting the person at the center of services.
IMPACT
SEARCH Science
PEOPLE
Leadership
Diane Havlir, MD
Co-Principal Investigator
Professor of Medicine and Chief, Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, University of California, San Francisco
Moses Kamya, MBChB, MMed, MPH, PhD
Co-Principal Investigator
Professor of Medicine and past Dean of the School of Medicine at Makerere University College of Health Sciences and Director or the Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration in Kampala, Uganda
Maya Petersen, MD, PhD
Co-Principal Investigator
Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Co-Director of Joint Program in Computational Precision Health
Co-Director for Targeted Machine Learning and Causal Inference
at the School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley
Simplified Isoniazid Preventive Therapy (IPT) Strategy to Reduce TB Burden
Investigative Team
Gabriel Chamie, MD, MPH
Study Vice Chair / Investigator
University of California, San Francisco
James Ayieko, MBChB, MPH, PhD
Investigator
Kenya Medical Research Institute
Theodore Ruel, MD
Study Vice Chair / Investigator
University of California, San Francisco
Laura Balzer, PhD
Study Statistician / Investigator
University of California, Berkeley
Jane Kabami, MPH
Investigator
Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration, Uganda
Elijah Kakande, MBChB, MPH
Investigator
Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration
Carol Camlin, MPH, PhD
Investigator
University of California, San Francisco
Tamara Clark, MHS
Executive Administrator /Investigator
University of California, San Francisco
Eric Goosby, MD
Investigator
University of California, San Francisco
Judy Hahn, MA, PhD
Investigator
University of California, San Francisco
Priscilla Hsue, MD
Investigator
University of California, San Francisco
Catherine Koss, MD
Investigator
University of California, San Francisco
Florence Mwangwa, MBChB, MPH
Investigator
Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration
Marilyn Nyabuti, MBChB
Investigator
Kenya Medical Research Institute
Asiphas Owaraganise, MBChB, MMed
Investigator
Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration
Andrew Phillips, MSc, PhD
Modelling / Investigator
University College London
Norton Sang, MA
Investigator
Kenya Medical Research Institute
Starley Shade, MPH, PhD
Investigator
University of California, San Francisco
Harsha Thurimurthy, PhD
Economist / Investigator
University of Pennsylvania
Elizabeth Bukusi, MBChB, MMed, MPH, PhD
Kenya Site PI / Investigator
Kenya Medical Research Institute
Edwin Charlebois, MPH, PhD
Investigator
University of California, San Francisco
The SEARCH collaboration conducted a cluster randomised trial in Uganda among district-level health managers. The study randomly assigned clusters of between four and seven managers in a 1:1 ratio to intervention or control groups. The intervention convened managers into mini-collaboratives facilitated by Ugandan experts in tuberculosis and HIV, and provided business leadership and management training, SMS platform access, and data feedback. In a recent publication from Dr. Ejiah Kakande, et al., in Lancet HIV, it was reported that after accounting for large increases in IPT from a 100-day push in both groups, the intervention led to significantly increased IPT rates, sustained after the push and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings suggest that interventions centred on mid-level health managers can improve IPT implementation on a large, subnational scale, and merit further exploration to address key public health challenges for which strong evidence exists but implementation remains suboptimal.
You can read the full article here
INFO
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A prospective cohort study of the SEARCH integrated HIV/hypertension community health worker-led intervention in rural Kenya and Uganda. Hickey et al. JIAS. 2025 Jul;Suppl 3(Suppl 3):e26500. PMID: 40622370. PMCID: PMC12232486.
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Dynamic choice HIV prevention with cabotegravir long-acting injectable in rural Uganda and Kenya: A randomized trial extension. Kamya et al. Lancet HIV. 2024 Nov;11(11):e736-e745. PMID: 39395424. PMCID: PMC11753513.
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Randomized trial of dynamic choice prevention at antenatal and postnatal care clinics in rural Uganda and Kenya. Kabami, et al. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2024 Apr 15; 95(5);447-455. PMID: 38489493; PMCID: PMC10927304.
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Dynamic choice HIV prevention intervention at outpatient departments in rural Kenya and Uganda: a randomized trial. Koss, et al. AIDS. 2023 Oct 20. PMID: 37861683.
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A community-based dynamic choice model for HIV prevention improves PreP and PEP coverage in rural Uganda and Kenya: a cluster randomized trial. Kakande, et al. J Int AIDS Soc. 2023 Dec;26(12):e26195. PMID: 38054535; PMCID: PMC10698808.
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The association between social network characteristics and tuberculosis infection among adults in 9 rural Ugandan communities. Marquez et al. Clin Infect Dis. 2023 Feb 8;76(3):e902-e909. PMID: 35982635. PMCID: PMC10169405.
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HIV incidence after pre-exposure prophylaxis initiation among women and men at elevated HIV risk: A population-based study in rural Kenya and Uganda. Koss et al. PLOS Med. 2021 Feb 9;18(2):e1003492. PMID: 33561143. PMCID: PMC7872279.
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HIV Testing and Treatment with the Use of a Community Health Approach in Rural Africa. Havlir et al. N Engl J Med. 2019 Jul 18; 381(3): 219-229. PMID: 31314966. PMCID: PMC6748325.
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Association of implementation of a universal testing and treatment intervention with HIV diagnosis, receipt of antiretroviral therapy, and viral suppression in East Africa. Petersen et al. JAMA. 2017;317(21):2196-2206. PMID: 28586888. PMCID: PMC5734234.
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A hybrid mobile approach for population-wide HIV testing in rural east Africa: an observational study. Chamie et al. Lancet HIV. 2016 Mar: 3(3): e111-9: Epub 2016 Jan 26. PMID: 26939734. PMCID: PMC4780220.
Highly Anticipated First Results of SEARCH SAPPHIRE “Dynamic Choice” intervention presented at CROI 2024
At the 31th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2024), SEARCH researchers, Professor Moses Kamya (pictured above) of Makerere University and Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration presented results of the second phase of the Dynamic Choice Prevention Intervention (Phase I Findings presented at CROI 2023 can be found here), which included the addition of Long-Acting Cabotegravir (CAB-LA), alongside oral PrEP and PEP. The SEARCH intervention increased the amount of time a person was taking a HIV product by five-fold and dramatically reduced the number of new HIV infections versus the standard of care.
SEARCH engages communities and local leadership in a multi-disease approach to improve health screening, care delivery and individual and community well-being.
Impacting HIV outcomes in Youth populations
Population-Level Improvements of Hypertension Control with Integrated Community Strategy
In early 2022, Dr. Florence Mwangwa and SEARCH team published results on youth living with HIV in the SEARCH communities in AIDS Care . The youth-focused study determined the association of recent significant life-events with HIV antiretroviral treatment (ART) initiation and HIV viral suppression in youth aged 15–24 years living with HIV in rural Kenya and Uganda. The research suggests that two or more recent life-events and alcohol use are key barriers to ART initiation and achievement of viral suppression among youth living with HIV in rural East Africa. The SEARCH consortium continues working with youth in finding new innovative interventions to impact HIV infection reduction in this population.
You can read the full article here
At the 2025 International AIDS conference in Kigali, Rwanda, Dr. Matt Hickey shared early results of the SEARCH population-level community precision health strategy. By extending care into the community via community health workers supervised by clinic-based providers, we observed improvement of blood pressure control on a population level of 14,000 adults.
Click on article title to get PDF file of publication.
SEARCH Program Highlights
SEARCH Research has produced ~150 peer-reviewed publications since 2012
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