Khetha, an HIV counselling web-based platform for youth: description of usage in Khayelitsha, South Africa. (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Youth-friendly services increase the uptake of HIV testing among 12-24 year olds. Medecins Sans Frontieres, partnered with Aviro Health to develop a series of youth-friendly sexual health educational videos, as well as a digital HIV counselling support syllabus, the “HIV Journey”. Both were hosted on a data-free web-based platform, named Khetha. OBJECTIVE To determine if Khetha would encourage youth to link to testing, and if youth would use the platform when undertaking an HIV test, a pilot was conducted at 2 youth clinics in the peri-urban, low socioeconomic suburb of Khayelitsha in Cape Town, South Africa. METHODS Recruitment ran from October 2020 to March 2021, with 3 methods utilised: a peer-recruiter enrolled youth in the waiting room of the clinics, 2 outreach events were held in the community surrounding the clinics, and 2 Facebook advertising campaigns were run. Youth were supplied a pamphlet, or Facebook-messaged, a unique code which allowed access to Khetha. Youth could undertake the “HIV Journey” at any time or place, but if they went for an HIV test at either clinic they could choose to enter their results into Khetha, with the counsellor entering a unique code to verify the test was conducted. All data was collected by the platform. RESULTS 182 users accessed Khetha, with 142 choosing to register. Of which, 117 undertook the “HIV Journey” (101 recruited at clinic, 15 via Facebook, 2 via outreach). Of these, 82% (96/117) completed the pre-test information component, and 24% (28/117) completed post-test counselling. 22% (21/96), all recruited at the clinic, opted to enter their result, of which 7 were positive. 20 educational videos were available on Khetha, and were watched 374 times, with the top 3 being: Female Condom - Femaler (100), Going for the Test - Female (50), and PrEP - Female (42). CONCLUSIONS Khetha use was highest within facility, suggesting benefit in making youth-friendly digital platforms available at testing sites. The high video views reaffirm the need for youth-friendly educational materials.