Integrating hepatitis research and services into current care: Lessons from implementing team

Abstract

In 2016, a consortium of partners initiated a national cross-sectional study on viral hepatitis B and C among high-risk populations in South Africa. Counselling, prevention, testing and referral services were integrated into programmes that were already implementing HIV prevention services to the included populations. After study completion, we undertook a process of reflecting on challenges and lessons learned from the perspective of the service provision team. In this article, we highlight three key takeaways: additional activities can have exponential increases in workload; insufficient inclusion of service providers at planning stages has multiple long-term costs; and having to repeatedly relay infectious disease diagnoses to service users can carry an emotional toll for service providers.