Efficacy of HIV interventions in African fishing communities: A systematic review and qualitative synthesis

Objectives: This systematic review aims to qualitatively synthesize existing evidence on the efficacy of HIV interventions in African fishing communities. 

Methods: Five databases (NCBI PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science Core Collection, The Cochrane Library, and CABI Global Health Database) were searched in March 2019 for eligible studies. All peer-reviewed papers with a defined HIV intervention explicitly mentioning African fishing communities were included. Outcomes included any measure of the efficacy of HIV interventions. 

Results: Of 22,289 search results, data was extracted from 25 eligible studies that passed critical appraisal; seven involved HIV prevention, six HIV testing and counseling, three treatment, and nine combinations of more than one intervention. Findings include a high coverage of safe male circumcision (SMC) but low condom use among fisher folk, and a preference for PrEP over other HIV prevention services. Uptake of HIV testing and ART coverage are below levels required to reach UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets, and there is a high demand for ART and HIV self-testing kits. 

Conclusions: Greater provision of services to combat HIV, specifically amongst fishing communities, is required; there is limited information on retaining fisher folk in care and achieving an undetectable viral load. Interventions tailored to individual fishing populations, offered in parallel to education or counseling services are likely to be most effective. Use of innovations, including mobile health and medical drones, could assist these hard-to-reach populations. Our findings will inform future HIV service provision in fishing communities.