Seek, Test, Treat Strategies for Vietnamese Drug Users: A Random Controlled Trial (Project VISTA), Vietnam, 2013

This study is part of the Seek, Test, Treat and Retain (STTR) Collaboration Project that involved over twenty studies in the fields of HIV and drug abuse. All studies were independently developed, but were chosen for the collaboration because they focused on one or more steps of the HIV treatment cascade: Seek, Test, Treat and Retain. As part of STTR Collaboration Project, the studies were grouped into Criminal Justice-related studies and Vulnerable Population-related studies. The data collected by these studies included twelve common domains (e.g., Demographic characteristics, Mental Health) in each of which a shared questionnaire or instrument was taken up by the studies and adapted to fit the study.
Project VISTA offers drug users in Vietnam HIV testing and counseling (HTC). The primary outcome measure for this study was suppression of HIV-1 viral load below 400 copies/mL (measured at the 6 and 12 month visits). Secondary outcome measures included self-reported antiretroviral adherence, changes in CD4 cell counts, and quality of life.
A secondary seek/test study will be done to evaluate uptake of HIV testing and counseling by network referrals from the RCT participants (the data files will not be part of the STTR integrated data).