Exploring Attitudes towards HIV testing amongst wealthy men in Tanzania

Lunch provided from 12pm  (Please register your FREE place)

12.30 - 2pm - Discussion and presentation

Speaker: Dr Kevin Deane 

Exploring Attitudes towards HIV testing amongst wealthy men in Tanzania

Authors: Kevin Deane¹, Joyce Wamoyi², Samwel Mgunga², John Changalucha²

¹University of Northampton, UK /  ²National Institute for Medical Research, Tanzania

HIV has long been viewed as a disease of poverty, despite evidence from Demographic Health Surveys (DHS) that shows that HIV prevalence rates are often highest in the wealthiest quintile for both men and women, especially in East Africa. However, for a range of reasons, this evidence has largely been ignored in policy making and academic circles, in part because it was assumed that the wealthiest would be the first to respond to the epidemic by changing their (sexual) behaviour. In relation to HIV testing, there is also an assumption that policy and programmes designed to encourage testing should focus on the poor. Whilst reported testing rates are lower in poorer quintiles, there are still significant numbers of wealthy men who have not taken a HIV test. This presentation will reflect on initial findings from a research project designed to understand attitudes towards HIV testing amongst wealthy men, and the barriers to testing they face that are related to their wealth and status, based on 23 in-depth interviews conducted with wealthy men in Mwanza City, Tanzania.

Author Bios

Kevin Deane is a Senior Lecturer in International Development at the University of Northampton, UK. His educational background is in development economics, but his research draws on a range of disciplines including political economy, development studies, economics, public health and epidemiology. His research interests continue to focus on the political economy and social determinants of health, with application to the HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa.

Joyce Wamoyi is a social and Behavioural researcher and has worked on various health topic areas for over 17 years. She has vast experience in the following topic areas: Adolescents and Young people’s Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) behaviour; HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment uptake; Gender and sexuality; Socio-cultural aspects of HIV and Sexually transmitted infections in general; Parenting/ families and child outcomes; stigma and discrimination in adolescent access to SRH services; Malaria in pregnancy; and qualitative and participatory research methods. In her work, she has explored the dynamics of transactional sex in adolescents and young women's sexual relationships in Tanzania and is currently a co-leader for the transactional sex working group of the STRIVE research programme consortium and a member of the Tanzanian adolescent health stakeholder's working group.

Samwel Mgunga is currently the Project Coordinator for the Cash Transfer Evaluation Study at the National Institute for Medical Research in Mwanza, Tanzania. He was the coordinator for the project titled Exploring Attitudes towards HIV testing amongst Wealthy men, and has also worked as research assistant on a number of projects in Tanzania including Skilful Parenting and Agribusiness and a project on Transactional sex that was conducted in rural and urban Mwanza. He is a graduate of the University of Dar Es Salam, Tanzania.

John Changalucha is a medical microbiologist with research interest on intervention trials, Sexual and Reproductive Health of young people and diagnostics for Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs). He has over thirty years of research experience in studies of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases. He has worked on HIV prevention intervention trials among young people and high risk women. He has evaluated the impact of a sexual and reproductive health education programme on HIV and other STIs among young people, and the impact of vaginal microbides and HSV2 suppressive therapy on HIV acquisition among high risk women. He has carried out studies aimed at improving access to sexual and reproductive health services for young people. He has evaluated simple and rapid diagnostic tests for syphilis which could be used at primary health care. He has carried out studies on HPV vaccine and he is currently the site PI of a trial evaluating whether a single dose of a 2-valent vaccine that protects against HPV16/18, and of a new 9-valent vaccine that protects against 9 HPV genotypes, produces immune responses that are non-inferior to those with 3 doses when given to HIV negative girls aged 9-14 years in a malaria endemic region of Tanzania.

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