HUTS 2 or the Healthcare UTilisation and Seroprevalence Repeat Survey, is a big COVID-19 research study that is returning Mitchells Plain & Edendale.

We aim to learn more about the effect the COVID-19 pandemic had on the people of South Africa.

We are doing a questionnaire with invited people that answered our questions during the last HUTS wave. We’ll also be taking a small amount of blood from them to find out if they have had COVID-19 in the past, and very importantly what their current HIV status & viral load is.

This is so crucial because during COVID-19, the HIV pandemic in South Africa has continued to affect millions of people across our country. Many people struggled to get their ARVs as lockdowns, pay and job cuts made getting to clinics difficult. So its important to know how this has impacted many people living with this disease.

Currently, our teams are in training. Our teams of nurses, drivers and data collectors have been trained on our study protocol and are now doing team building exercises.

We have found that getting to know each other and having some fun together is a crucial part of working in effective teams and collecting high quality data.

Take a look at our photos below to see some of our team building activities.

This study is being conducted by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), Genesis Analytics and Epicentre Health Research.

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