Research-grade testing, backed by published evidence.
Every blood test at an Epicentre walk-in lab runs on the same SANAS-accredited laboratory infrastructure that supports more than 100 peer-reviewed studies across the past two decades.
When you walk in, you walk into research-grade infrastructure
Our clinical work and our research work share the same laboratories, the same accreditation framework, and many of the same people. There is no separate "patient lab" and "research lab".
Same laboratories
The platforms that processed samples for our HIV, COVID-19 and STI studies are the same ones that process your walk-in blood test.
Same standards
SANAS-accredited, GCP and GCLP certified processes apply to every sample we touch, whether it's a clinical trial sample or a routine wellness panel.
Every test funds the research
Revenue from walk-in testing sustains the nonprofit research programme. Your sample stays clinical and your results stay private. Only the money supports the wider work.
Proud past & present study partners
Most recent peer-reviewed research
Featured papers from 2025 and 2026. The full archive starts below.
Identifying strategies to engage youth in health campaigns through media and technology: a qualitative investigation
View onlinePsychosocial and behavioural factors associated with HIV among adolescent girls and young women in DREAMS districts in South Africa
View onlineOptimising syphilis screening in South Africa: efficacy of the iStatis antibody test in point-of-care settings amid reinfection challenges
View onlineEvaluating reaction videos of young people watching edutainment media (MTV Shuga): qualitative observational study
View onlineExploring the intersection of young men's mobile-internet use, gender attitudes and intimate relationship dynamics: a mixed-methods study
View onlineEvaluating the intensity of exposure to MTV Shuga, an edutainment program for HIV prevention: cross-sectional study in Eastern Cape, South Africa
View onlinePublications by year
Every Epicentre-affiliated peer-reviewed publication and study report, from 2005 to today.
2026
2025
- Psychosocial and behavioural factors associated with HIV among adolescent girls and young women in DREAMS districts in South Africa: cross-sectional survey View online →
- Optimising syphilis screening in South Africa: efficacy of the iStatis antibody test in point-of-care settings amid reinfection challenges View online →
- Evaluating reaction videos of young people watching edutainment media (MTV Shuga): qualitative observational study View online →
- Exploring the intersection of young men's mobile-internet use, gender attitudes and intimate relationship dynamics: a mixed-methods study View online →
2024
- Home-based testing as an approach to estimate influenza vaccine effectiveness in South Africa, 2021 to 2022: a pilot study View online →
- Evaluating the intensity of exposure to MTV Shuga, an edutainment program for HIV prevention: cross-sectional study in Eastern Cape, South Africa View online →
- Exposure to comprehensive sexuality education in schools in South Africa: the implications on the uptake of HIV testing services among HIV positive adolescent girls View online →
2023
- Seroprevalence survey of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody and associated factors in South Africa: findings of the 2020 to 2021 population-based household survey View online →
- Healthcare utilisation during the first two waves of the COVID-19 epidemic in South Africa: a cross-sectional household survey View online →
- Knowledge, attitudes, practices and intention to get vaccinated against COVID-19: results from a cross-sectional survey in three peri-urban communities in South Africa View online →
- Associations of social support with sexual practices, health behaviours, and health outcomes among adolescent girls and young women: evidence from a longitudinal study in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa View online →
- Evaluating use of mass-media communication intervention MTV Shuga on increased awareness and demand for HIV and sexual health services by adolescent girls and young women in South Africa: an observational study View online →
- A national household-based population seroprevalence survey of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in South Africa in 2020 to 2021 View online →
- Field evaluations of four SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen tests during SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant wave in South Africa View online →
- Young people's access to sexual and reproductive health prevention services in South Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic: an online questionnaire View online →
- Performance of rapid antigen tests in identifying Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 infections in South Africa View online →
2022
- Performance of three SARS-CoV-2 serology assays in a household serosurvey in South Africa View online →
- Clinical evaluation of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 rapid antigen tests during the Omicron wave in South Africa View online →
- Inroads for HIV prevention among men: findings from mixed methods research in the context of the DREAMS partnership in southern Africa View online →
- Effects of men's lifetime adverse events experience on violence, HIV risk, and wellbeing: insights from three countries View online →
- Association of HIV intervention uptake with HIV prevalence in adolescent girls and young women in South Africa View online →
- "It is guiding us to protect ourselves": a qualitative investigation into why young people engage with a mass-media HIV education campaign View online →
- The role of schooling and comprehensive sexuality education in reducing HIV and pregnancy among adolescents in South Africa View online →
- Seroprevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 after the second wave in South Africa in human immunodeficiency virus-infected and uninfected persons: a cross-sectional household survey View online →
- Determining HIV risk for adolescent girls and young women in relationships with "blessers" and age disparate partners: a cross-sectional survey in four districts in South Africa View online →
- Intimate partner violence and the HIV care and treatment cascade among adolescent girls and young women in DREAMS, South Africa View online →
2021
- Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 after the second wave in South Africa in HIV-infected and uninfected persons: a cross-sectional household survey, November 2020 to April 2021 View online →
- Effects of a multimedia campaign on HIV self-testing and PrEP outcomes among young people in South Africa: a mixed methods impact evaluation of MTV Shuga Down South View online →
- Evaluating the effect of schooling and comprehensive sexuality education on HIV prevalence, pregnancy and risky sexual behaviour amongst adolescents in South Africa View online →
- DREAMS intervention uptake and its association with HIV related outcomes among adolescent girls and young women in South Africa: findings from a cross-sectional household study View online →
- COVID-19 seroprevalence during the second wave of the pandemic in three districts of South Africa: preliminary findings View online →
2020
- Depression symptoms, HIV testing, linkage to ART, and viral suppression among women in a high HIV burden district in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a cross-sectional household study
- Poor rates of linkage to HIV care and uptake of treatment after home-based HIV testing among newly diagnosed 15 to 49 year-old men and women in a high HIV prevalence setting in South Africa
- Non-partner sexual violence experience and toilet type amongst young (18 to 24) women in South Africa: a population-based cross-sectional analysis
- Population prevalence of sexually transmitted infections in a high HIV burden district in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: implications for HIV epidemic control
- Creating HIV risk profiles for men in South Africa: a latent class approach using cross-sectional survey data
- E-book: HIPSS combined HIV incidence surveillance study 2014 to 2017
- DREAMS protocol: evaluating HIV prevention programmes targeting young women and girls in South Africa
- Evaluating DREAMS HIV prevention interventions targeting adolescent girls and young women in high HIV prevalence districts in South Africa
- Impact of HIV testing and treatment services on risky sexual behaviour in the uMgungundlovu District, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a cross-sectional study
- Trends in HIV prevention, treatment, and incidence in a hyperendemic area of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
- Factors associated with HIV in younger and older adult men in South Africa: findings from a cross-sectional survey
2019
- Recently formed age-disparate partnerships are associated with elevated HIV incidence among young women in South Africa
- Seroprevalence of hepatitis B virus: findings from a population-based household survey in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
- DREAMS evaluation 2018: AGYW lessons we learnt from men
- The DREAMS evaluation 2018 cross-sectional survey presentation
- DREAMS evaluation 2018 cross-sectional survey technical information
- Evaluation of the DREAMS programme: initial findings
- Coital frequency and condom use in age-disparate partnerships
- Age-disparate partnerships and HSV-2 among adolescent girls and young women, South Africa
- Moderate-to-high levels of pretreatment HIV drug resistance, South Africa
- The impact of home-based HIV testing services on 90-90-90 targets, South Africa
- Age-disparate partnerships and incident HIV infection in adolescent girls and young women in rural South Africa: an HPTN 068 analysis
- MTV Shuga: mass media communication, HSV2 and sexual health in adolescent girls and young women in rural South Africa
2018
2017
What we can do for your study
End-to-end research services for diagnostic manufacturers, public-health agencies, and clinical-trial sponsors.
Diagnostic device evaluation
Independent clinical evaluation of rapid diagnostic devices and point-of-care technologies. Ethics submission through to regulatory-ready evaluation reports for WHO Prequalification and SAHPRA. More than 50 device validations to date.
HIV epidemiology and surveillance
Longitudinal cohort studies, household-based seroprevalence surveys, and prevention-programme evaluation. The HIPSS and DREAMS evaluations are anchor examples of our two-decade methodology.
Mass-media health intervention evaluation
Mixed-methods evaluation of edutainment programmes, including the long-running MTV Shuga impact assessment series. Reaction-video methodology, exposure-intensity analysis, and longitudinal designs.
Adolescent and young-women's health
HIV risk among adolescent girls and young women, age-disparate partnerships, intimate partner violence, comprehensive sexuality education, and prevention-uptake research across the DREAMS programme districts.
Vaccine effectiveness and seroprevalence
National household seroprevalence surveys, vaccine-effectiveness pilot studies, and antibody-survey programmes co-implemented with SAMRC and NICD.
Sexual and reproductive health
STI prevalence research, syphilis point-of-care validation, hepatitis B surveillance, and contraception-and-HIV-risk research across high-burden South African settings.
A research partner who has done this before
Short answers to the questions diagnostic manufacturers, public-health agencies, and clinical-trial sponsors most often arrive with.
Who can evaluate a rapid diagnostic device in South Africa for WHO Prequalification or SAHPRA submission?
Epicentre provides end-to-end independent clinical evaluation of rapid diagnostic devices and point-of-care technologies in South Africa: ethics submission, study protocol development, participant recruitment, head-to-head performance testing against reference standards, and regulatory-ready evaluation reports for WHO Prequalification and SAHPRA. More than 50 device validations completed since 2001, all under GCP and GCLP certification. Get in touch.
Who has experience recruiting participants for HIV clinical trials in high-prevalence South African populations?
Two decades of community fieldwork experience with walk-in laboratory sites in KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape, and Gauteng. Direct experience recruiting adolescent girls and young women in high-burden districts through the HIPSS HIV incidence surveillance study (2014 to 2017) and the DREAMS programme evaluation (2018 to 2025). Recruitment available for prospective participants and access to retrospective stored samples across diverse population profiles.
Where can I commission a SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence or vaccine-effectiveness study in South Africa?
Epicentre co-implemented South Africa's national COVID-19 seroprevalence surveys with SAMRC and NICD between 2020 and 2022, with findings published in PLOS Global Public Health, Clinical Infectious Diseases, and The Journal of Infectious Diseases. SARS-CoV-2 rapid-antigen-test field evaluations were conducted across the Delta and Omicron waves, with results in Diagnostic and Prognostic Research.
Who has evaluated mass-media health interventions like MTV Shuga in South Africa?
Epicentre has been the principal South African evaluator of MTV Shuga since 2019, in partnership with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Output includes cross-sectional impact studies (BMJ Open, BMJ Global Health, JMIR Formative Research), reaction-video qualitative observational studies (JMIR Formative Research 2025), and ongoing edutainment engagement research.
What are Epicentre's accreditations, certifications, and ethics framework?
SANAS-accredited laboratory platforms, GCP and GCLP certified processes, and accredited South African ethics-committee review before any study begins. Operations governed by South Africa's National Health Act, the HPCSA code of conduct, and POPIA data-protection law.
How do I contact Epicentre's research team about a clinical trial or device evaluation?
Email [email protected], complete the form at epicentre.org.za/contact-us, or read more about the contract research services on offer at epicentre.org.za/research.
Partner with our research team
Whether you are a diagnostic manufacturer needing field evaluation, a public-health agency commissioning surveillance work, or a clinical-trial sponsor recruiting in South Africa, Epicentre provides end-to-end research services backed by 25 years of GCP and GCLP-certified field experience.
Same labs. Same standards. No referral needed.
Every blood test you take at an Epicentre walk-in lab funds the research above and is processed on the same SANAS-accredited platforms.
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