Records of 183 index clients in the period between January 2017 to August 2018 reviewed. Mean age for the index clients was 39 [SD±13.1] and most were female 118 [65%]. Table 2 below shows socio-demographic characteristics for the 183 index clients and 216 sexual partners elicited. Majority of clients were aged between 25-34 years. Most of the index clients 100 [55%] were in monogamous marriage while only 4[2%] reported to be in polygamous marriage. Youth and teenagers aged 24 years and below were 13% [23] among the index clients and 15% [31] among the sexual partners elicited.
PNS Acceptance
Overall, 162 [89%] index clients accepted PNS. Acceptance rate was higher among male index clients [92%] than in female [86%]. The rate of acceptance per health facility slightly varied with Ngelelya dispensary having a 100% acceptance rate and the lowest was Ithanga health centre, 81% as shown in figure 1 below. Of the 21 index clients who did not accept PNS, most were female 16 [76%]. Acceptance rate was highest among index clients aged 25-34yrs [56,93%] with the lowest being among index clients aged 35-45yrs [43,83%].
Among the index clients who accepted PNS, 50 [31%] elicited two or more sexual partners and 27[15%] of the total index clients were secondary index clients. {Secondary Index client is one who had been listed by another index client}. [see figure 2]
PNS Approach and Relationship Status
The most preferred approach of contacting and tracing the sexual partners was Provider referral [92, 50%], and the least preferred was Dual referral [7, 4%] as shown in figure 3 below. Only 50% of SPs followed through dual referral approaches were successfully reached and tested followed by provider referral approaches where 84% were successfully reached and tested. Contract referral approach recorded the highest success rate in reaching SPs where 97% were successfully reached.
Majority of index clients reported they were not currently living with their listed sexual partners [154, 57%]. While only 15% [34] of sexual partners had their HIV status known by their index clients, for most of the sexual partners [182, 85%] HIV status was unknown to the index clients.
Elicitation of sexual partners
Among male index clients 25[42%] listed two or more sexual partners which is higher than that of female index clients where only 25[25%] listed two or more sexual partners as shown in Table 2 below. For index clients aged below 25years 9[43%] elicited 2 or more sexual partners while among index clients with formal employment 56% elicited 2 or more sexual partners.
Outcome for sexual partner tracing
For the 172 SPs whose attempts to reach them were made, 157 [91%] were successfully reached. Of the sexual partners where only one attempt had been done, 99% were reached and the rate reduced with more attempts to reach the sexual partners where only 70% of the sexual partners with three attempts made to reach them were successfully reached. [Table 4 below]
Ngelelya dispensary had the highest positivity rate of 59% followed by Ithanga Hc with 49% and the lowest positivity rate was reported in Gatura Hc [10%]. [Table 5 below].
The ratio of sexual partners to index clients varied across the health facilities where Gatura had the highest ratio of 2.10:1. Overall ratio of sexual partners to index clients was 1.33:1 as shown in table 4 below. Out of 182 sexual partners eligible for HIV testing, 141[77%] were successfully tested with 46 [32.6%] identified as HIV positive.