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Previously submitted to: JMIR Public Health and Surveillance (no longer under consideration since Feb 11, 2026)

Date Submitted: Nov 10, 2025

Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.

Tanzania’s first recent HIV infection surveillance public health response – Unguja, Zanzibar, May–September 2024

  • Alice Wang; 
  • Christen Said; 
  • Ahmed Jahzumi; 
  • Joel Ndayongeje; 
  • Thomas Wiswa John; 
  • Nunuu Faki; 
  • Sagamo Mataro; 
  • Newton Kalata; 
  • Mwantumu Masudi; 
  • Juma Alawi; 
  • Mansour Mshenga; 
  • Mize Shaha; 
  • Alexander Kailembo; 
  • Sarah E. Porter; 
  • Asma Said; 
  • Mohamed Hassan

ABSTRACT

Recent HIV infection testing identifies HIV infections likely acquired within the past 12 months and can inform actions to detect and respond to potential HIV transmission hotspots. Population surveillance using a rapid test for recent infection (RTRI) began in selected health facilities in United Republic of Tanzania in 2019. A recent infection testing algorithm (RITA) incorporating RTRI and an HIV viral load (VL) test was introduced in 2023. A standard operating procedure (SOP) for public health response (PHR) was adopted by the Ministry of Health Zanzibar in April 2024. In May 2024, a PHR team analyzed recency surveillance data from Zanzibar from July 2023−May 2024 to evaluate the number and proportion of RTRI-recent and RITA-recent HIV infections. The recency PHR team conducted response activities, including quality improvement activities, from June 2024− August 2024. A follow-up meeting was held in September 2024 to evaluate program quality improvement activities. We report findings from the initial implementation in response to the HIV recency surveillance results in Zanzibar, Tanzania.


 Citation

Please cite as:

Wang A, Said C, Jahzumi A, Ndayongeje J, John TW, Faki N, Mataro S, Kalata N, Masudi M, Alawi J, Mshenga M, Shaha M, Kailembo A, Porter SE, Said A, Hassan M

Tanzania’s first recent HIV infection surveillance public health response – Unguja, Zanzibar, May–September 2024

JMIR Preprints. 10/11/2025:87488

DOI: 10.2196/preprints.87488

URL: https://preprints.jmir.org/preprint/87488

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