Research Article
HealthcareProviderPerspectivesonHIVCureResearchinGhana
Helena Lamptey,
1
Benjamin Newcomb,
2
Evelyn Y. Bonney,
3
James O. Aboagye,
3
Peter Puplampu,
4
Vincent J. Ganu,
4
Gloria Ansa,
5
Joseph Oliver-Commey,
6
and George B. Kyei
2,3,7
1
DepartmentofImmunology,NoguchiMemorialInstituteforMedicalResearch,CollegeofHealthSciences,UniversityofGhana,
Accra, Ghana
2
Departments of Medicine and Molecular Microbiology, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis,
660 S. Euclid Ave, St. Louis, MO, USA
3
Department of Virology, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana,
Accra, Ghana
4
Department of Medicine, University of Ghana Medical School, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana
5
Department of Public Health, University of Ghana Hospital, Legon, Accra, Ghana
6
LEMA Hospital, Accra, Ghana
7
Medical and Scientifc Research Center, University of Ghana Medical Centre, Accra, Ghana
Correspondence should be addressed to George B. Kyei; gkyei@noguchi.ug.edu.gh
Received 6 January 2023; Revised 15 May 2023; Accepted 17 May 2023; Published 31 May 2023
Academic Editor: Yingkun Xu
Copyright © 2023 Helena Lamptey et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.
Introduction. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) has reduced mortality and improved life expectancy among HIV patients but does
not provide a cure. Patients must remain on lifelong medications and deal with drug resistance and side efects. Tis un•
derscores the need for HIV cure research. However, participation in HIV cure research has risks without guaranteed benefts.
We determined what HIV healthcare providers know about HIV cure research trials, the risks involved, and what kind of cure
interventions they are likely to recommend for their patients. Methods. We conducted in•depth qualitative interviews with 39
HIV care providers consisting of 12 physicians, 8 counsellors, 14 nurses, 2 pharmacists, 2 laboratory scientists, and 1
community advocate from three hospitals. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and coded, and thematic analysis was
performed independently by two investigators. Results. Participants were happy about the success of current treatments and
hopeful that an HIV cure will be found in the near future, just as ART was discovered through research. Tey described cure as
totaleradicationofthevirusfromthebodyandinabilitytotestpositiveforHIVortransmitthevirus.Intermsofrisktolerance,
respondents would recommend to their patients’ studies with mild to moderate risks like what patients on antiretroviral
therapy experience. Participants were reluctant to recommend treatment interruption to patients as part of a cure study and
wished trials could be performed without stopping treatment. Healthcare providers categorically rejected death or permanent
disability as an acceptable risk. Te possibility of fnding a cure that will beneft the individual or future generations was strong
motivations for providers to recommend cure trials to their patients, as was transparency and adequate information on
proposed trials. Overall, the participants were not actively seeking knowledge on cure research and lacked information on the
various cure modalities under investigation. Conclusion. While hopeful for an HIV cure, healthcare providers in Ghana expect
a cure to be defnitive and pose minimal risk to their patients.
1. Introduction
Te total number of people living with human immuno•
defciency virus (HIV) continues to grow worldwide due to
new infections and increased longevity of infected persons
leading to an increased incidence prevalence ratio (IPR). In
Ghana, HIV prevalence is estimated at 1.3–1.6% of the
population, with signifcant regional variations in disease
Hindawi
AIDS Research and Treatment
Volume 2023, Article ID 8158439, 7 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2023/8158439