South Africa

Site Insitution: The Aurum Insitute
Research Areas: HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Implementation Science

Site Description:

The Aurum Institute is a proudly South African, public benefit organization with over 15 years' experience leading the response, treatment and research efforts to eradicate TB and HIV. The Aurum Institute has a staff of 1200 researchers, implementers, and support personnel leading research and program implementation throughout South Africa. The Institute works alongside the government, mining industry, NGOs, and in communities to better understand the epidemics and provide real solutions. It has extensive experience implementing HIV/TB programs, including scaling up PEPFAR ART programs and the WHO TB control including isoniazid preventive therapy and intensified case finding.

Aurum has three clinical trial sites located in three cities all within 200km of the central office in Johannesburg.

• Rustenburg clinical trial site: has been in operation since 2007. Rustenburg Local Municipality is part of the Bojanala Platinum District Municipality which has a wealth of platinum mining. Because of the high HIV incidence in the province (estimated at 1.6%in adults 14-49 years) attributed in part to migrant labor and commercial sex work, this site has focused on HIV prevention since its inception and has done extensive behavioral and epidemiological studies to elucidate the local epidemic in preparation for biomedical intervention studies.
• Tembisa clinical research site: is situated on the grounds of the Tembisa hospital, which is in the Ekurhuleni District of Gauteng Province. A research laboratory is located on-site and performs rapid HIV and urinalysis testing.
• Klerksdorp clinical trial site in Klerksdorp supports research in Matlosana District, approximately 10km from Tshepong Hospital.