Fred C Semitala

Biographic Data

ID7767030
NAMEFred C Semitala
GIVEN NAMESFred C
FAMILY NAMESemitala
SIGNATURESEMITALA F C
AFFILIATIONSMakerere University
ORCID0000-0002-0624-7640
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS20
TOTAL CITATIONS0
AUTHOR COUNT20
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2022
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX0

  • HIV self-testing preferences among adolescent girls and young women (Agyw) in urban settings in Uganda

    Open AccessLaban Muteebwa, Patience A Muwanguzi et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2026

    HIV self-testing (HIVST) is a crucial innovation for improving testing coverage, particularly among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) who are inadequately reached by standard provider-assisted HIV testing approaches. Understanding their preferences for HIVST services is essential for designing models that optimize uptake. We assessed the HIVST preferences among AGYW at a higher risk of acquiring HIV living in urban Uganda. We enrolled AGYW …

  • Predicted choice and acceptability of regimens for tuberculosis preventive treatment among people living with HIV in Uganda – A discrete choice experiment

    Open AccessHélène E Aschmann, Allan Musinguzi et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2026

    Little is known about people living with HIV’s preferences for different tuberculosis preventive treatment (TPT) regimens, or the conditions under which they would accept treatment. Actionable evidence regarding preference for TPT is needed to inform policy and the development of novel TPT regimens. Adults engaged in care at an HIV clinic in Kampala, Uganda, completed a discrete choice experiment survey with nine random choice tasks. In each task…

  • Perceived benefits of community-based TB preventive treatment in children in Uganda

    Open AccessElijah Kakande, Jason Johnson-Peretz et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2026

    Tuberculosis preventive treatment (TPT) uptake among children at risk for TB remains low in sub-Saharan Africa. Community-based TPT delivery is effective at increasing uptake and completion in children compared to clinic-based models, but implementation research is needed to inform scale-up in real-world settings. In this qualitative study, we assessed community and health care provider perspectives on the anticipated benefits and barriers of a c…

  • Acceptability of HIV self-testing among HIV high-risk Adolescent Girls and Young Women (Agyw) in urban settings in Uganda

    Open AccessLaban Muteebwa, Joanita Nangendo et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2026

    Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW) bear a disproportionate burden of HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa, but HIV testing in this sub-population is sub-optimal. HIV self-testing (HIVST) is an evidence-based intervention that has been shown to improve testing rates among AGYW; however, its acceptability in this sub-population remains under-explored. We assessed the acceptability of HIVST and associated factors among HIV high-risk AGYW. We enrolled HIV …

  • Intimate partner violence, social support, and depression among women living with HIV in Wakiso District, central Uganda

    Open AccessJoan Nalunkuuma, Deborah Ojiambo et al.ARTICLEBMC Public Health2026

    Intimate partner violence (IPV) remains a pervasive public health concern, disproportionately affecting women worldwide and posing significant risks to their physical and psychological well-being. Women living with HIV (WLHIV) are particularly vulnerable to IPV though both its extent or nature and impact on mental wellbeing of WLHIV in Uganda have not been extensively examined. The aim of this sequential explanatory mixed-methods study was to exa…

  • HIV clinical outcomes among people with HIV and diabetes mellitus in Kampala, Uganda; A matched retrospective cohort study

    Open AccessRita Nakalega, Fred C Semitala et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2025

    Suppressive antiretroviral treatment (ART) has resulted into prolonged survival of people with HIV (PWH) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with resultant increase in the incidence of non-communicable diseases (NCD), such as diabetes mellitus (DM). However, there is a lack of data on the effect of DM on HIV-related outcomes among PWH in this setting. The study aimed to compare HIV clinical outcomes (viral load suppression, retention in care, hospitaliza…

  • Harnessing HIV clinics to deliver integrated hypertension care for People living with HIV in Uganda

    Open AccessFred C Semitala, Florence Ayebare et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2025

    Access to antiretroviral therapy has led to better treatment outcomes for aging people living with HIV worldwide. However, in Uganda and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, PLHIV with comorbidities like hypertension experience fragmented healthcare access, despite existing guidelines for the integration of non-communicable diseases into HIV care. We assessed knowledge, attitudes, and practices of PLHIV regarding hypertension care, and their percep…

  • Female sex worker preferences for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis delivery in Uganda

    Open AccessRuth Mpirirwe, Rita Makabayi‐Mugabe et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2025

    Cisgender female sex workers (FSWs) in sub-Saharan Africa have a high risk of HIV acquisition, highlighting the need for innovative approaches to expand coverage of evidence-based HIV prevention methods, including oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Our study aimed to identify FSWs’ preferences for a PrEP delivery model with structured choices for delivery location, services offered, and adherence support. We conducted a discrete choice experim…

  • Determinants of continuation on HIV pre-exposure propylaxis among female sex workers at a referral hospital in Uganda

    Open AccessSamuel Kawuma, Rodgers Katwesigye et al.ARTICLEBMC Public Health2025

    Continuation on PrEP remains low among FSWs. Interventions for PrEP continuation should address barriers such as low community awareness of PrEP, substance abuse and restrictive health facility policies for scale of the PrEP program among FSWs in Uganda. Integration of PrEP with other services and scale up of community PrEP delivery structures may improve its continuation

  • Acceptability of short message service reminders as the support tool for PrEP adherence among young women in Mukono district, Uganda

    Open AccessLaban Muteebwa, Edith Joloba Nakku et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2024

    Adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) have a disproportionately high incidence of HIV compared to males of the same age in Uganda. AGYW are a priority sub-group for daily oral Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), but their adherence has consistently remained low. Short Message Service (SMS) reminders could improve adherence to PrEP in AGYW. However, there is paucity of literature about acceptability of SMS reminders among AGYW using PrEP. We assess…

  • Current out of pocket care costs among HIV and hypertension co-morbid patients in urban and peri-urban Uganda

    Open AccessDrew Cameron, Lillian Morrell et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2024

    Background Despite improvements to the cascade of HIV care in East Africa, access to care for non-communicable disease co-morbidities like hypertension (HTN) remains a persistent problem. The integration of care for these conditions presents an opportunity to achieve efficiencies in delivery as well as decrease overall costs for patients. This study aims to build evidence on the burden of current out-of-pocket costs of care among HIV-HTN co-morbi…

  • Low Covid-19 vaccine uptake in people living with HIV and those with hypertension and diabetes without HIV at Mbarara and Masaka regional referral hospitals

    Open AccessAsiphas Owaraganise, Brian Beesiga et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2024

    Chronic diseases such as HIV, hypertension, and diabetes increase the risk of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and death. Thus, COVID-19 vaccine uptake data among these priority populations are needed to inform immunization programs. We assessed COVID-19 vaccine uptake among people living with HIV (PLWH) and those with hypertension/diabetes without HIV (PWoH) in Southwestern and Southcentral Uganda and determined factors influencing vac…

  • Evaluating the implementation of weekly rifapentine-isoniazid (3HP) for tuberculosis prevention among people living with HIV in Uganda

    Open AccessAllan Musinguzi, Joan Ritar Kasidi et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2024

    Three months of isoniazid-rifapentine (3HP) is being scaled up for tuberculosis (TB) preventive treatment (TPT) among people living with HIV (PLHIV) in high-burden settings. More evidence is needed to identify factors influencing successful 3HP delivery. We conducted a qualitative assessment of 3HP delivery nested within the 3HP Options Trial, which compared three optimized strategies for delivering 3HP: facilitated directly observed therapy (DOT…

  • Village health team-delivered oral HIV self-testing increases linkage-to-care and antiretroviral-therapy initiation among men in Uganda

    Joanita Nangendo, Fred C Semitala et al.ARTICLEAIDS Care2024

    Targeted strategies are central to increasing HIV-status awareness and progress on the care cascade among men. We implemented Village-Health-Team (VHT)-delivered HIV self-testing (HIVST) among men in a peri-urban Ugandan district and assessed linkage to confirmatory-testing, antiretroviral-therapy (ART) initiation and HIV-status disclosure following HIVST. We conducted a prospective cohort study from November 2018 to June 2019 and enrolled 1628 m…

  • Factors associated with willingness to take Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) among high-risk adolescent boys and young men in Masese fishing community, Uganda

    Open AccessWinnie Agwang, Joanita Nangendo et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2023

    Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) is a known HIV prevention strategy for high-risk populations however, some high-risk communities have not yet fully embraced it. We sought to determine willingness to take PrEP and the associated factors among high-risk adolescent boys and young men (ABYM) in Masese fishing community, Jinja district, Eastern Uganda. We conducted a cross-sectional study, between October and November 2020, using a semi-structured que…

  • Perspectives of people living with HIV on barriers to timely ART initiation following referral for antiretroviral therapy

    Open AccessMicheal Kiyingi, Joaniter I Nankabirwa et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2023

    Early initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) after HIV diagnosis prevents HIV transmission, progression of HIV to AIDS and improves quality of life. However, little is known about the barriers to timely ART initiation among patients who test HIV positive in settings different from where they will receive HIV treatment, hence are referred in the routine setting. Therefore, we explored the perspectives of people living with HIV on barriers face…

  • Uptake and perceptions of oral HIV self-testing delivered by village health teams among men in Central Uganda

    Open AccessJoanita Nangendo, Anne R Katahoire et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2023

    The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends HIV self-testing (HIVST) to increase access to and utilization of HIV services among underserved populations. We assessed the uptake and perceptions of oral HIVST delivered by Village Health Teams (VHTs) among men in a peri-urban district in Central Uganda. We used a concurrent parallel mixed methods study design and analyzed data from 1628 men enrolled in a prospective cohort in Mpigi district, Cent…

  • Clinical characteristics and morbidity among hospitalized adults with advanced HIV disease in Uganda during ‘test and treat’ era

    Open AccessLillian Tugume, Fred C Semitala et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2023

    Nearly four decades after the first case of AIDS was described, the global number of AIDS-related deaths has steadily declined but falls short of the elimination targets, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite interventions to promote early HIV diagnosis and treatment, hospitalization and mortality related to advanced HIV disease (AHD) remains a significant public health problem in Uganda. We assessed the HIV treatment history and causes of ho…

  • Uptake of community antiretroviral group delivery models for persons living with HIV in Arua district, Uganda

    Open AccessLars Ole Sauerberg, Wani Muzeyi et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2023

    Community antiretroviral groups (CAGs) is one of the innovative and efficient differentiated service delivery models (DSDM) for reaching persons needing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) treatment in the community. Since DSDM adoption in Uganda, evidence suggests better care outcomes for patients in DSDM compared to counterparts in routine health facility care. However, uptake of CAG models for eligible community groups of persons living with HI…

  • Determinants of testing for HIV among young people in Uganda. A nested, explanatory-sequential study

    Open AccessDennis Kalibbala, Steven Kiwuwa Mpungu et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2022

    Awareness of HIV serostatus helps individuals calibrate behaviour or link to care. Globally, young people (15-24years) contribute over 30% of new HIV infections. Despite progress in enhancing access to HIV services, HIV testing among young people in Uganda is below target. We determined the prevalence and factors influencing HIV testing among young people in a peri-urban district with the highest proportion of young people. We conducted a nested …