About

Audrey Pettifor, PhD, MPH is a social epidemiologist whose research focuses on developing and evaluating HIV prevention and care interventions among adolescents and young adults globally. Dr. Pettifor has expertise on HIV prevention, HIV testing, the HIV treatment cascade, implementation science, and structural interventions among adolescents and young adults. Dr. Pettifor has worked in South Africa since 1996 and is an Honorary Professor of Public Health at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Dr. Pettifor has led a large portfolio of NIH-funded research on HIV prevention and care among adolescents and adults and has published over 300 articles in peer-reviewed journals. She is MPI of a Fogarty D43 training grant in Implementation Science for HIV prevention with the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa which she has led for close to 10 years and is a member of the Fogarty Adolescent HIV Implementation Science Alliance (AHISA). She is co-director of the UNC CFAR Developmental Core and is co-chair of the NIH HPTN adolescent science committee. She is also currently leading a trial in the US Adolescent Trials Network among LGBTQ+ adolescents to evaluate the effect of home and community-based PrEP distribution on adherence. Dr.Pettifor brings her extensive expertise in HIV prevention with young women in South Africa and her expertise in using implementation science to evaluate effective prevention modalities to improve implementation in both Africa and the U.S.

In the news

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  Trajectories and Predictors of HIV Care Retention Among Individuals Receiving ART in Rural South Africa

  Successful retention in care of people living with HIV remains a challenge and a cornerstone of ending the epidemic. Audrey Pettifor, PhD, conducted a population-based cohort study of individuals receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) in ten health care facilities within the Agincourt Health and Socio-Demographic Surveillance System site in Mpumalanga, South Africa, in 2015-18. Five distinct … Read more

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  Mixed-Method Longitudinal Investigation of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Following COVID-19 in South Africa

  Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns were raised about the unintended effects of measures taken to prevent its spread on sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). A mixed-method longitudinal study run by Audrey Pettifor, PhD, characterized trajectories of household-level and partner-level SGBV exposure over 6 months, approximately 1 year after the initial COVID-19 lockdown. Utilizing group-based trajectory modeling, … Read more

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  Evaluating Concurrency and Gaps Between Self-Report and Vaccine Card Data for COVID-19 Vaccination

  Biomarkers or medical data verified by a medical provider are generally considered to be more reliable than self-reported data, but researchers often face challenges when collecting medical record verification or biomarkers from young adults (YA) in research. Edward P. Browne, PhD, and Audrey Pettifor, PhD, analyzed data from a randomized controlled trial to increase COVID-19 vaccine … Read more

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  Effectiveness of Levonorgestrel Implant and Depot Medroxyprogesterone Acetate Injectable for Women living with HIV on Efavirenz

  A collaborative study that included the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, UNC Project-Malawi, and the UNC Center For AIDS Research (CFAR), compared the contraceptive effectiveness of a typical-use LNG implant and depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) injectable during efavirenz use. The study included women living with HIV (WLHIV) on efavirenz-containing antiretroviral treatment in Lilongwe, … Read more

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