Cryptococcal Antigen Screening plus Sertraline (C-ASSERT)

? DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cryptococcal meningitis is a leading cause of death among persons living with AIDS in resource-limited settings. In 2014, cryptococcal meningitis was responsible for approximately 15% of deaths in HIV treatment programs in Africa. Many of these deaths are preventable. Furthermore, the aggressive roll-out of ART in Sub-Saharan Africa has resulted in only slight decreases in cryptococcal meningitis incidence, e.g. 10-15% per South African national surveillance. In Uganda among hospitalized patients with suspected meningitis in 2014, Cryptococcus still remains more common than all other causes of meningitis combined. One strategy to prevent the early mortality in ART programs is to screen for sub-clinical cryptococcal infection among asymptomatic persons living with AIDS using a simple blood test (cryptococcal antigen or CrAg). The prevalence of this detectable sub-clinical cryptococcal infection averages 7.2% (95%CI: 6.8-7.6%) among 36 African cohorts with CD4