Prevention strategies abound during CDC summit
Knowledge of serostatus covered
After two days of putting their heads together, a diverse group of HIV-prevention experts came up with dozens of proposed strategies. Here are some suggestions offered from one of four topic areas covered at a recent two-day HIV Prevention Summit at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
The topic: "What are other strategies to improve knowledge of serostatus?"
- Establish routine testing in health care settings by integrating it with other routine health services.
- Encourage testing in regular health care by providing adequate reimbursement and making it a measure of performance for managed care organizations.
- Conduct research on educational measures, such as what messages are most effective for bringing specific populations in for testing, and why current educational messages don’t work.
- Offer one-stop shopping — testing and care at the same site.
- Remove the restrictions on silo funding streams to conduct testing.
- De-exceptionalize HIV by treating it as other infectious diseases.
- Offer testing in nontraditional, community sites by gaining trust of community and using rapid testing.
- Create demand for testing through public education that is delivered through multiple, culturally appropriate channels.
- Consider mandatory education about HIV testing in all schools. Messages could be mailed to every household similar to former Surgeon General Everett Koop’s strategy at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic.
- Make partner counseling and referral part of ongoing service provisions, not just a one-time intervention.
- Build HIV partner notification programs based on the sexually transmitted disease partner notification model. For example, convey the message that notifying partners is an obligation and partners known to providers must be notified.
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