Friday, July 26, 2024
7/26/2024
Louisiana’s Enhanced Surveillance of Persons with Early and Late HIV Diagnosis to Understand System and Individual Factors Associated with New Infection and Delayed Testing Project Abstract Summary While we now have the tools to eliminate HIV within the United States, newly diagnosed cases still persist and represent potential missed opportunities of HIV prevention. Reasons for individual and system level barriers and facilitators of late testing as well as use of new biomedical prevention tools such as PrEP remain largely unknown. While other systems such as CDCs Medical Monitoring Project also examine some of these factors, they do not focus on new acute and late stage diagnoses and thus create a need for an additional supplemental system. The purpose of the current study then, is to create and implement a new system, the Louisiana Assessment of Persons Presenting with Early and Late Stage HIV Diagnoses (LA-APPEALS) study, to examine the factors associated with new acute and late stage HIV diagnoses nationally and in Louisiana. The Louisiana STD/HIV/Hepatitis Program (SHHP), the CDC, and a CDC contracted group of interviewers will collaborate to offer all newly identified HIV cases who present with either Stage 0 (i.e. acute) or Stage 3 (i.e. AIDS at time of diagnosis) HIV a brief behavioral survey about these individual and system level barriers and facilitators to HIV testing and access. Louisiana will abstract all early and late HIV diagnoses reported to the state eHARS surveillance system within the most recent 12 months and attempt to recruit and consent eligible individuals for participation in the survey. A later survey event will then be scheduled remotely by SHHP with the participant and administered the CDC contractor, who will remain blind to all identifying information and thus maintain participant anonymity. Ultimately this work should uncover valuable information on reasons behind early and late stage testing as well as PrEP unwillingness and inform development of new evidence-based interventions. By providing valuable and needed data on these populations, this project will ultimately lead to improvements in HIV prevention, treatment and testing services and thus reduce the spread of HIV both locally and nationally.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
