Georgia's Integrated Approach to Comprehensive HIV Prevention and Surveillance Activities - The Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH), Office Of HIV/AIDS (OHA), HIV Prevention Program (HPP) and the HIV Surveillance Section (HSS) have developed an integrated proposal to implement a comprehensive, person-centered HIV prevention and surveillance program to prevent new HIV infections and improve the health of people with HIV. Our approach seeks to diagnose people with HIV (PWH) as early as possible, treat PWH rapidly to reach viral suppression, prevent new HIV transmissions, respond to HIV clusters and outbreaks, conduct HIV surveillance activities, and support community engagement and HIV planning. Throughout the project period, Georgia will implement core activities including opt-out HIV testing in health care settings, linkage to care within 30 days of a positive test, expanded access to PrEP, support for achieving viral suppression, social marketing campaigns to raise awareness of access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) services, condom distribution, harm reduction services, cluster detection and response, data collection and reporting, and strategic community engagement. HIV surveillance data will guide testing and other prevention efforts to target populations and areas at greatest risk for HIV infection and transmission. DPH will build workforce skills to deliver quality interventions and services and increase capacity to investigate and respond to transmission clusters and potential outbreaks. DPH will expand its resources to streamline HIV testing in clinical settings by collaborating with Hepatitis, STI, and TB Programs. In addition, DPH and its community partners will provide a whole-person approach to preventing and treating HIV, recognizing that syndemic factors often play a role in HIV transmission, treatment, and overall health. To achieve the outcomes outlined within the application and corresponding workplan, DPH will continue collaborations and expand its partnerships with both healthcare and non-healthcare providers including community-based organizations, federally qualified health centers, Ryan White clinics, hospitals, colleges, universities, and national organizations. Georgia DPH will comply with all CDC performance standards outlined in the notice of funding opportunity and plans to achieve the following outcomes: • Increased knowledge of HIV status • Reduced new HIV infections • Reduced late HIV diagnosis • Increased receipt of HIV medical care • Increased retention in HIV medical care • Increased HIV viral suppression • Improved health outcomes for PWH • Increased PrEP/PEP prescribing and use • Increased use of syringe service programs • Increased knowledge of evidence-based syringe service programs • Reduced perinatally acquired HIV infection • Improved response to HIV clusters and outbreaks at the individual, network, and system levels • Improved use of HIV surveillance data to identify populations affected by relevant syndemics • Improved electronic data exchange capacity • Improved visualization of HIV surveillance data for public health action • Sustained community partnerships to inform strategic planning and implementation • Reduced HIV-related health disparities DPH will also implement additional activities using a comprehensive approach for the four EHE jurisdictions: Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb and Gwinnett counties. Some of the proposed activities include: using electronic health records (EHR) to foster linkages to care; promoting and enhancing telemedicine services to bring treatment and care to hard to reach communities; partnering with new and non-traditional community partners to implement testing events; and establishing cluster detection and response (CDR) funds to quickly respond to HIV outbreaks and emergencies.
