Provision of HIV Counseling and Testing Services at Five Community-Based Organizations Among Young Men of Color Who Have Sex with Men

Abstract

In the context of monitoring and improving CDC-funded HIV prevention programs, we describe HIV tests and infections, provision of results, previous HIV tests, and risk behaviors for young (aged 13-29) men of color who have sex with men who received HIV tests at five community-based organizations. Of 1,723 tests provided, 2.1% were positive and 75.7% of positives were previously unaware of their infection. The highest positivity rate was among men aged 25-29 (4.7%). Thirty-four percent of tests were provided to men who were tested for the first time. Over half the tests (53.2%) were provided to men who reported sex with a person of unknown HIV status, and 34% to men who reported sex with an anonymous partner. Continued and more focused prevention efforts are needed to reach and test young men of color who have sex with men and to identify previously undiagnosed HIV infections among this target population.

Towards Universal Voluntary HIV Testing and Counselling: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Community-Based Approaches

“…17 studies reported the HTC history of 25,311 participants from key populations receiving community-based HTC [27],[90],[92],[94],[96],[98],[105],[108],[113]–[118]. 9% to 79% of participants reported receiving their first HIV test (Figure 13).…”

Identifying Which Place Characteristics are Associated with the Odds of Recent HIV Testing in a Large Sample of People Who Inject Drugs in 19 US Metropolitan Areas

“…Approaches to improve screening rates might include expanding harm reduction services which provide 'user friendly services' and work to reduce HIV-related stigma and discrimination while stressing the importance of confidentiality [21, [56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63]. Likewise, increased state and local funding for community-based programs (including SSPs) which provide multiple services including access to substance use disorder treatment programs, MTP and access to mental health services for both PWID clients and family might improve HIV testing rates especially in low-resource settings [9,[63][64][65][66][67][68].…”

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“…Community-based groups have records of success in providing outreach and prevention services to MARP. 32–34 Harm reduction networks are good examples, where users and their communities provide essential outreach and key services, including NSP. 10 But these same groups may be unable to provide ART or other needed clinical services.…”