Barcelona 2013
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| Abstract #422 - E-Posters English | ||||
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Session: 50.42: E-Posters English (Poster) on Sunday in Chaired by Authors: Presenting Author: Mr Steven Derendinger - Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, Switzerland |
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| Additional Authors: Dr. Jordi Casabona, Sra Cristina Sanclemente, Dra. Anna Esteve, Dra. Victoria Gonzalez, Grupo HIVITS TS, | ||||
| Aim: The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (SFOPH) commissioned the development of a mathematical model in order to understand what was driving the HIV epidemic among men having sex with men (MSM) in Switzerland. According to the model, in 2010, 13% of infected MSM were unaware of their recent infection, yet were the origin of 80% of the new HIV transmissions in their community. The increasing number of risk behaviour offset the benefits of anti-HIV treatment. In that sense, ?Test and Treat? was not efficient to tackle the transmissions occurring in the acute phase of Primary HIV Infection (PHI) from MSM still undiagnosed and in the belief of being HIV-negative. On the basis of these results, the SFOPH developed an ?Urgent Action Plan? structured in three action fields. The first action field aims to reduce the community viral load by breaking the chains of PHI. The second action field aims to reduce the time between an infection and its diagnosis to 12 months. The last action field aims to prevent transmission among discordant couples and/or fuckbuddies. With regard to the first action field, the Checkpoints centres (Zürich, Basel, Lausanne, Geneva) carried out the campaign ?Break the Chains? (BTC). This campaign was launched for the second time in 2013. | ||||
| Method / Issue: Break the Chains is a community based HIV prevention campaign that aims to reduce the community viral load by breaking the chains of PHI in parallel sex partners networks. The gay community is indeed less at risk if the majority of undiagnosed HIV infections are in the asymptomatic phase instead of the acute initial phase. BTC calls once a year (April) MSM to commit in changing their risk behaviors and avoiding new infections. The following month (Mai), MSM are encouraged to get tested and counseled in order to put their record straight. If no infection occurs in April, every undiagnosed MSM is in general detectable with rapid HIV combo tests. Next to the usual HIV prevention material, BTC uses videos on YouTube to explain the campaign?s issues, and offers an application for smartphones to reach directly its population. BTC is launched as a participative and festive campaign where events and happenings are organized throughout the country. Gay and non gay businesses take part in the campaign by offering vouchers to reward those who downloaded the smartphone application. | ||||
| Results / Comments: The first edition of BTC was evaluated. 69.6% of MSM interviewed have heard about BTC and 48.6% felt personally concerned with its issues. 49% declared getting regularly tested regardless the campaign. Yet, 17.1% claimed that BTC convinced them to seek counseling and testing. BTC succeeded in motivating MSM to seek counseling and testing as the average number of HIV tests carried out among MSM in the VCT centers using the rapid assessment and data collecting tool BerDa increased of 32.7% during/after the campaign. | ||||
| Discussion: A yearly national HIV prevention campaign for MSM is necessary in order to maintain a high level of awareness of risks linked with PHI and keep a sustainable low community viral load by motivating MSM to seek counseling and testing at least once a year. | ||||
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