The contribution of HIV point-of-care tests in early HIV diagnosis: community-based HIV testing monitoring in Catalonia, 1995 to 2018.

BackgroundCommunity-based HIV testing services combined with the use of point-of-care tests (POCT) have the potential to improve early diagnosis through increasing availability, accessibility and uptake of HIV testing.AimTo describe community-based HIV testing activity in Catalonia, Spain, from 1995 to 2018, and to evaluate the impact of HIV POCT on the HIV continuum of care.MethodsA community-based network of voluntary counselling and testing services in Catalonia, Spain has been collecting systematic data on activity, process and results since 1995. A descriptive analysis was performed on pooled data, describing the data in terms of people tested and reactive screening test results.ResultsBetween 1995 and 2018, 125,876 HIV tests were performed (2.1% reactive). Since the introduction of HIV POCT in 2007, a large increase in the number of tests performed was observed, reaching 14,537 tests alone in 2018 (1.3% reactive). Men who have sex with men (MSM), as a proportion of all people tested, has increased greatly over time reaching 74.7% in 2018. The highest percentage of reactive tests was found in people who inject drugs followed by MSM. The contribution of community-based HIV testing to the overall total notified cases in the Catalonia HIV registry has gradually increased, reaching 37.9% in 2018, and 70% of all MSM cases. In 2018, the percentage of individuals with a reactive screening test who were linked to care was 89.0%.ConclusionOur study reinforces the important role that community-based HIV POCT has on the diagnosis of HIV in key populations.

[Overcoming the difficulty of recruiting young people. Keys to obtaining qualitative data in a study of sexualities]. / Superando la dificultad de captar jóvenes. Claves para la obtención de datos cualitativos en un estudio de sexualidades.

Sexuality is a central aspect of young's lives. It is a task of public health to understand how they are constructed with all their diversity, and to give satisfactory answers in the field of sexual health. The characteristics of qualitative research (flexible, open and reflective) provide the opportunity to design studies that are accepted and adapted to the realities of young people, especially in a sensitive field. The aim of this note is to provide clues for the recruitment of young people. In our case, the knowledge of key informants regarding the study population and the research context was essential, both to choose an approach and recruitment strategy and to adapt the data collection techniques. Finally, we used individual interviews and triangular groups opportunistically in waiting rooms of sexual health care services specialized in young people, where there was already a predisposition to talk about sexuality.