Reaching Youth Through Faith Leaders: Evaluation of the Faith Matters! Initiative.

Faith leaders can be uniquely positioned to guide and support young people on health issues, particularly HIV/AIDS and sexual violence. Faith Matters!, a 2-day training workshop for faith leaders, was delivered in September 2021 in Zambia. Sixty-six faith leaders completed a questionnaire at baseline, 64 at posttraining, and 59 at 3-month follow-up. Participants' knowledge, beliefs, and comfort communicating about HIV/AIDS and sexual violence were assessed. More faith leaders accurately identified common places where sexual violence occurs at the 3-month point compared to baseline: at church (2 vs. 22, p = .000), the fields (16 vs. 29, p = .004), parties (22 vs. 36, p = .001), and clubs (24 vs. 35, p = .034). More faith leaders stated that they engaged in conversations that supported people living with HIV (48 at baseline vs. 53, p = .049 at 3-month follow-up). These findings can inform future HIV/AIDS initiatives focusing on increasing the capacity among communities of faith.

High Acceptability of Assisted Partner Notification Services Among HIV-Positive Females in Kenya: Results From an Ongoing Implementation Study.

BACKGROUND: Assisted partner services (aPS) involves notification and HIV testing for sexual partners of persons diagnosed HIV-positive (index clients). Because the impact of aPS is contingent on high acceptance, we assessed characteristics and reasons for nonenrollment among female index clients in an ongoing scale-up project. METHODS: We analyzed data from HIV-positive females offered aPS in 31 facilities from May 2018 to August 2019. We compared sociodemographic characteristics by aPS enrollment (accepted, refused, and ineligible) and used multivariate binomial regression to assess associations between demographics and refusal. RESULTS: Twenty-four thousand four hundred eighteen females received HIV testing and 1050 (4.3%) tested HIV-positive; 839 females enrolled in aPS (80%), 59 refused (6%), and 152 were ineligible (14%). APS uptake did not differ by age, testing history, or testing type (provider initiated vs. client initiated). Females refusing aPS were more likely to have completed secondary school [adjusted relative risk (aRR) 2.03, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.13 to 2.82] and be divorced/separated (aRR: 3.09, 95% CI: 1.39 to 6.86) or single (aRR: 2.66, 95% CI: 1.31 to 5.42) compared with married/cohabitating. Reasons for refusing aPS included not feeling emotionally ready (31%) and reporting no sexual partners in past 3 years (22%). Reasons for ineligibility included fear or risk of intimate partner violence (9%), previous HIV diagnosis (9%), or insufficient time for aPS provision (3%). CONCLUSIONS: APS has high acceptability among HIV-positive females regardless of age or testing history. More counseling may be needed to increase uptake among females with higher education and those who are separated/single. Follow-up for females not emotionally ready or who had insufficient time for aPS in their clinic visit can improve coverage.