Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-Funded Sexually Transmitted Disease Programs.

ABSTRACT: The COVID-19 pandemic impacted sexually transmitted disease (STD) services. Of 59 US-funded STD programs, 91% reported a great deal to moderate impact from staff reassignment in April 2020, with 28% of respondents reporting permanent reassignment of disease intervention specialist staff. Telemedicine was implemented in 47%. Decreases in STD case reports were reported by most jurisdictions.

Evaluating HIV Surveillance Completeness Along the Continuum of Care: Supplementing Surveillance With Health Center Data to Increase HIV Data to Care Efficiency.

BACKGROUND: HIV surveillance is essential to quantifying the impact of the epidemic and shaping HIV programs. The Maryland Department of Health (MDH) historically conducted HIV Data to Care (D2C) activities using surveillance data to identify individuals who were not in HIV care; however, most case investigations concluded that the individuals in question were currently engaged in care. This suggests that delays and gaps in laboratory reporting to HIV surveillance exist and the proportion of HIV-positive Marylanders who are truly in care is underestimated. Therefore, solely relying on surveillance data might not be an efficient method for identifying not in care HIV cases. SETTING: Through the Partnerships for Care (P4C) project, MDH conducted targeted D2C efforts on HIV patients from 4 health centers. METHODS: The expanded D2C model that MDH created during P4C integrated clinical data as a secondary data source to enhance the surveillance data used to estimate HIV patient care engagement. MDH matched and compared health center electronic health records with HIV surveillance data to assess completeness of HIV case and laboratory reporting. RESULTS: HIV case ascertainment was high (99.9%) for the P4C cohort (N = 927), but differences in estimated care engagement and viral suppression between data sources revealed incomplete laboratory reporting and that patients received care from multiple providers. Analyzing the clinical data leads to the resolution of several reporting gaps, which improved surveillance data quality over time. CONCLUSIONS: Health departments should validate their HIV surveillance completeness. Triangulating surveillance data with clinical data generated more accurate depictions of care engagement and increased D2C efficiency.

Adaptation and implementation of an evidence-based prevention counseling intervention in Texas.

HIV prevention counseling linked with testing has been shown to reduce high-risk behaviors and new sexually transmitted diseases in public clinic settings. However, few studies have been conducted evaluating the implementation of such models outside a research setting. This study sought to determine the extent to which the introduction of a standard protocol based on Project RESPECT improves the achievement of HIV prevention counseling goals of existing counseling and testing programs. Four prevention counseling programs contracting with the Texas Department of State Health Services completed a standardized 5-day training and implemented the protocols, counseling tools, and quality assurance (QA) procedures developed for the project. Introduction of the protocol was accomplished with existing program resources and significantly improved prevention counseling. Direct observation of counseling sessions demonstrated a significant improvement in attainment for eight of the nine counseling goals of initial sessions and for all counseling goals of follow-up sessions after the protocol was introduced. Client exit questionnaires reinforced this finding. Significant improvement was also found in use of counseling skills, with improvements in 6 of 10 skills observed in initial sessions and 4 of 10 skills in follow-up sessions. Challenges identified through semistructured interviews with counselors and supervisors included serving non-English-speaking and low-risk clients, mastery of the protocol, the amount of time required for QA, and implementation in settings with severe time constraints.