Youth living with HIV and partner-specific risk for the secondary transmission of HIV.

Background: Secondary transmission remains a significant concern among HIV-infected youth. Little is known, however, about how partner-specific sexual risk behaviors for the secondary transmission of HIV may differ between the 2 largest subgroups of HIV-positive youth, women-who-have-sex-with-men (WSM) and men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM), METHODS: During 2003-2004, a convenience sample of HIV-infected youth, 13 to 24 years of age, were recruited from 15 Adolescent Medicine Trials Network clinical sites. Approximately 10 to 15 youth were recruited at each site.

An HIV prevention protocol reviewed at 15 national sites: how do ethics committees protect communities?

To learn whether ethics committees reviewing community-based participatory research concentrate on the protection of communities, in addition to individual participants, data from 15 sites were analyzed. Eighty-two ethics committee concerns related to consent (35%), protocol procedures (49%), data collection (17%), and HIPAA (6%) were identified. Concerns generally involved individual level subject issues; only 17% were related to community issues.

The role of community resource assessments in the development of 15 adolescent health community-researcher partnerships.

Background: Connect to Protect (C2P): Partnerships for Youth Prevention Interventions is an initiative that alters the community's structural elements to reduce youth HIV rates.

Objectives: This study details a community resource assessment and describes how resources were evaluated in the context of local needs.

Methods: Fifteen sites developed a community resource list, conducted a brief survey, created a youth service directory, and mapped where disease prevalence and community resources intersected.

Barriers and facilitators to adolescent HIV testing.

This study examined the barriers and facilitators of HIV counseling, testing, and referral service (HIV CTR) acceptance among 278 youth aged 12-24 years old. Participants completed a questionnaire before health education sessions with trained counselors. Information was collected on individual characteristics, HIV testing acceptance, risk behaviors, reasons for having never been tested, and what would make it easier to get tested for HIV.

Partnership selection and formation: a case study of developing adolescent health community-researcher partnerships in fifteen U.S. communities.

Purpose: This study describes the partner selection process in 15 U.S. communities developing community-researcher partnerships for the Connect to Protect (C2P): Partnerships for Youth Prevention Interventions, an initiative of the Adolescent Trials Network for human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) Interventions.

Calibration and validation of an oral fluid-based sensitive/less-sensitive assay to distinguish recent from established HIV-1 infections.

Sensitive/less-sensitive (S/LS) serum-based serologic methods have been developed to measure human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) incidence by distinguishing recent from established infections. Such methods require venipuncture. The goal of this study was to develop an alternative to serum-based S/LS testing using oral fluid (OF) as the testing medium.

Laying the foundation for Connect to Protect: a multi-site community mobilization intervention to reduce HIV/AIDS incidence and prevalence among urban youth.

Despite the considerable resources that have been dedicated to HIV prevention interventions and services over the past decade, HIV incidence among young people in the United States remains alarmingly high. One reason is that the majority of prevention efforts continue to focus solely on modifying individual behavior, even though public health research strongly suggests that changes to a community's structural elements, such as their programs, practices, and laws or policies, may result in more effective and sustainable outcomes. Connect to Protect is a multi-city community mobilization intervention that focuses on altering or creating community structural elements in ways that will ultimately reduce youth HIV incidence and prevalence.

Promoting identification of HIV-infected youths: borrowing concepts from the media to reduce the HIV epidemic?

The HIV/AIDS epidemic is dramatically affecting adolescents. Although it is estimated that 50% of new HIV infections in the United States is among people under 25 years of age, adolescents seek HIV counseling and testing services at a much lower rate than adults. Furthermore, many HIV-infected adolescents remain unaware of their status and do not seek health care.