A clinical utility evaluation of dual HIV/Syphilis point-of-care tests in non-clinical settings for screening for HIV and syphilis in men who have sex with men.

Background: Dual point-of-care tests (POCTs) for the simultaneous detection of antibodies to HIV and syphilis have been developed. Since community-based organisations (CBO) are effective providers of HIV and syphilis testing among men who have sex with men (MSM), evaluation of the utility of these dual tests at CBO testing services is a high priority. The aim of this study is to determine the feasibility of performing dual HIV-syphilis POCT testing among both users and providers at these non-clinical sites.

Revealing HIV epidemic dynamics and contrasting responses in two WHO Eastern European countries: insights from modeling and data triangulation.

Objectives: In the early 2000s, Estonia and Latvia experienced a rapidly growing HIV epidemic among people who inject drugs (PWID), and had, with Russia, the highest diagnosis rates in Europe. Understanding epidemic dynamics in both countries and how responses to HIV impacted them is essential to ending injection-driven epidemics.

Design: Statistical modeling, programmatic data collection, and triangulation.