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

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%.

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.

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.