September 2019
Our third webinar "Moving towards integration: ECDC public health guidance on HIV, hepatitis B and C testing in the EU/EEA" occurred on Tuesday, 24 September 2019 from 13:00-13:30 CEST. Anastasia Pharris of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) provided an introduction of the development of the 2018 ECDC public health guidance and presented the recommendations in implementing integrated testing for HIV and viral hepatitis.
Brief description of webinar: In 2018, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) published an update to their 2010 guidance on HIV testing, extending the document to include testing for viral hepatitis. This guidance aims to provide European countries with an evidence-based framework to help develop, implement, monitor and evaluate their own national HBV, HCV and HIV testing guidelines and programmes. It offers a range of evidence-based and expert reviewed options for designing testing interventions in a variety of settings and populations and supports the concepts of diversifying and integrating testing services.
Presenter bio: Anastasia Pharris is an Expert in HIV at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in Stockholm, Sweden. She is a nurse with Masters degrees in public health and community health nursing and a PhD in public health. Over the last 20 years, she has worked on clinical and public health aspects of HIV in the USA, Uganda, Zambia, Vietnam, Sweden and, now, at the European level. At ECDC, she is responsible for HIV surveillance within the countries of the European Union. She also provides technical support to countries in Europe on the HIV continuum of care and modelled estimates of HIV incidence and time from infection to HIV diagnosis.
She has led several ECDC country visits for technical support to local authorities and ECDC scientific guidance projects on the prevention of infections among people who inject drugs and men who have sex with men.
The webinar was recorded and will be shared for viewing. Please check this space again for a link to the video.
May 2019
To help launch the 2019 Spring European Testing Week, EuroTEST and ETW hosted two free live webinars. These two webinars showcased testing experiences from Southern Europe and the United Kingdom.
The first webinar, “High contribution, low public funding: Southern European Checkpoints' role in HIV detection in 4 countries,” was presented by Miguel Rocha of Grupo de Ativistas em Tratamentos (GAT)/CheckpointLX.
Miguel Rocha is a community health nurse working at GAT’s (treatment activists group) Portugal community-based sexual health centre for MSM – CheckpointLX – since 2012.
Miguel presented on how Checkpoints in Southern Europe have contributed to increases in testing uptake among MSM and diagnose HIV patients earlier than clinical services despite barriers in obtaining public funding.
To watch the webinar, click here or copy/paste the following address into your web browser: https://bit.ly/2OsZvBc
The second webinar, “Introducing a free HIV self testing service: Terrence Higgins Trust’s experience offering HIV self test kits online,” was presented by Will Howells and Taku Mukiwa of Terrence Higgins Trust (THT).
Will Howells is Head of Digital and Taku Mukiwa is Head of Social Marketing at Terrence Higgins Trust (THT). THT is the leading HIV and sexual health charity in the UK and the largest voluntary sector provider of HIV and sexual health services, running services out of local centres across Great Britain.
Taku and Will presented on Terrence Higgins Trust’s experience of setting up and delivering a UK-based programme offering free HIV self-testing kits online to most at-risk communities.
To watch the webinar, click here or copy/paste the following address into your web browser: https://bit.ly/2ZdfLuf
After you have viewed the webinar, we would appreciate your feedback through a very short questionnaire. It will only take an estimated 5 minutes to complete: https://is.gd/SpringWebinars
Questions? Email us at eurotest.rigshospitalet@regionh.dk