Moving towards integration: ECDC public health guidance on HIV, hepatitis B and C testing in the EU/EEA

The 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.