Monthly Archives: November 2025

COBATEST was invited to participate and was actively present at the 6th European Aids Clinical Society (EACS) Standard of Care Meeting for HIV and Co-infections in Europe, held in Athens, Greece, on October 16-17, 2024.  Under the theme “Standard care for all: Embracing those left behind”, the meeting was jointly hosted by Greece and Türkiye, drawing attention to the strategic role of a region that connects Western, Central, and Eastern Europe.

This closed gathering brought together about one hundred participants, including HIV specialists, community representatives, and institutional stakeholders from the WHO European Region. Over one and a half days, the agenda combined plenary sessions with exchanges of information on Europe’s situation at the time. The event served as a key moment to review both achievements and remaining gaps in providing care for people living with HIV across the region.

The Fast Track Cities conference took place from October 13th to 15th, 2024 in Paris, France.

Dr. Laura Fernàndez-López presented a poster on enhancing standardised HIV/STI/VH testing data collection for Community-Based Testing Services.

The abstract described the networks evaluation since 2010. Lessons learned from COBATEST’s history was also shared as part of the Poster. Specifically, highlighting that the COBATEST network has demonstrated that standardized data collection from CBVCT services is feasible and reliable across various European countries. The data supports quality service planning and management, providing evidence for the expansion of CBVCT services within the EU/EEA. The standardization of information has strengthened the case for integrating community-based models into HIV strategic investments. Thus to maximize the value of standardized data collection, it is crucial to increase the representativeness of the data across different countries and key populations. This will enhance the robustness of the data and support the broader integration of CBVCT services into national and international HIV response strategies.

Please find full poster here.

Dr. Miguel Alarcón Gutiérrez presented an online poster at the HIVR4P Conference, 2024, in Lima, Peru, on the population accessing community-led HIV testing centers and the factors associated with repeat testing, based on data from the COBATEST Network spanning 2018 to 2021. In total, 80,684 individuals were included from 59 centres in 12 different countries. Men represented 66.0% (n=53,263), women 32,0% (n=25,844) and transgender people 1,9% (n=1,532). The main age category was 25-34 years old with 55.7% (n=44,909), 31.5% (n=25,390) were foreign-born, and 13.8% (n=11,122) repeated testing in the same centre at least once. GBMSM was reported in 41.3% (n=33,362), sex work in 9,6% (n=7,713) and IDU in 1,2% (n=945). Factors associated with testing repetition after multivariate analysis were being a man (aOR=1.10; CI:1.02-1.18), a transgender person (aOR=1.95; CI:1.68-2.25), being more than 25 years old (aOR=1.31; CI:1.25-1.38), being migrant (aOR=0.81; CI:0.76-0.85), GBMSM (aOR=2.43; CI:2.28-2.59), sex worker (aOR=1.68; CI:1.56-1.82), IDU (aOR=1.29; CI:1.05-1.58), using a condom in the last sexual intercourse (aOR=1.20; CI:1.14-1.25), and having any STI during the last 12 months (aOR=1.43; CI:1.33-1.54).

Please find the poster here.