COBATEST was represented by Dr. Laura Fernández-López at the Final Workshop of the project “The contribution of Third Sector Organisations and Associations in the Continuum of Care (CoC) of People Living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA), with a particular focus on the most vulnerable populations, towards achieving the 95-95-95 targets.” The workshop was held on 9 July 2026 at the INMI “Lazzaro Spallanzani” IRCCS Congress Centre in Rome, Italy, bringing together researchers, clinicians, public health institutions and community organisations to discuss the role of community-based services in strengthening HIV prevention, testing, linkage to care and the HIV Continuum of Care.
During the session on Community-Based Counselling and Testing, Dr. Fernández-López presented “Leveraging harmonised and disaggregated data for stronger community-based testing responses: Insights from the COBATEST Network” on behalf of the COBATEST Network. The presentation showcased how harmonised and disaggregated data collected through the COBATEST Network support evidence-based decision-making, reveal disparities and intersectional vulnerabilities across key populations, and strengthen integrated testing strategies for HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections across Europe. It also highlighted the value of standardised data collection in improving prevention, early diagnosis and linkage to care while advancing equitable community-based responses to infectious diseases.