News

The COBATEST 2017 Report is now available – 36 of our members in 16 countries contributed their data.

In 2017, members reported 111,579 clients tested for HIV, 1,781 for Hepatitis and 6,643 for syphilis. The percentage of reactive HIV tests among members varied from 0.0% to 4.9% (GENDERDOC-M in Moldova), with an average of 1.3%.

Key populations (MSM, SW, PWID and migrants) are more likely than the general population to be returning for testing in the same CBVCT within 12 months and the proportion is especially high in SW and transgender people. This indicates that CBVCT services are catering to people who face barriers in accessing mainstream health services.

The types of services that members offer are expanding, and many now test for HIV, HCV, syphilis and more. To better reflect this reality we will start asking for data on syphilis and HCV testing in the aggregated submission form. The alarmingly high proportion of reactive tests among the few transgender people that were tested emphasises the need to collect good data on this population so that CBVCTs can better tailor services.

There are reporting gaps in some of the data collected, particularly data on confirmatory tests. This gap is largest amongst migrants, reflecting difficulties in performing follow-up with this group.

The data collected through the COBATEST Network is of high quality and useful in informing decisions within the organisation, at the national and the European level. In spite of this, most national surveillance systems are still not including CBVCT data in their testing statistics.

Read the full report here.

The first results of the COBA-Cohort, a project associated with the COBATEST Network, are now available online. The study is a cohort of HIV-negative men who have sex with men (MSM) tested for HIV in CBVCTs in six different countries. The partners (AIDES (France), AIDS Fondet (Denmark), Fondazione LILA Milano (Italy), GAT/CheckpointLX (Portugal), Legebitra (Slovenia) and Positive Voice/Athens-Thessaloniki Checkpoints (Greece)).

The COBA-Cohort finds that routine HIV testing is becoming normalised amongst men who have sex with men. Cohort participants most at-risk of HIV appear to be educated about the risks of HIV. This group are aware they are at higher risk, are more likely to know the HIV status of their partners and are more willing than other participants to potentially use PrEP in the future.

The data reported is based on a study period of between 15 and 24 months, depending on the study site. The cohort remains active so future publications will be based on a longer follow-up time and perhaps more participating CBVCTs. If your service offers HIV testing to MSM get in touch to find out more about how you can participate in the cohort.

A new publication in HIV Medicine finds that collecting standardised data from CBVCT services is useful and feasible. It confirms that the data collected through the COBATEST Network is an important source of information to ensure quality services along the HIV care cascade.

Using data collected in 2014-16 using the COBATEST standardised tool, these new results support evidence that CBVCT services are successful in diagnosing HIV in individuals in key populations, especially men who have sex with men, male sex workers, transgender people and people who inject drugs.

There has been improvement in the proportion of people who receive a reactive test result who are then linked to care, but the pathways for linkage to care still need improvements. To build on the success of CBVCTs increasing diagnosis in key populations, the publication calls for an increase in outreach activity.

The publication was made possible with the contributions of COBATEST Network members. You can access it here.