About the Cobatest Network
The COBATEST Network links community-based voluntary counselling and testing services (CBVCTs) across Europe and Central Asia. It was established in 2009 within the HIV-COBATEST project under the European Union Public Health Programme. The purpose was to share a common data collection instrument to monitor the activity of CBVCTs in Europe and to promote HIV testing, early diagnosis and linkage to care among vulnerable groups. Since the end of the HIV-EDAT project in 2017, the COBATEST Network remains active and continues to recruit new members.
The COBATEST mission is to promote HIV and other STI testing and linkage to care and treatment, to improve CBVCT services across Europe and Central Asia, to share good practices, procedures and information to improve CBVCT activities, and to provide tools to strengthen collaborative work between professionals.
In 2022, COBATEST members performed 171,095 tests. Of the 2,049 (1.2%) tests that were reactive, 1,393 confirmatory tests were reported.
The COBATEST Network now comprises 133 CBVCTs in 29 European countries and 2 Central Asian countries (see our members). In 2019, COBATEST members performed 129,484 tests. Of the 1407 (1.1%) that were reactive, 1147 (81.1%) performed confirmatory tests, of which 991 (86.4%) were positive.
The Governing Structure of Cobatest Network
Temporary Steering Committee was established in 2019 for a transition period, in order to develop the governance structure of the COBATEST Network. During 2019-2021 the following governing documents were developed which currently ensures smooth and democratic processes within the network:
Is your organisation based in Europe and offering community-based HIV/STI testing services? Join us!
COBATEST Steering Committee Members
Nino Tsereteli
Executive Director
Center for Information and Counseling on Reproductive Health TANADGOMA
Georgia
Carlo Kantwerk
Project Coordinator
German network of Checkpoints at Deutsche Aidshilfe e.V.
Germany
Mihai Lixandru
Project Manager
ARAS – Romanian Association Against-AIDS
Romania
Dr.Laura Fernández López
Epidemiologist | Researcher
Centre for Epidemiological Studies of Sexually Transmitted Disease and AIDS in Catalonia (CEEISCAT)
Germans Trias i Pujol Health Sciences Research Institute Foundation (IGTP)
Spain
Arman Sahakyan
Inclusive Diversity Programs coordinator
Dignity Humanitarian NGO
Armenia
Davor Dubravić
Psycologist
Croatian Association for HIV and Viral Hepatitis (HUHIV)
Croatia
COBATEST Secretariate
Ismar Hačam
Program Assistant
AIDS Action Europe
Germany
Dr.Megi Gogishvili Asanishvili
Researcher | COBATEST Scientific Field Coordinator
Centre for Epidemiological Studies of Sexually Transmitted Disease and AIDS in Catalonia (CEEISCAT)
Germans Trias i Pujol Health Sciences Research Institute Foundation (IGTP)
Spain