Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

HIV testing is a gateway to the continuum of prevention and care and the key to ending the epidemic. Early HIV diagnosis and initiation of treatment is crucial for optimal health and can avert deaths. For people living with HIV and at risk, benefits of diagnosis also come through linkage to other services; diagnosis is also an effective means of preventing transmission. These benefits are dependent on HIV testing, and testing early. In Canada, we are not doing well at diagnosing HIV and engaging people in care. Of the approximately 75,500 people who live with HIV in Canada, as many as 21% are unaware of their status. This group may account for more than 50% of new infections. Many people are being diagnosed late in HIV infection; there is room for improvement in our effort to ensure linkage to care. Canada urgently needs to investigate better ways to reach the undiagnosed and engage them in the HIV care continuum. An improved effort to reach the undiagnosed includes the implementation of new program approaches based on new understandings of HIV, as well as the scale-up of existing effective approaches. Some of this knowledge is being taken up in practice in Canada, but this is occurring very unevenly, a limitation to our ability to improve diagnoses and linkage. We need to investigate effective strategies that have earlier detection, higher uptake, and more effective linkage outcomes; this knowledge needs to be gathered, synthesized, and shared. This deliberative dialogue will bring together HIV experts from across Canada, including policy makers, researchers and providers to discuss effective approaches to HIV testing and linkage following diagnosis, and how these approaches can be integrated into existing systems of care. Invitees will articulate priority directions for programming and research in Canada based on evidence of effective testing approaches. CATIE will synthesize this knowledge for national uptake among testing stakeholders across Canada.