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Innovative strategies using communications technologies to engage gay men and other men who have sex with men into early HIV testing and treatment in Thailand
OBJECTIVES: One-in-three men who have sex with men (MSM) surveyed between 2007 and 2010 in Bangkok were HIV infected; 54% of new infections in Thailand are expected to be among MSM. Although MSM are the top internet-accessing population in Thailand, it has not been optimally used to scale up early H...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Mediscript Ltd
2015
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4946676/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27482400 |
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author | Anand, Tarandeep Nitpolprasert, Chattiya Ananworanich, Jintanat Pakam, Charnwit Nonenoy, Siriporn Jantarapakde, Jureeporn Sohn, Annette H Phanuphak, Praphan Phanuphak, Nittaya |
author_facet | Anand, Tarandeep Nitpolprasert, Chattiya Ananworanich, Jintanat Pakam, Charnwit Nonenoy, Siriporn Jantarapakde, Jureeporn Sohn, Annette H Phanuphak, Praphan Phanuphak, Nittaya |
author_sort | Anand, Tarandeep |
collection | PubMed |
description | OBJECTIVES: One-in-three men who have sex with men (MSM) surveyed between 2007 and 2010 in Bangkok were HIV infected; 54% of new infections in Thailand are expected to be among MSM. Although MSM are the top internet-accessing population in Thailand, it has not been optimally used to scale up early HIV testing and counselling (HTC) and linkage to treatment. Thailand needs innovative technology-based strategies to help address the exploding epidemic of HIV among gay men and other MSM. METHODS: Adam's Love, an innovative web-based communications strategy, was launched in 2011 by the Thai Red Cross AIDS Research Centre. It includes a dedicated website, integrated social media and web message boards for online counselling, recruitment and appointment making, a club membership programme offering non-financial incentives for HTC, targeted marketing and promotions, and collaboration with MSM-friendly clinics and private hospitals to improve accessibility of HTC services. RESULTS: Between September 2011 and January 2015, the website engaged 1.69 million viewers, and gained more than 8 million page views. An estimated 11,120 gay men and other MSM received online counselling; 8,288 MSM were referred to HTC services; 1,223 to STI testing services; and 1,112 MSM living with HIV were advised regarding HIV treatment. In total, 1,181 MSM recruited online were enrolled in the club membership programme, and 15.5% were diagnosed with HIV. CONCLUSIONS: The Adam's Love programme has successfully demonstrated the potential for utilising ‘online-to-offline’ recruitment models in Thailand, and has attracted national and regional recognition as a trusted resource on HIV and referral to testing and care. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4946676 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | Mediscript Ltd |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-49466762016-08-01 Innovative strategies using communications technologies to engage gay men and other men who have sex with men into early HIV testing and treatment in Thailand Anand, Tarandeep Nitpolprasert, Chattiya Ananworanich, Jintanat Pakam, Charnwit Nonenoy, Siriporn Jantarapakde, Jureeporn Sohn, Annette H Phanuphak, Praphan Phanuphak, Nittaya J Virus Erad Original Research OBJECTIVES: One-in-three men who have sex with men (MSM) surveyed between 2007 and 2010 in Bangkok were HIV infected; 54% of new infections in Thailand are expected to be among MSM. Although MSM are the top internet-accessing population in Thailand, it has not been optimally used to scale up early HIV testing and counselling (HTC) and linkage to treatment. Thailand needs innovative technology-based strategies to help address the exploding epidemic of HIV among gay men and other MSM. METHODS: Adam's Love, an innovative web-based communications strategy, was launched in 2011 by the Thai Red Cross AIDS Research Centre. It includes a dedicated website, integrated social media and web message boards for online counselling, recruitment and appointment making, a club membership programme offering non-financial incentives for HTC, targeted marketing and promotions, and collaboration with MSM-friendly clinics and private hospitals to improve accessibility of HTC services. RESULTS: Between September 2011 and January 2015, the website engaged 1.69 million viewers, and gained more than 8 million page views. An estimated 11,120 gay men and other MSM received online counselling; 8,288 MSM were referred to HTC services; 1,223 to STI testing services; and 1,112 MSM living with HIV were advised regarding HIV treatment. In total, 1,181 MSM recruited online were enrolled in the club membership programme, and 15.5% were diagnosed with HIV. CONCLUSIONS: The Adam's Love programme has successfully demonstrated the potential for utilising ‘online-to-offline’ recruitment models in Thailand, and has attracted national and regional recognition as a trusted resource on HIV and referral to testing and care. Mediscript Ltd 2015-04-01 /pmc/articles/PMC4946676/ /pubmed/27482400 Text en © 2015 The Authors. Journal of Virus Eradication published by Mediscript Ltd http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an open access article published under the terms of a Creative Commons License. |
spellingShingle | Original Research Anand, Tarandeep Nitpolprasert, Chattiya Ananworanich, Jintanat Pakam, Charnwit Nonenoy, Siriporn Jantarapakde, Jureeporn Sohn, Annette H Phanuphak, Praphan Phanuphak, Nittaya Innovative strategies using communications technologies to engage gay men and other men who have sex with men into early HIV testing and treatment in Thailand |
title | Innovative strategies using communications technologies to engage gay men and other men who have sex with men into early HIV testing and treatment in Thailand |
title_full | Innovative strategies using communications technologies to engage gay men and other men who have sex with men into early HIV testing and treatment in Thailand |
title_fullStr | Innovative strategies using communications technologies to engage gay men and other men who have sex with men into early HIV testing and treatment in Thailand |
title_full_unstemmed | Innovative strategies using communications technologies to engage gay men and other men who have sex with men into early HIV testing and treatment in Thailand |
title_short | Innovative strategies using communications technologies to engage gay men and other men who have sex with men into early HIV testing and treatment in Thailand |
title_sort | innovative strategies using communications technologies to engage gay men and other men who have sex with men into early hiv testing and treatment in thailand |
topic | Original Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4946676/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27482400 |
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