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Getting to the First 90: Incentivized Peer Mobilizers Promote HIV Testing Services to Men Who Have Sex With Men Using Social Media in Mumbai, India
Recent studies of Indian men who have sex with men (MSM) have shown widespread use of social media for seeking sex partners. We piloted a peer mobilization approach to explore the feasibility of engaging previously unreached MSM online to link them to HIV testing services (HTS). MSM were encouraged...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Global Health: Science and Practice
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6816816/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31558601 http://dx.doi.org/10.9745/GHSP-D-19-00094 |
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author | Das, Anjana George, Bitra Ranebennur, Virupax Parthasarathy, M. R. Shreenivas, G. S. Todankar, Priyamvada Shrivastav, Amit Reddy, Ajay Kumar Akolo, Christopher Cassell, Michael Mane, Sandeep Tripathi, Deepak Baishya, Jiban |
author_facet | Das, Anjana George, Bitra Ranebennur, Virupax Parthasarathy, M. R. Shreenivas, G. S. Todankar, Priyamvada Shrivastav, Amit Reddy, Ajay Kumar Akolo, Christopher Cassell, Michael Mane, Sandeep Tripathi, Deepak Baishya, Jiban |
author_sort | Das, Anjana |
collection | PubMed |
description | Recent studies of Indian men who have sex with men (MSM) have shown widespread use of social media for seeking sex partners. We piloted a peer mobilization approach to explore the feasibility of engaging previously unreached MSM online to link them to HIV testing services (HTS). MSM were encouraged to seek HTS through messages posted on a popular dating website. Those who visited the designated HTS site and tested for HIV were recruited as peer mobilizers and given coupons with unique identifying codes to distribute to other men in their virtual networks. If a network member presented at the site with a coupon and tested for HIV, the peer mobilizer was given a small monetary incentive. Network members presenting at the testing site were also recruited as peer mobilizers and given coupons. In a 6-month period, 247 MSM were recruited and tested for HIV and syphilis, of whom 244 (99%) were first-time testers. Two-thirds were less than 25 years old and about half reported inconsistent or no condom use during the last 10 anal sex acts. Eight individuals (3.2%) tested positive for HIV, and 22 (8.9%) had a high titer for syphilis; all were referred to tertiary hospitals for treatment. Our approach was modestly successful in reaching and providing HTS to previously unreached MSM, but challenges included lower-than-expected recruitment, individuals not returning for posttest counseling, and loss to follow-up of individuals with HIV. The next phase of peer mobilization will aim to scale up these services through government-supported targeted interventions for this subpopulation of primarily young, unreached MSM at high risk. The challenges will be addressed by targeting more dating sites, increasing access to testing using rapid HIV tests at several community-based facilities, and offering peer navigation support for people living with HIV. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6816816 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | Global Health: Science and Practice |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-68168162019-10-31 Getting to the First 90: Incentivized Peer Mobilizers Promote HIV Testing Services to Men Who Have Sex With Men Using Social Media in Mumbai, India Das, Anjana George, Bitra Ranebennur, Virupax Parthasarathy, M. R. Shreenivas, G. S. Todankar, Priyamvada Shrivastav, Amit Reddy, Ajay Kumar Akolo, Christopher Cassell, Michael Mane, Sandeep Tripathi, Deepak Baishya, Jiban Glob Health Sci Pract Field Action Reports Recent studies of Indian men who have sex with men (MSM) have shown widespread use of social media for seeking sex partners. We piloted a peer mobilization approach to explore the feasibility of engaging previously unreached MSM online to link them to HIV testing services (HTS). MSM were encouraged to seek HTS through messages posted on a popular dating website. Those who visited the designated HTS site and tested for HIV were recruited as peer mobilizers and given coupons with unique identifying codes to distribute to other men in their virtual networks. If a network member presented at the site with a coupon and tested for HIV, the peer mobilizer was given a small monetary incentive. Network members presenting at the testing site were also recruited as peer mobilizers and given coupons. In a 6-month period, 247 MSM were recruited and tested for HIV and syphilis, of whom 244 (99%) were first-time testers. Two-thirds were less than 25 years old and about half reported inconsistent or no condom use during the last 10 anal sex acts. Eight individuals (3.2%) tested positive for HIV, and 22 (8.9%) had a high titer for syphilis; all were referred to tertiary hospitals for treatment. Our approach was modestly successful in reaching and providing HTS to previously unreached MSM, but challenges included lower-than-expected recruitment, individuals not returning for posttest counseling, and loss to follow-up of individuals with HIV. The next phase of peer mobilization will aim to scale up these services through government-supported targeted interventions for this subpopulation of primarily young, unreached MSM at high risk. The challenges will be addressed by targeting more dating sites, increasing access to testing using rapid HIV tests at several community-based facilities, and offering peer navigation support for people living with HIV. Global Health: Science and Practice 2019-09-23 /pmc/articles/PMC6816816/ /pubmed/31558601 http://dx.doi.org/10.9745/GHSP-D-19-00094 Text en © Das et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly cited. To view a copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. When linking to this article, please use the following permanent link: https://doi.org/10.9745/GHSP-D-19-00094 |
spellingShingle | Field Action Reports Das, Anjana George, Bitra Ranebennur, Virupax Parthasarathy, M. R. Shreenivas, G. S. Todankar, Priyamvada Shrivastav, Amit Reddy, Ajay Kumar Akolo, Christopher Cassell, Michael Mane, Sandeep Tripathi, Deepak Baishya, Jiban Getting to the First 90: Incentivized Peer Mobilizers Promote HIV Testing Services to Men Who Have Sex With Men Using Social Media in Mumbai, India |
title | Getting to the First 90: Incentivized Peer Mobilizers Promote HIV Testing Services to Men Who Have Sex With Men Using Social Media in Mumbai, India |
title_full | Getting to the First 90: Incentivized Peer Mobilizers Promote HIV Testing Services to Men Who Have Sex With Men Using Social Media in Mumbai, India |
title_fullStr | Getting to the First 90: Incentivized Peer Mobilizers Promote HIV Testing Services to Men Who Have Sex With Men Using Social Media in Mumbai, India |
title_full_unstemmed | Getting to the First 90: Incentivized Peer Mobilizers Promote HIV Testing Services to Men Who Have Sex With Men Using Social Media in Mumbai, India |
title_short | Getting to the First 90: Incentivized Peer Mobilizers Promote HIV Testing Services to Men Who Have Sex With Men Using Social Media in Mumbai, India |
title_sort | getting to the first 90: incentivized peer mobilizers promote hiv testing services to men who have sex with men using social media in mumbai, india |
topic | Field Action Reports |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6816816/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31558601 http://dx.doi.org/10.9745/GHSP-D-19-00094 |
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