E-Poster | Index case contact testing to improve HIV case identification in the community settings of Ethiopia

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Background

Community -based index case testing (ICT) is an innovative and person -centered approach to increase HIV testing yield for epidemic control. This abstract summarizes the HIV testing yield in a Community HIV care and treatment (CHCT) activity in Ethiopia.

Description

Local partner organizations have been implementing the PEPFAR/USAID USAID-funded CHCT activity. They deploy community engagement facilitators (CEFs) who are health professionals to provide HIV testing services. CEFs received index case line lists from health facilities or community platforms and locate, counsel, and elicit their sexual contacts or biological children . Index contacts who accepted the offer were tested at the community or referred to the health facility . The community ICT data from October 2020 to September 2022 were analyzed. The testing protocol was the same for community and facility testing. The yields between community- and health facility -based ICT services were compared using HIV program data from seven high burden regions. The CommCare application collected individual client level data. Excel and STATA software version -13 were used for data analysis.