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HIV testing centers across the US showed reductions in testing of nearly 50% during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, raising concerns of a subsequent increase in transmission by people unaware of their HIV-positive status.
“Testing strategies need to be ramped up to cover this decrease in testing while adapting to the continuing COVID-19 environment,” reported Deesha Patel, MPH, and colleagues with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Division of HIV Prevention, in Atlanta, Georgia, in research presented at the United States Conference on HIV/AIDS (USCHA) 2021 Annual Meeting.
According to their data from the National HIV Prevention Program Monitoring and Evaluation (NHM&E) system, the number of CDC-funded HIV tests declined by more than 1 million in 2020 amid the COVID-19 restrictions, with 1,228,142 tests reported that year compared with 2,301,669 tests in 2019, a reduction of 46.6%.
The number of persons who were newly diagnosed with HIV, based on the tests, declined by 29.7%, from 7692 newly diagnosed in 2019 to 5409 persons in 2020, the authors report.
The reasons for the reduction in new HIV diagnoses in 2020 could be multifactorial, possibly reflecting not just the reduced rates of testing but also possibly lower rates of transmission due to the lockdowns and social distancing, Patel told Medscape Medical News.
“Both [of those] interpretations are plausible, and the reductions are likely due to a combination of reasons,” she said.
Of note, the percentage of tests that were positive did not show a decline and was in fact slightly higher in 2020 (0.4%) compared with 2019 (0.3%; rate ratio = 1.32). But the increase may reflect that those seeking testing during the pandemic were more likely to be symptomatic.
“It is plausible that the smaller pool of people getting tested represented those with a higher likelihood of receiving a positive HIV test, [for instance] having a recent exposure, exhibiting symptoms,” Patel explained.
“Furthermore, it is possible that some health departments specifically focused outreach efforts to serve persons with increased potential for HIV acquisition, thus identifying a higher proportion of persons with HIV.”
The declines in testing are nevertheless of particular concern in light of recent pre-COVID data indicating that as many as 13% of people who were infected with HIV were unaware of their positive status, placing them at high risk of transmitting the virus.
And on a broader level, the declines could negatively affect the goal to eradicate HIV through the federal Ending the HIV Epidemic in the US (EHE) initiative, which aims to reduce new HIV infections in the US by 90% by 2030 through the scaling up of key HIV prevention and treatment strategies, Patel noted.
“The first pillar of EHE is to diagnose all people with HIV as early as possible, and to accomplish that, there needs to be sufficient HIV testing,” Patel explained.
“With fewer HIV tests being conducted, there are missed opportunities to identify persons with newly diagnosed HIV, which affects the entire continuum of care, [including] linkage to medical care, receiving antiretroviral treatment, getting and keeping viral suppression, and reducing transmission.”
At the Local Level: Adaptations Allowed for Continued Testing
In a separate report presented at the meeting detailing the experiences at a more local level, Joseph Olsen, MPH, and colleagues with CrescentCare, in New Orleans, Louisiana, described a similar reduction of HIV testing in 2020 of 49% in their system compared with the previous year, down from 7952 rapid HIV tests in 2019 to 4034 in 2020.
However, through efforts to continue to provide services during the pandemic, the program was able to link 182 patients to HIV care in 2020, which was up from 172 in 2019.
In addition to offering the rapid HIV testing in conjunction with COVID-19 testing at their urgent care centers, the center adapted to the pandemic’s challenges with strategies including a new at-home testing program; providing testing at a hotel shelter for the homeless; and testing as part of walk-in testing with a syringe access component.
Olsen credited the swift program adaptations with maintaining testing during the time of crisis.
“Without [those] measures, it would have been a near zero number of tests provided,” he told Medscape Medical News.
“It would have been easy to blame the pandemic and not try to find innovations to deliver services, but I credit our incredibly motivated team for wanting to make sure every possible resource was available.”
But now there are signs of possible fallout from the testing reductions that did occur, Olsen said.
“We are already seeing the increase with other sexually transmitted infections [STIs], and I expect that we will see this with HIV as well,” he said.
In response, clinicians should use diligence in providing HIV testing, Olsen asserted.
“The take-home message for clinicians is that anyone having sex should get tested for HIV. It’s as easy as that!” he said.
“If they are getting tested for any other STI, make sure an HIV panel is added and discussed. If someone is pregnant, make sure an HIV panel is added and discussed.
“If someone has never had an HIV test before in their life — and I would add if they haven’t had an HIV test since March of 2020 — make sure an HIV panel is added/discussed,” he said.
“Doing this for everyone also reduces stigma around testing. It’s not because any one person or group or risk behavior is being targeted, it is just good public health practice.”
The authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships. Patel noted that the findings and conclusions of her poster are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the CDC.
United States Conference on HIV/AIDS (USCHA) 2021 Annual Meeting: Posters 3 and 5. Presented December 2, 2021.
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