Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on HIV Testing Uptake Among Key Populations Enrolled in Targeted Intervention Program in Maharashtra, India

The COVID-19 pandemic posed unprecedented challenges to HIV services globally. We evaluated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the uptake of HIV testing in the Targeted Intervention (TI) program in Maharashtra—a high HIV burden state in India. Annual HIV testing was sustained during the pandemic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:AIDS and behavior 2023-09, Vol.27 (9), p.2875-2882
Main Authors: Parchure, Ritu, Darak, Trupti, More, Purva, Jori, Vijaya, Darak, Shrinivas, Gabane, Lokesh, Deoraj, Pramod, Kapoor, Neha, Verma, Vinita, Singh, Bhawani, Das, Chinmoyee, Rajan, Shobini, Kulkarni, Vinay
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Communicable Disease Control
Community
Community involvement
Community participation
COVID-19
COVID-19 - epidemiology
Drug abuse
Female
Health Psychology
HIV
HIV Infections - diagnosis
HIV Infections - epidemiology
HIV Infections - prevention & control
HIV Testing
Homosexuality, Male
Human immunodeficiency virus
Humans
India - epidemiology
Infectious Diseases
Intervention
Intravenous drugs
Male
Medical tests
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Men
Migrants
Original Paper
Pandemics
Pandemics - prevention & control
Prostitution
Public Health
Recovery
Sex Workers
Sexual and Gender Minorities
Sexually transmitted diseases
STD
Transgender persons
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Summary:The COVID-19 pandemic posed unprecedented challenges to HIV services globally. We evaluated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the uptake of HIV testing in the Targeted Intervention (TI) program in Maharashtra—a high HIV burden state in India. Annual HIV testing was sustained during the pandemic year (2020–2021), at levels similar to the pre-pandemic year (2019–2020), among Female Sex Workers (FSW), Men having Sex with Men (MSM), Transgender (TG), and Truckers; but not among Migrants and Intravenous Drug Users (IDU). There was an acute decline during the lockdown across all typologies. Sharp recovery was seen among FSW, MSM, and TG during the early months of the un-lockdown. The community-based screening (CBS) approach primarily contributed to this recovery. Among migrants and truckers, recovery was delayed. There was an overall reduction of 58% in annual HIV-positive registrations. The community-based networks, participatory structures, and processes of HIV programs played an essential role in reaching the community during the pandemic.
ISSN:1090-7165
1573-3254
DOI:10.1007/s10461-023-04011-5