Cent Eur J Public Health 2019, 27(1):54-57 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a4856

HIV incidence among men who have sex with men at a community-based facility in Greece

Georgios K. Nikolopoulos1, Sophocles Chanos2, Emmanouil Tsioptsias2, Ioannis Hodges-Mameletzis3, Dimitra Paraskeva4, Nikos Dedes2
1 Medical School, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus
2 Ath Checkpoint, Athens, Greece
3 World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
4 Hellenic Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Amarousio, Greece

Objective: Men who have sex with men (MSM) are disproportionately affected by HIV in Greece. However, research on HIV incidence in this group is lacking. This study aimed at estimating HIV incidence among MSM in Athens, Greece.

Methods: The analysis included routinely collected data between January 2013-June 2015 from adult MSM who visited a community-based facility (Ath Checkpoint) at least twice and were non-reactive to the rapid INSTITM HIV-1/HIV-2 assay at baseline. HIV conversion rates were calculated by dividing the number of clients who became reactive by the person-years of observation. All statistical analyses including Poisson regression models were conducted in STATA 14.

Results: A total of 1,243 MSM contributed 1,102.50 person-years (py). The overall (per 100 py) conversion rate was 3.99 (95% CI: 2.97-5.36). In multivariable analyses, age less than 30 years was associated with an increased risk of HIV conversion (rate ratio: 2.01; 95% CI: 1.08-3.76).

Conclusions: This analysis shows high rates of HIV conversion among MSM who repeatedly visit a community-based testing site. Ath Checkpoint could contribute to HIV surveillance and identify a high-risk group that could benefit from essential health interventions.

Keywords: HIV incidence, testing, MSM, checkpoint, intervention

Received: June 12, 2016; Revised: February 2, 2019; Published: March 30, 2019  Show citation

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Nikolopoulos GK, Chanos S, Tsioptsias E, Hodges-Mameletzis I, Paraskeva D, Dedes N. HIV incidence among men who have sex with men at a community-based facility in Greece. Cent Eur J Public Health. 2019;27(1):54-57. doi: 10.21101/cejph.a4856. PubMed PMID: 30927398.
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