The Development and Implementation of an Outreach Program to Identify Acute and Recent HIV Infections in New York City.
BACKGROUND
Since 2004, the authors have been operating First Call NYU, an outreach program to identify acute and recent HIV infections, also called primary HIV infections, among targeted at-risk communities in the New York City (NYC) metropolitan area.


METHODS
First Call NYU employed mass media advertising campaigns, outreach to healthcare providers in NYC, and Internet-based efforts including search engine optimization (SEO) and Internet-based advertising to achieve these goals.


RESULTS
Between October 2004 and October 2008, 571 individuals were screened through this program, leading to 446 unique, in-person screening visits. 47 primary HIV infections, including 14 acute and 33 recent HIV infections, were identified.


CONCLUSIONS
Internet and traditional recruitment methods can be used to increase self-referrals for screening following possible exposure to HIV.


CONCLUSIONS
Community education of at-risk groups, with the goal of increased self-diagnosis of possible acute HIV infection, may be a useful addition to traditional efforts to identify such individuals.
Silvera
Richard
R
Department of Environmental Medicine, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
Stein
Dylan
D
Hutt
Richard
R
Hagerty
Robert
R
Daskalakis
Demetre
D
Valentine
Fred
F
Marmor
Michael
M
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