HIV, STI, Viral Hepatitis, and Harm Reduction Digest
April 10, 2024
NACCHO News and Announcements
Point-of-Care Testing Survey
NACCHO is interested in knowing how, when, and why you use point-of-care testing. If you are using POC tests, please fill out this brief questionnaire! https://forms.gle/QzkcCcqhn3tvpkcHA
Part 1: Gender Diverse Approaches to Strategic Local Partnerships Webinar
NACCHO is initiating a 3-part webinar series, “Gender Diverse Approaches to Community Health: A webinar series.” The first session (to be held at 1 pm ET on April 11th, 2024) will be focused on partnerships. During this hour, we’ll discuss best practices for engaging TGNC people. What does impactful community engagement look like? How can mutually beneficial partnerships be both created and sustained? What are ways that health departments can apply an equity lens to their hiring process? This webinar will address these and other related questions on bringing TGNC folks to the table. Register here.
Are you marketing your STI services? Do you want to?
If you answered “yes” to either of those questions, join NACCHO and KFF’s Social Impact Media for STI Marketing Office Hours!! The open discussion session will be Wednesday, May 22nd at 2 pm EST. Participants will get the chance to ask their burning questions about marketing campaigns, share ideas and expertise with each other, and walk away with knowledge and resources to improve their own marketing campaigns. The Zoom link can be found here; pre-registration is preferred, so please also fill out the interest form here.
Pharyngeal Gonorrhea Test of Cure (TOC) Final Report and Toolkit
NACCHO seeks to improve the health of communities by strengthening and advocating for local health departments (LHDs) and supporting effective local public health practices and systems. In late 2020, CDC recommended a test-of-cure for persons with pharyngeal gonorrhea 7-14 days after initial treatment, regardless of treatment regime. Pharyngeal GC TOC is intended to mitigate the spread of antimicrobial-resistant (AR) GC by re-testing all who are diagnosed with pharyngeal gonorrhea after they receive recommended treatment to ensure their infection is eradicated. In 2021, to understand the feasibility and necessity of implementing pharyngeal gonorrhea test of cure in local health departments, NACCHO partnered with the CDC’s DSTDP and released a request for applications (RFA) for the Pharyngeal Gonorrhea Test of Cure Project. The RFA funded four sites (Maricopa County, San Francisco, Washington DC, and Denver) to evaluate the feasibility of implementing TOC for all pharyngeal GC cases in clinical practice, the yield of pharyngeal GC TOC to detect treatment failures to CDC-recommended first-line treatment, and models and best practices for monitoring and responding to potential GC treatment failures. In addition, the evaluation explored how outcomes associated with TOC implementation varied across testing strategies (e.g., in-clinic vs. self-collection test kits). To understand more about the projects and considerations for implementing pharyngeal gonorrhea test of cure, NACCHO developed a Final Report on the project. If you are considering implementing test-of-cure, see the complementary Toolkit on implementing routine pharyngeal GC TOC.
Resources from “STI Marketing: How to Jumpstart Your Marketing Campaigns”
Missed our recent session on STI marketing, or just want to see the resources again? No problem! Check out the webinar recording and slides to learn more about marketing around STIs.
HIV, STI, & Hepatitis Resources and News
STI Videos & Graphics For Your Outreach!
April is STI Awareness Month! Greater Than’s extensive digital library has FREE videos and graphics to help get the word out about STI testing, prevention and treatment. Materials are available in English and Spanish. Share them to social media, embed on websites, in e-alerts and more!
Videos on STI testing, congenital syphilis & more!
Watch and share explainer videos from the recent Ask Me Anything About STIs series featuring sexual health experts. These videos are a joint production from KFF’s Greater Than and CDC’s Let’s Stop HIV Together.
Hennepin County Ryan White Program Manager Job Opportunity
Hennepin County Public Health is seeking a Program Manager to lead our Ryan White Program team. This Program Manager manages the Ryan White Program area, which is a significant cross-functional service assignment, in that this work crosses several programs across the Public Health department and leads Hennepin County’s HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care across the state. This position also manages work in the community mainly through contracts with multiple clinics and community based HIV service providers that provide care to the population affected by HIV/AIDS. This Program Manager plans, organizes, directs, and evaluates the overall operations of the Ryan White Program. As part of the program, this position is responsible for managing over $10M in federal and state grant funds for the success of the program locally. Please use this link to view the posting and to apply for the position. The posting closes on April 10, 2024 @ 11:59 pm.
ACDC Drug Checking Summit 2024 - Online
Are you interested in starting drug checking? Do you have questions about spectrometers? Want to know what trends are from on-the-ground programs? Concerned about equitable access to drug checking? Are you hearing conflicting information about checking for fentanyl, xylazine or nitazines? Curious to know more about drug checking that’s been going on for more than 20 years (DanceSafe, DrugsData, Energy Control & more)? You can join them online for one day only or for the whole four days- we’ll address all this & more!
Learn more here.
Strengthen Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Care with Q4T!
Developed by health centers, for health centers, Quality for Teens: A Quality Improvement Package for Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Care (ASRH) or Q4T is for anyone interested in implementing or improving essential ASRH practices at health centers and fostering an environment that is inclusive, high quality, and youth-friendly. Q4T offers goals, strategies, implementation tips, and resources to guide primary care teams in their efforts to improve ASRH clinical services and youth-friendly practices and help prevent unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). All content is based on current guidelines and recommendations, published evidence, and input from national experts, health center patients, staff, and administrators.
Q4T’s Key Features:
- Complete Quality Improvement Plan (QI) Guidance Starting with a Needs Assessment Tool: Not sure where to begin or what ASRH area(s) your health center should focus on? Q4T offers a user-friendly needs assessment tool, enabling health centers to identify improvement goals effortlessly and shape the direction of your QI program. This tool facilitates a targeted approach, ensuring that your center prioritizes areas that matter most.
- Evidenced-based Goals and Implementation Tips: Explore eight clinical practice and service goals that align with national clinical recommendations. Q4T doesn’t just identify areas of improvement - it includes invaluable implementation tips to guide your team through the improvement process.
- Ready-to-Use Downloadable Resources: Q4T gives you access to a wealth of downloadable resources, equipping your primary care team with tools to address equitable quality care that supports youth and their health care needs. Resources can be used individually or as part of a QI initiative. It also offers companion tools ranging from strategies to communicate with health center leadership to an informatics guide that helps teams create workflows and improved systems for data collection.
By implementing Q4T, health centers can decrease health disparities in youth receiving care at community health centers and create an inclusive and supportive environment for adolescents. The package is not only comprehensive but also customizable, allowing you to tailor the strategies to the unique needs of your health center.
Call to Action to Prevent Congenital Syphilis - Resources and a New Webinar Added!
Please join us during National STI Awareness Week for: “At a Crossroads: The Syndemic of Syphilis, Substance Use, and Child Welfare During Pregnancy” April 16, 2024, 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm EST. This webinar serves as an opportunity to highlight the need for a syndemic approach to provide more holistic care to people who use substances and are considering pregnancy, pregnant, or postpartum.
- The webinar will: Increase awareness on the syndemic interaction between substance use, syphilis, and policy during pregnancy and postpartum
- Share best practices to provide more holistic prevention, treatment, and care to people who use substances and are considering pregnancy
- Identify policy solutions to address the syndemic of substance use, syphilis, and the challenges in accessing prenatal health care
Register today: https://roseliassociates.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_okM4f5H_SgG09MLPaHVeZA
News to Note
Mpox Cases in The U.S. Are on The Rise as Vaccination Rates Lag and New Threats Loom - CNN
