Virginia Department of Health - Division of HIV, STD, and Pharmacy Services - E-Bulletin, December 2005
Community Services
The Division has awarded $445,000 for 2006 under a Request for Proposals (RFP) for Community HIV Testing Services. This replaces the OraSure Testing and Intensive Outreach Services grant program that was funded from 2001-2005. These funds were made available through a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The grantees will provide community outreach, prevention counseling, and confidential HIV antibody testing using oral and rapid test technologies targeting the following populations: men who have sex with men, intravenous drug users, commercial sex workers, transgender persons, the homeless, incarcerated persons, and sexual partners of these populations. Partner counseling and referral services are also being provided by three agencies. Awards were made to the AIDS/HIV Services Group (ASG) in Charlottesville, the Council of Community Services in Roanoke, the Fan Free Clinic in Richmond, the Tidewater AIDS Community Taskforce (TACT) in Norfolk, and the Whitman-Walker Clinic in Arlington. ASG will partner with AIDS Response Effort in Winchester. TACT will partner with CANDII/Full Circle and the Williamsburg AIDS Network to provide services in Hampton/Newport News and Williamsburg. For more information, please contact LaShaun Evans at LaShaun.Evans@vdh.virginia.gov or (804) 864-8023.
The Hotline has launched a new literature request web page that allows those interested in ordering educational materials to see descriptions and images of brochures, posters, and pamphlets offered by the Division. By clicking the images, a client also has the capability of zooming-in to see any printed text on the item. The new site can be found by going to the Division's homepage and clicking on the "Brochures, pamphlets, posters" link in the first "drop-down" menu. They can also get to the site directly by pasting www.vdh.virginia.gov/std/hotline_order.asp into their internet browser.
The National Commission on Correctional Health Care was commissioned to conduct a study on The Health Status of Soon-to-be-Released Inmates. The report, which has been sent to the U.S. Congress, includes support for routine screening and treatment for a variety of chronic and communicable diseases include HIV, TB, Syphilis, Gonorrhea, Chlamydia, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C. The report describes the cost effectiveness of addressing these health issues as well as the benefits to both the individual inmates and the community. The study is available online at: www.ncchc.org/pubs/pubs_stbr.html.
The United States Conference of Mayors has announced its Request for Proposals for HIV Prevention Grants for 2006. Proposals will be accepted in two tracks: Track One must address HIV prevention services for Native Americans; Track II must address HIV prevention services targeting African American or Hispanic women at high risk for HIV infection. Approximately $740,000 is available in total for up to 11 grant awards. Eligible applicants include federally recognized Indian Tribes, local health departments, community-based organizations, and existing agencies/consortia which have formed collaborative efforts between multiple groups or agencies. The application deadline is February 27, 2006. For a copy of the announcement go to www.usmayors.org/hivprevention/rfp2006.pdf.
Health and Research Informatics
Scanning Technology for HIV Counseling and Testing Will Replace Existing Data Management Process: The Division is working with the CDC as it strives to implement scanning technology that will enhance existing HIV Counseling, Testing and Referral (CTR) data management processes. The CDC currently uses a bubble form for collection of variables related to HIV CTR. However, DDP never adopted the CDC bubble form due to time requirements associated with form completion. Effective 1/1/06, many new CTR variables will become standard under CDC’s Program Evaluation and Monitoring System (PEMS). Given the data management advancements associated with scanning technology and the multitude of changes that would be required of our existing data collection processes, the Division determined that this is a well defined time to adopt the CDC-developed protocol. Virginia will be receiving definitive information related to this initiative, including materials and the scanning application, within the next few weeks. Virginia anticipates initiating scanning for HIV CTR purposes sometime within the next 4 months.