Shaping the future of India's HIV response

Earlier this fall, public health experts and government officials gathered in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh to discuss the latest in HIV research and begin developing evidence-based technical briefs that will guide and inform India’s national HIV response.  

On Sept. 27 and 28, the event “Development of Technical Briefs from Research Studies and Secondary Data Analysis,” brought together representatives from the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), State AIDS Control Societies, and development partners such as USAID, WHO, All India Institute of Medical Sciences , CDC, FHI 360 , The National AIDS Research Institute, Center for Sexuality and Health Research and Policy, Tata Institute of Social Sciences , YRGCARE , and ACCELERATE, a #PEPFAR and USAID -supported program implemented through The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine .

Through the support of USAID and PEPFAR, ACCELERATE coordinated logistics for the two-day event in partnership with NACO. Aditya Singh , ACCELERATE’s Executive Director and Deputy Chief of Party at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, moderated a panel on presentation and discussion of research studies undertaken by C-SHaRP, NARI, and NACO, along with its analysis. The panel also discussed participant incentivization in research and how it translates to program implementation. There were insights on training healthcare providers, assessing the attitudes of paramedical staff, and improving healthcare workers’ awareness of gender-affirming care.

The event also provided an opportunity for participants to discuss issues around data analysis, HIV survival, migration, and evaluation of programs, with working groups collaborating on the development of technical briefs to make a lasting impact on HIV prevention and care. Moving forward, ACCELERATE will continue to support NACO’s efforts to develop and release technical briefs, establish solutions to help meet the #UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets and make progress toward the end of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in India.

Find more photos from the event here.

Contact: accelerate.2030@gmail.com