HIV testing rates remain very low in Colombia, with only 20% of individuals at risk ever tested. In order to tackle this issue,\r\nthe Corporacion de Lucha Contra el Sida (CLS) has implemented a multidisciplinary, provider-initiated, population-based HIV\r\ntesting/counselling strategy named BAFI. In this report, we describe the experience of CLS at reaching populations from low\r\nsocioeconomic backgrounds in 2008-2009. Two different approaches were used: one led by CLS and local health care providers\r\n(BAFI-1) and the other by CLS and community leaders (BAFI-2). Both approaches included the following: consented HIV screening\r\ntest, a demographic questionnaire, self-reported HIV knowledge and behaviour questionnaires, pre- and posttest counselling,\r\nconfirmatory HIV tests, clinical follow-up, access to comprehensive care and antiretroviral treatment. A total of 2085 individuals\r\nwere enrolled in BAFI-1 and 363 in BAFI-2. The effectiveness indicators for BAFI-1 and BAFI-2, respectively, were HIV positiveconfirmed\r\nprevalence = 0.29% and 3.86%, return rate for confirmatory results = 62.5% and 93.7%, return rate for comprehensive care\r\n= 83.3% and 92.8%, and ART initiation rate = 20% and 76.9%. Although more people were reached with BAFI-1, the community-led\r\nBAFI-2 was more effective at reaching individuals with a higher prevalence of behavioural risk factors for HIV infection.
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