The Third Coast Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), in collaboration with Project Inform, has published the proceedings and recommendations from a multi-sector stakeholder consultation held May 10-11, 2017, in Chicago, Illinois. The consultation was formed to discuss ethical considerations involved with public health action using HIV sequence data reported to health departments.
The consultation brought together representatives from local and state health departments, federal funders, researchers, bioethicists, legal scholars and advocates from both local and national HIV organizations to make recommendations under four overarching themes:
- Community education and engagement;
- Law and ethics;
- Public health policies and procedures; and
- Effectiveness and implementation research.
Recommendations from the consultation map out a comprehensive, multi-sector agenda that can foster, and benefit from, collaborations between public health departments, academic institutions, community organizations, HIV providers, HIV community advocates and consumers, HIV legal and policy experts, national organizations and federal research and prevention funders. These collaborations, at the local and national level, can help ensure that this new approach is implemented to maximize safety, privacy, and confidentiality of people living with, and at risk for, HIV.
The Third Coast Center for AIDS Research and Project Inform hope that the timeliness of the meeting and of this report will allow those invested in ending the HIV epidemic to better develop and utilize a new tool in the most effective and safest way possible.
The report may be accessed here:
Inquiries about the consultation and the report may be directed to Nanette Benbow, Northwestern University.
