The agency is slated to present nearly 30 abstracts at the virtual conference March 6-10.
In one study, researchers found a large commercial lab reported nearly 700,000 fewer HIV screening tests and nearly 5,000 fewer diagnoses between March 13 and Sept. 13, 2020, compared to the same period in 2019.
A separate study analyzed data on PrEP prescriptions from January 2017 through September 2020. Researchers found a 21 percent drop in prescriptions from March 15 to Sept. 30, 2020, compared to modeling estimates of prescription volumes if the pandemic had not occurred. They also identified a 28 percent decrease in new PrEP users over the same period.
“Strategies that deliver HIV testing and care in innovative, community-tailored ways will be critical to reversing these declines, including the use or expansion of telemedicine and telehealth, rapid HIV self-tests, mail-in self-tests and the deployment of higher numbers of community health workers,” the CDC said in a news release.
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