HIV Care in a Post-COVID-19 World — eHIV Review Educational Series Receives Eighth Installation

MANHATTAN, N.Y. - May 5, 2023 - PRLog -- DKBmed, LLC, is renewing its popular eHIV Review series for an eighth volume. This latest installment provides clinicians with best practices in HIV care in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like the previous edition, each journal brief features an expert guest author who reviews the latest clinical data and literature on an HIV subtopic; companion podcast/webcast episodes provide a platform for the guest authors, to discuss the implications of advancements in HIV care on routine clinical practice. In addition, this volume features interviews with people living with HIV who share their real-world experiences with the health care system.

Continuation of eHIV Review comes after the success of the seventh volume, which exceeded its learner target by 43%.

The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic over the last three years has reversed progress by healthcare systems to extinguish the HIV epidemic. In its Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services aimed to reduce the number of new, domestic HIV diagnoses by 75% between 2019 and 2024 and by 90% by the end of the decade. Additionally, HHS hoped to ensure that at least 95% of Americans with HIV receive a diagnosis and over half of those at risk for acquiring HIV receive pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) treatment. Instead, while clinics were shut for all but essential services, PrEP prescriptions declined by 21% and new PrEP users declined by 28%. During the first six months of COVID-19 pandemic, 700,000 fewer HIV screening tests were performed and 5,000 fewer HIV diagnoses were made.

"Findings from an observational study published in Lancet Regional Health suggest that there is a population of patients in the U.S. who are newly infected with HIV but not yet identified because of COVID-19-linked disruptions to healthcare systems," notes Justin Alves, RN, ACRN, CARN a Nurse Educator at Boston Medical Center. "Although HIV testing and PrEP prescription rates rebounded pretty robustly into 2021, there is a need for augmented efforts to identify 'missed' patients and link them to HIV services. Programs, such as the eHIV review, can help get us back on track and put an end to the HIV epidemic."

The program can be found at ehivreview.org (https://elit.dkbmed.com/programs/5)

Volume 8 of eHIV Review will address the following gaps in clinician education:

• Stigma and social barriers that lead to disparities in HIV prevention
• Inadequate testing for HIV in youth, young adult populations
• Awareness of mental health needs of members in the LGBTQ community, people living with HIV
• Familiarity with newer and emerging options for treating HIV (antiretrovirals) and preventing HIV (PrEP)
• The appropriateness of including an NNRTI in the ART regimen for certain patients
• Strategies that improve testing, PrEP, and HIV treatment in cisgender and transgender women