(P258) Network Testing in Southside of Chicago: Identifying Challenges in a Post-COVID Era

Project: A hybrid research and service center provides STI testing to those most impacted by HIV and STIs in an urban center in the Southside of Chicago since 2015. This program seeks to address both challenges and changes posed after COVID-19 shut downs and continued economic, social and structural barriers faced by Black sexual and gender minorities (BSGM) in the post-COVID world.

Issue: As both HIV/STIs become more concentrated epidemics among key populations approaches to outreach, testing, linkage to care (LTC), and treatment must adjust to better meet the needs of those individuals. While many organizations had robust testing programs prior to COVID-19 shutdowns, the post-COVID landscape has posed numerous challenges to testing, LTC, and treatment among BSGM.

Results: The majority of our client population (mean 31.1 years, SD 12.9) identified as cis-male (75%), African-American (85%), and gay/bisexual (65%), with a subset of clients who identified as Latine (10%) and/or TGNC (5%). Over the past 7 years, a total of 16,788 STI tests were completed, with a steady increase until 2020 (Figure 1). From 2019 to 2020, we observed a 71% decrease (4236 tests in 2019 vs. 1242 tests in 2020) after the shutdown. Prevalence rates, however, for HIV (20.6%), chlamydia (CL, 8.2%), gonorrhea (GC, 9.1%), and syphilis (SP, 30.3%) were steady across all years. We did find in our data that more newly diagnosed people living with HIV were identified in the post-pandemic period compared (12.8% HIV positives tests) to the pre-pandemic (9.4% HIV positives tests), despite total number of tests were lower in the post-pandemic period (_X² = 38.4, p< 0.01).

Lessons Learned: There has been a slow rise to reach pre-pandemic testing rates; however, we are identifying more newly diagnosed HIV clients at our center in this post-COVID era. Given this data, the need for LTC support among this subset of clients will be vital to help reduce HIV transmission. Additional efforts are needed to address the social and structural barriers to re-engaging support BSGM in HIV prevention during and after COVID.