August 4, 2016 – Getting Engaged

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Anchor lead: How can we get people who are HIV infected engaged in routine healthcare? Elizabeth Tracey reports

Some people who are HIV infected don’t follow recommendations for keeping the virus in check and are therefore at risk for infecting others.  Now a new study looked at whether providing a health navigator and even paying people to stay in care helps.  Joseph Cofrancesco, an HIV expert at Johns Hopkins, describes the results.

Cofrancesco: There have been a number of studies looking at engaging people who know they have HIV into care so they can successfully be the kind of person who becomes undetectable and doesn’t spread HIV. The navigation study and others have been somewhat disappointing.  I think it shows that people with HIV, and particularly some populations with HIV, have complicated lives, and the solution to engage them in care and maintain them in care is going to be fairly complex and require a multifaceted approach.   :32

Cofrancesco says more research is needed to engage this population.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.