ECDC expert meeting: optimising analysis of the HIV continuum of care in Europe

​During this expert meeting, improvements of the monitoring of the HIV continuum of care in Europe were discussed. ECDC provided a platform for EU/EEA countries to share experiences and challenges in measuring the HIV continuum of care and also between national HIV surveillance experts and HIV cohorts with regard to continuum of care data sources and measurement. Participants also explored opportunities for advancing the standardisation of continuum definitions. The meeting aimed to determine future priorities for ECDC work on the continuum of care.

Background

Since the HIV Continuum of Care was first described in the United States in 2011, there has been a growing interest in using this tool in different ways: to monitor the quality of HIV care for people living with HIV and as a way to assess the extent to which viral suppression is occurring at population level and contributing to efforts to reduce further HIV transmission.

Although a number of European countries have compiled and reported HIV continuum of care data, attempts to compare and aggregate data across countries has been hampered by different approaches to data collection, a lack of standard definitions for the elements in the cascade and significant gaps in data in many countries.

 

Participation in this meeting was by invitation only.