Standard of Care for HIV and Co-infections in Europe

Town Hall Europe – Brussels, Belgium

13-14 October 2022 - On invitation only

Since 2014, the EACS Standard of Care biennial meeting for HIV and co-infections in Europe works at setting standards of care and at identifying areas for quality assessment with the aim to elaborate a common European standard of care based on information shared during the meeting. These benchmarks define the standards of care in line with the EACS guidelines and focus on the needs of patients and care givers, especially in access to care.

This year, the Standard of Care meeting for HIV and Co-infections in Europe is held in Brussels, Belgium. Due to the current epidemiological and geopolitical situation in Europe, we, unfortunately, could not organise it, as planned, in Tbilisi, Georgia. This closed meeting gathers around a hundred HIV experts, community representatives and institutional partners from the WHO European region. It is a 1 ½ day meeting consisting of plenaries and information-sharing discussions on the current European situation.  This meeting provides a unique opportunity to monitor progress and pitfalls in care for people living with HIV throughout Europe.

At the last meetings, it was clearly defined that there was a need to establish a European audit culture and to develop common and auditable European standards of care for the management of people living with HIV and co-infections. Collecting data and disseminating it among different stakeholders will help elaborate these European standards.

Objectives

• To discuss the implementation of standard of care modules throughout various diseases areas. What is needed to successfully develop and implement standards of care?
• To discuss PrEP implementation in CEE: good practice examples and remaining barriers
• To explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on testing services for HIV, hepatitis and STIs as well as changes in related services through war and migration

Expected outcomes

The participants will:

• know how to create and implement standards of care to harmonise HIV health services in their region
• have a better knowledge and understanding of the impact of COVID-19 and war on continuity of care and testing services

The participants will have the best information on how to:

• implement the most effective and efficient PrEP programmes
• define remaining barriers in PrEP implementation
• evaluate the impact of COVID-19 and war on continuity of care and testing services in their country and compare it to other countries
• identify stigma in the healthcare setting
• identify the best modalities for HIV and Hepatitis treatment and integration strategies

Conflicts of interest