FRONTLINE HIV Forum Meeting June 2011

Submitted by pdecle on Thu, 07/07/2011 - 07:01

Date: 7th June 2011
Time: 6:00pm – 8:00pm

Attendees: 6
Apologies: 6

The next ordinary meeting of the Forum will be held at the Kobler Clinic, Tuesday 5th July on the 4th Floor of the St Stephens Centre, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE WILL BE NO MEETING IN AUGUST (SUMMER BREAK)

This document details the discussions held by the Frontline Forum members at the last meeting. They are not complete minutes, more notes or points loosely captured in no particular order; apologies for points missed. Many thanks go to those who participated, and well as to those who continue to contribute through the online forum.

Sexual Health Messaging Service
Donal Heath, Project Manager Partner Notification, of GMFA, the gay mans health charity, came to talk to the forum about our concerns with the sexual health messaging service provided by GMFA. Donal assured the forum that confidentiality was paramount, and that computer systems in use were robust, with data received anonymised. All information gathered would be destroyed after action had taken place. This applied across all taking part including the gay dating websites.

The pilot of this sexual health messaging service launched a few weeks ago, and is targeted at the gay community.
The primary reason for this service is to enable gay men to notify their partners if they are diagnosed with a sexual disease, thus alerting the partner to seek medical advice.

When someone is diagnosed with a sexual disease, the health advisor has an obligation to ask the patient if their partner has been informed of that diagnosis. If that diagnosis was obtained in one of the larger clinics, that clinic would probably have a system in place, whereby the staff of the clinic would be able to assist the patient in the partner notification process. However, no such systems are in place in the smaller clinics, and GMFA is to trying to provide this service online with the cooperation of gay men’s dating sites. With thousands of men using these sites regularly, it is hoped that this could help prevent transmission. How does this work? A recently diagnosed patient would log into the GMFA website inputting his details. GMFA would then contact the dating website through which the patient met their partner and a message would be sent to the partner notifying them of the diagnosis, and that they should seek medical advice. When the message recipient responds to the message, thereafter all the information will be destroyed. If after three weeks there has been no response, the message will be sent out again. If men using these dating sites do not wish to be contacted they have to notify the dating site. The websites will receive no financial gain from any information stored.

AOB

Social Events
The money has been given, and gratefully accepted, from the Monument Trust to pay for the proposed social events.
The dates for these events are to be confirmed in the near future.

Ageing Project
The ageing project is to be managed by the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, with Dr. David Asboe remaining as Chief Investigator. Some information requires updating on the application to be sent to the ethical committee for approval.

The next meeting of the KVN Forum will be held at:
The Kobler Clinic
4th Floor,
St Stephens Centre
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital

6:00pm to 8:00pm
On 5th July 2011

Refreshments provided

Please forward all points/suggestions for next meeting to the online forum, or directly to Paul at chair@frontlinehiv.net and the Agenda will be posted to the online Forum, with any additional points added to it as they are sent in.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE WILL BE NO MEETING IN AUGUST (SUMMER BREAK)
AND MEETINGS WILL MOVE TO WEDNESDAY EVENINGS

Future Meetings:

  • Wednesday 7th September
  • Wednesday 5th October
  • Wednesday 2nd November