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The contemporary effectiveness of assisted partner notification services (APS) in the United States is uncertain.State and local jurisdictions in the United States that reported ≥300 new HIV diagnoses in 2018 and were participating in the Ending the Epidemic Initiative.The study surveyed health departments to collect data on the content and organization of APS and aggregate data on APS outcomes for 2019. Analyses defined contact and case-finding indices (i.e., sex partners named and newly diagnosed per index case receiving APS) and estimated staff case-finding productivity.Sixteen (84%) of 19 jurisdictions responded to the survey, providing APS outcome data for 14 areas (74%). Most health departments routinely integrated APS with linkage of cases and partners to HIV care (88%) and pre-exposure prophylaxis (88%). A total of 19,164 persons were newly diagnosed with HIV in the 14 areas. Staff initiated APS investigations on 14,203 cases (74%) and provided APS to 9937 cases (52%). Cases named 6799 partners (contact index = 0.68), of whom 1841 (27%) had previously diagnosed HIV, 2202 (32%) tested HIV negative, 541 (8% of named and 20% of tested partners) were newly diagnosed with HIV, and 2215 (33%) were not known to have tested. Across jurisdictions, the case-finding index was 0.054 (median = 0.05, range 0.015-0.12). Health departments employed 292 full-time equivalent staff to provide APS. These staff identified a median of 2.0 new HIV infections per staff per year. APS accounted for 2.8% of new diagnoses in 2019.HIV case-finding resulting from APS in the United States is low.

Background Men who have sex with men (MSM) increasingly use internet-based websites and geospatial apps to seek sex. Though these platforms may be useful for public health intervention, evaluations of such interventions are rare. We sought to evaluate the online behavior of young MSM of color in Philadelphia and the effectiveness of using ads to link them to DoYouPhilly.org, where users can order free condoms, lubricant, and sexually transmitted infection test kits delivered via the U.S. postal service. Method Data collection and analyses were conducted in two phases. First, we performed keyword research and analyzed web browser logs using a proprietary data set owned by Microsoft. Subsequently, we ran a Google Ads campaign using the keywords identified in the preliminary phase, and directed targeted users to the DoYouPhilly.org condom or test kit ordering pages. Results were analyzed using MATLAB 2018. Results Test kit advertisements received 5,628 impressions, 157 clicks, and 18 unique conversions. The condom advertisements received 128,007 impressions, 2,583 clicks, and 303 unique conversions. Correlation between the click-through rate and the conversion rate per keyword was ρ = −.35 ( P = .0096) and per advertisement was ρ = .40 ( P = .14). Keywords that directly related to condoms were most effective for condom ordering (42% conversion rate vs. ≤2% for other classes), while keywords emphasizing the adverse effects of unprotected sex were most effective in test kit ordering (91% conversion rate vs. 13% and 12% for other classes). Conclusions Online advertisements seemed to affect real-world sexual health behavior, as measured by orders of condoms and test kits, among a group of young MSM living in the same community.

Background: Assisted partner services (APS) are a longstanding component of public health efforts to control HIV in the United States, but their contemporary effectiveness is uncertain. Methods: The study surveyed U.S. state and local health departments that reported > 300 new HIV diagnoses in 2018 and were participating in phase 1 of the Ending the Epidemic Initiative. The study collected data on the content and organization of APS and aggregate data on APS outcomes for 2019. Analyses defined the APS continuum, contact and case-finding indices (i.e., sex partners named and newly diagnosed per index case receiving APS), and estimated staff case-finding productivity. Findings: Fifteen (79%) of 19 jurisdictions responded to the survey, providing APS outcome data for 13 (68%) areas. Most health departments integrated APS with efforts to link index cases and partners to HIV care (93%) and pre-exposure prophylaxis (86%). A total of 18,833 persons were newly diagnosed with HIV in the 13 areas. Health departments initiated APS investigations on 13,899 (74%) cases and offered and provided APS to 12,338 (66%) and 9,733 (52%) index cases, respectively. Cases named 6,704 partners (contact index=0.69), of whom 2,650 (39%) had previously diagnosed HIV, 2,134 (32%) tested HIV negative, 516 (7.7% of named and 19% of tested partners) were newly diagnosed with HIV, and 2,239 (33%) were not known to have tested. Across all jurisdictions, the case-finding index was 0.053 (median=0.047, range 0.015-0.10). Health departments employed 288 full-time equivalent staff to provide APS. These staff interviewed a mean of 43 index cases annually, identifying a median of 1.8 new HIV infections in partners per staff per year. APS accounted for 2.7% of new diagnoses in 2019. Interpretation: HIV case-finding resulting from APS in the U.S. is low, reflecting low contact elicitation and attrition at each step along the continuum from case initiation to partner testing. Funding Information: Research was supported by NIH award AI027757. Declaration of Interests: None to declare. Ethics Approval Statement: The University of Washington institutional review board (IRB) defined the study as exempt from the need for IRB review.