Antonio Camiro-Zuñiga

Digital media has been proposed as a novel tool to reach out to at risk youth to promote and boost HIV prevention. In this session several digital interventions were presented that target several areas in HIV prevention, like HIV awareness, self-testing, and PrEP uptake and adherence.

Iwelunmor presented #HIVSelfTest, a social media campaign to promote HIV self-testing among young people in Nigeria, with a wide outreach (3.5 million people reached and 17.2 million impressions). Liu presented LYNX, a mobile app to support HIV testing and PrEP among young MSM, consisting of a sexual diary with gamification features. It was well received, with 86% saying they would recommend the app. Espinosa da Silva talked about stigma and online sex-seeking among MSM and TGW in Tijuana, Mexico. Online sex-seeking was reported by 29%, and was associated with endorsement of traditional machismo values and internalized stigma. Janamnuaysook presented a transgender-led social media intervention to link TGW to HIV services in Thailand. Of 2090 TGW, 1531 (73.25%) were reached through the Tangerine Facebook Live Sessions. Knudtson showed a pilot study of a gamified, social networking app in young MSM in the US, showing an improvement in self-reported adherence.

Digital interventions based on social media show enormous potential to reach both a much wider population and marginalized demographics that shy away from more traditional communication channels. As younger demographics grow and start being exposed to the risk of HIV infection, a combination of digital publicity and easily accessible electronic services for HIV care will prove to be paramount in HIV prevention interventions