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Engaging African and Caribbean Immigrants in HIV Testing and Care in a Large US City: Lessons Learned from the African Diaspora Health Initiative

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Abstract

The lifting in 2010 of the HIV entry ban eliminated an access point for HIV testing of the foreign-born. The African Diaspora Health Initiative (ADHI) was developed to examine alternative pathways to testing for African and Caribbean persons. The ADHI consists of Clinics Without Walls (CWW) held in community settings. HIV testing is offered to participants along with hypertension and diabetes screening. A survey is administered to participants. Descriptive data were analyzed using SAS 9.2. Between 2011 and 2015, 4152 African and Caribbean individuals participated in 352 CWW. Participants were mostly (67.7 %) African. HIV rates were lowest in Caribbean women (0.4 %) and highest in Caribbean men (8.4 %). Efforts to engage African and Caribbean communities in HIV testing are important given the elimination of the HIV entry ban and continued immigration to the US from areas of higher prevalence. The ADHI offers a successful model of engagement.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank all leaders of Philadelphia’s African and Caribbean communities who supported this project. We are grateful to Dr. Kwame Dapaah-Afriyie, Director of the Hospital Medicine Program at the Miriam Hospital, Brown University for his guidance in preparing this manuscript. This project was funded in part by a grant from the Gilead Sciences FOCUS program to the AIDS Care Group.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ambulatory Health Services, Philadelphia Department of Public Health, 500 South Broad Street, Suite 360, Philadelphia, PA, 19146, USA

    Helena A. Kwakwa, Arraina Green & Sophia Bessias

  2. AIDS Care Group, Sharon Hill, PA, USA

    Rahab Wahome

  3. African Cultural Alliance of North America, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Djalika S. Goines & Voffee Jabateh

  4. Department of Infectious Diseases, Brown University School of Medicine, Providence, RI, USA

    Timothy P. Flanigan

Authors
  1. Helena A. Kwakwa
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  2. Rahab Wahome
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  3. Djalika S. Goines
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  4. Voffee Jabateh
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  5. Arraina Green
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  6. Sophia Bessias
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  7. Timothy P. Flanigan
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Correspondence to Helena A. Kwakwa.

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Kwakwa, H.A., Wahome, R., Goines, D.S. et al. Engaging African and Caribbean Immigrants in HIV Testing and Care in a Large US City: Lessons Learned from the African Diaspora Health Initiative. J Immigrant Minority Health 19, 818–824 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-016-0431-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-016-0431-1

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