HIV Partner Notification Program in Iran: Policy Brief.

Abstract

Background: HIV partner notification is known as one of the methods to increase HIV testing. Evaluating the barriers, facilitators, and recommendations to improve it can lead to the increased uptake of HIV testing, as well as achieving the 95-95-95 UNAIDS targets. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the approaches, barriers, and facilitators of HIV partner notification from different aspects.

Methods: The barriers and facilitators of HIV partner notification were evaluated. Also, some recommendations were presented to improve the HIV partner notification program in Iran.

Findings: Based on the results, HIV stigma and discrimination were identified as the most important barriers, and the main facilitator was the support from the spouse or sexual/injection partner and family. Also, the results showed that the HIV partner notification program in Iran was in line with the international guidelines introduced by the World Health Organization. However, it had weaknesses and challenges in various aspects such as the content, the method of implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.

Conclusion: Overall, this study has shown a critical need to strengthen the HIV partner notification program in Iran. HIV partner notification program can be strengthened by considering the introduced facilitators, from different aspects including content, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. These measures will ultimately increase HIV testing and thus achieve UNAIDS targets.