Open AccessDisruption of HIV Service Provision and Response in Hong Kong During COVID-19: Issues of Privacy and Space
Author(s) -
Yiu Tung Suen,
Andrew Chidgey
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of the international association of providers of aids care
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.813
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 2325-9582
pISSN - 2325-9574
DOI - 10.1177/23259582211059588
Subject(s) - pandemic , closure (psychology) , covid-19 , internet privacy , cyber space , test (biology) , service (business) , space (punctuation) , public health , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , medicine , business , public relations , political science , family medicine , nursing , computer science , law , marketing , paleontology , the internet , disease , pathology , world wide web , infectious disease (medical specialty) , biology , operating system
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sexual and reproductive health and rights is a significant public health issue. HIV/AIDS related services have been severely disrupted during the pandemic in different aspects. This paper highlights how privacy concerns affected HIV service provision during COVID-19 in Hong Kong, by sharing the experience of AIDS Concern Hong Kong. Based on our experience of working with our local MSM clients, temporary closure of center-based testing, venue-based testing in gay saunas, and mobile testing, meant that MSM could not easily go to a safe space to get anonymous and gay-friendly testing. To mitigate this, AIDS Concern Hong Kong put effort into promoting and making self-testing available during periods of testing center closure. We also made sure that people can choose to have test kits delivered to an anonymous pick-up station.