An ethical evaluation of HIV dried-blood spot testing in research and access to results for gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men in Canada

Sex Now is a community-based health survey for gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) in Canada. The next round of Sex Now will be conducted at LGBTQ Pride events in 8 Canadian cities and participants will be asked to provide small blood spot samples for HIV testing. This will majorly impact our understanding of HIV prevalence and prevention across the country, but, since this is the first time the Sex Now team is doing HIV testing as part of its survey, there are serious ethical concerns around how to give participants access to their test results and how best to follow-up with people who have a positive test result. Working with the Community-Based Research Centre for Gay Mens Health, the intern will develop a way to give HIV test results to participants in Sex Now and evaluate its practicality in the research world.

Faculty Supervisor:

Mark Gilbert

Student:

Aidan Ablona

Partner:

Community-Based Research Centre

Discipline:

Epidemiology / Public health and policy

Sector:

Medical devices

University:

Program: