Public Health Agency of Canada & NCCID HIV Prevention Forum: Meeting Summary

Publication Summary

This report summarizes the discussions that took place at the PHAC / NCCID HIV Prevention Forum held April 12-13, 2007, at the Delta Hotel in Ottawa, Ontario. The objectives of the workshop were as follows:

• To present an overview of HIV prevention undertaken or supported by the Government of Canada under the Federal Initiative, the NCCID and other stakeholders;

• To highlight best practices and evidence-informed HIV prevention interventions and to identify opportunities in HIV prevention research, knowledge exchange and promotion of best practices; and

• To encourage HIV prevention partnerships across jurisdictions and among public health providers / practitioners / policy makers, community-based service organizations, laboratories, researchers and their institutions and other key stakeholders.

The forum was divided into two parts. The first part focused on information and knowledge sharing and included four panel discussions. These panels were intended to provide participants with different perspectives from the international, federal, provincial and municipal levels, community groups and researchers. In the second part, participants were provided with an opportunity to discuss HIV prevention issues; to identify strategies to support and/or address testing, surveillance, co-infection and knowledge transfer and dissemination; and to determine which of these strategies garner the most support.

128 participants representing a diverse group of stakeholders, including people living with or affected by HIV/AIDS, researchers, federal, provincial, territorial and municipal governments, community-based and national voluntary organizations, health care professionals, public health professionals and international experts took part in the forum. A list of participants is provided in Appendix A.