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Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local services. These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience — the local community. It is important that we continue to promote these adverts as our local businesses need as much support as possible during these challenging times. A man found guilty of deliberately trying to infect 10 men with HIV has lost challenges against his conviction and sentence. He became the first man in the country to be found guilty of intentionally setting out to spread the virus.

His victims cannot be identified for legal reasons and Lady Justice Hallett emphasised that nothing must be published which could lead to their identification. Victims told how they had considered suicide having suffered physical and psychological damage, needing to take daily medication.

I would rather he had murdered me than left me to live my life like this. When they refused he tampered with condoms, tricking them into thinking he was practising safe sex.

Hairdresser jailed for trying to infect men with HIV loses legal challenge

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All rights reserved. Peer Review reports. The HIV epidemic is still representing a pressing public health issue worldwide and in Europe as well [ 1 ]. These high estimates for the new diagnoses in particular could be partially due to increasing HIV testing behaviours, but they could also indicate onward transmission in this specific population. Indeed, with regards the latter, according to the current scientific literature an increase of high risk sexual practices such as unprotected anal intercourse has been reported among MSM across Europe [ 1 , 3 ].

In terms of serum-status awareness, almost one third of those infected in Europe are estimated to be unaware of their seropositive status [ 1 ]. Data seems to suggest that the current situation is becoming increasingly critical from a public health perspective. Reliable data, including trends in risk behaviours over time, are of crucial importance in order to understand whether and by how much rates are increasing or decreasing and which sub- populations are affected the most.

Consequently, the international literature, such as UNAIDS and WHO reports and publications [ 4 ], have stressed the need for public health to embrace three main approaches in monitoring and controlling the epidemic: i a structured surveillance system method; ii the use of common set of indicators adopted across Europe, and; iii specific prevention campaigns targeting MSM and testing promotion as the cornerstone of the HIV response.

In terms of structured surveillance initiatives and in response to the growing awareness of the urgency for a comprehensive and effective response, a number of European countries have implemented surveys specifically targeting MSM [ 5 ] focusing primarily on the monitoring of risk behaviours. This is problematic and limits the value of such targeted initiatives due to, amongst other things, a lack of reliability and comparability of data at the European level [ 7 ].

SGSS is important because it not only allows the public health sector to monitor the spread of infections in a given population and to analyse trends over time, but it can also facilitate countries to improve their planning and evaluation of prevention and treatment activities. With regards to the second approach i. Furthermore, even where examples of a SGSS approach are evident, there is often considerable variation between countries in terms of specific indicators utilised and reported. In terms of the third approach i. It has to be acknowledged that the evidence-base for primary HIV prevention does not reach the same degree of graded evidence as bio-medical prevention approaches due to the complexity of intertwined behavioural and structural factors.

This is not surprising given that health promotion and public health interventions are complex, non-linear, and multi-layered processes often with no simple measurable outcomes. They are therefore difficult to evaluate, resulting in a general lack of evidence for which HIV programmes might be the most effective [ 13 ]. However, of those studies that have embraced such an approach, community-based surveys targeting MSM that adopt bio-behavioural measures e.

The Sialon II project is based on the experiences and lessons learned from the former Sialon project, funded under the — Public Health Programme Work Plan [ 15 ]. The project builds on an experienced, skilled, and cohesive partnership founded through previous collaborations across Europe.

All partner institutions are public bodies, representing either public health institutes or universities in their respective countries with skilled and well-equipped laboratories ensuring capable scientific and technical reporting. In what is to follow, the three related yet distinct components i.

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During —12, formative research FR was carried out in all 13 participating countries. The FR questionnaires were completed by each project partner from the respective study country in partnership with their local collaborating partner e. Each questionnaire explored a number of areas such as: the proposed study site; previous experiences with different study methodologies and target groups; data on gay-friendly commercial and non-commercial sites; testing opportunities, regulations, and treatment guidelines for HIV, STIs, HBV, and HCV; contextual factors such as legislation relating to gay issues e.

In addition to the contextual information provided by the country partner, EMIS data were also used to further characterise the MSM population in each respective study area. During the FR process, gay-friendly commercial e.

Findings from the FR were presented and discussed during a dedicated study meeting with all network partners present including collaborating partners such as NGOs. A FR report was compiled and provided to all national study sites in order to better tailor both the planned TLS and RDS surveys, as well as the targeted prevention actions [ 17 ].

In all cases the following inclusion criteria for MSM participation were used: must have had any kind of sex oral or anal, penetrative or not at least once with another man during the previous 12 months; able to provide anonymous informed consent; agree to complete the study questionnaire; agree to provide either an oral fluid sample for TLS or blood sample for RDS. Exclusion criteria were: being younger than 18 years old, and having already participated in the study. Prior to biological sample collection in both TLS and RDS study arms, informed consent was collected for each participant. A self-administered pen-and-paper questionnaire was then administered to all participants to obtain data on: the social and cultural context of respondents; behavioural data on sex practices; risk-reduction strategies such as not having anal intercourse with non-steady partners, condom use, and HIV serostatus disclosure; STI history; self-reported serostatus, and number and type of sexual partners.

The same questionnaire was used in both surveys TLS and RDS : in the TLS version additional items were included focusing on the venues in the given city for weight calculations , whilst in the RDS survey extra items were used in order to assess the network size of the participants.

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In both surveys, in line with the project protocol, a unique identification number barcode was used in order to identify each questionnaire and to link the behavioural information with the biological data e. With regards to venues and participants eligibility, any physical public or private locations attended by MSM could be included as venues in the universe e. One exception were venues that specifically serve HIV positive members of the priority population, since including these types of venues would artificially increase representation of HIV positive individuals in the final sample.

Virtual meeting places such as websites and smartphone apps were not included. In order to finalise the sampling frame, once the initial list of venues or initial universe of venues was elaborated based on the findings of the formative research, MSM venues and venue-day-time VDT units were identified and two sampling frames constructed [ 19 ].

The first sampling frame or venues sampling frame comprised a list of venues that met the attendance requirements and were willing to participate eligible venues. The second sampling frame VDT sampling frame comprised a list of venue-specific sampling periods of four hours each VDT. In constructing this second frame, for each venue and for each day of the week, the VDT units were determined according to two key criteria: i logistical feasibility and safety for data collectors; and ii VDTs were expected to yield at least 10 eligible MSM.

NGOs interviewed the respective venue owners. In order to discern venue specific sampling periods, standardised enumerations were conducted of the MSM attending venues during possible high attendance day-time periods. The result of this process was the creation of the final VDT sampling frame.

As data collection proceeded, these sampling frames were then updated on a monthly basis e.

Following completion of the final sampling frame, a three-stage sampling plan to select venues, VDTs, and participants was used. Based on the monthly sampling frames, a set of venues equal to the number of sampling events planned for the upcoming month were randomly selected stage 1 of randomisation. Selected venues were then sorted in ascending order of VDTs beginning with the venue with the least number of VDTs which is less flexible for scheduling on the calendar ; one VDT was selected from this venue stage 2 of randomisation.

After this sampling event was scheduled, a VDT was selected randomly for the next venue. The process was repeated for each venue selected in first stage of randomisation. Stage 1 and 2 of randomisation were carried out in two independent steps because if they had combined in only one step, the venues with many VDTs would have been more likely to be selected than those with fewer VDTs. In addition to venues, each country could also select purposefully up to a maximum of three events to schedule into the sampling calendar infrequent events to attract members of the target population e.

As the sampling calendar was filled, if the selected VDT could not be scheduled because there were no days available in any week of the month in question, a new VDT was selected randomly from the remaining VDTs of that venue. If no VDT from that venue could be scheduled in any week of the month, then another venue was selected randomly from the set of venues not chosen in stage 1, until the sampling-event was filled.

If there was no choice, overlapping VDTs were scheduled. When data collectors did not achieve the sample size in the primary venue they could go to an alternative VDT until they had reached the sample size.

Hairdresser jailed for trying to infect men with HIV loses legal challenge | Worcester News

They also were chosen randomly to minimise selection bias. If an event was cancelled before their occurrence for some unforeseen reasons it was rescheduled, that means to change VDT in another week of the month, the same local, day and period but in another week alternates venues were not used to replace cancelled sampling events. Data collection was planned from between two to six months during — depending on the country in question. The decision of exactly when to commence was based on negotiations between the project partner and collaborating partner and informed by the findings from the FR.

In the final stage three of the randomisation, eligible men were sampled at selected venues in accordance with the monthly calendar with the aim to collect data from eight men. This specific approach has been used in previous studies [ 23 — 25 ] targeting different sub-groups or populations e. As with TLS, formative research was conducted prior to data collection in collaboration with local gay NGOs in each participating city in order to properly identify potential interview sites, incentives amount and type of incentive , expected network size in the selected city, as well as characteristics of the network structures.

According to the RDS literature, for a sample size of between six to eight seeds should be selected. A specific training session for seeds was organised in each city, where the project aims and methodology were explained, including confidentiality and other ethical issues arising. Selected seeds were requested to identify and recruit peers from their social network.