The actors involved in the cooperation agreement between the Sergio Arouca National School of Public Health (Ensp), Fiocruz, Fiotec and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), met yesterday (June 12) in the conference hall of Casa de Oswaldo Cruz (COC), at Fiocruz's Manguinhos-Maré campus. Fiotec's chief executive officer, Hayne Felipe, participated in the opening panel of the meeting, in which experiences and results of the different work fronts provided for in the cooperation agreement were presented and shared.

Beside Hayne were Marly Cruz, professor and principal investigator of the Cooperation Agreement; Maria Cristina Guilam, general education coordinator at Fiocruz (VPEIC); Enirtes Caetano, Deputy Director of Education at Ensp/Fiocruz; Angelica Miranda, deputy director of the Ministry of Health’s Department of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Viral Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Infections; Filipe Perini, specialist in program management at the CDC; and Lara Fairall, professor and researcher at the University of Cape Town/KTU.

The next panel, chaired by Marly Cruz and Ronaldo Zonta, from the City Health Department of Florianópolis/SC, discussed the formation and functioning of the CoAg, the cooperation agreement between the institutions, in addition to presenting the A Hora é Agora (AHA) (The Moment is Now) project, the PACK (Practical Approach to the Care Kit) program, and discussing past experiences and future perspectives. The A Hora é Agora project was launched in 2014, in Curitiba/PR, with the aim of expanding rapid and free HIV testing among the populations most vulnerable to infection: young gay men and other MSM (men who have sex with men ). In 2021, the project launched a website to expand testing to sex workers and trans women and transvestites. Accessing www.ahoraeagora.org anyone can request a self-test, which can be done at home, on oral fluid samples or a small drop of blood, without stigma or discrimination. Learn more about the page and how HIV self-testing works.

Then it was the turn of Lara Fairall, from the University of Cape Town, to present the KTU (Health Systems Research Unit). The structure made it possible to take the knowledge and methods used in the PACK program to South Africa and other parts of the world. The Unit is made up of representatives from Ensp/Fiocruz, CDC and professionals hired through the Cooperation Agreement, including doctors, nurses, researchers and designers.