Develop Dissemination Mechanism
How often the reports disseminated
It is important that results of the surveillance should be dissipated in a timely fashion. Surveillance results would be effective if they reflect the current trend of HIV prevalence in a specific population. It can only be achieved if results will be disseminated in a timely fashion I.e. after completing
To whom the reports are distributed
Results of the HIV sentinel surveillance among different groups needs to be disseminated to all organizations and persons implicated in the response to the control effects of HIV and HIV epidemic especially those people or organizations that are responsible for decision making. Possible target audiences to whom results will be dissipated include the officials of public health at the district, regional and national level, policy makers, civil society, national and international partners, PLHIV community government officials, advocacy groups, media and general public. It is also necessary that results should be dissipated to individuals who contribute towards the collection and recording of the surveillance data in order to encourage their commitment and engagement.
How will be reports distributed
Products and channels of dissemination that will be tailored to the target individuals and groups would be effective in fulfilling the goals and objective of the dissemination. Different products that will be delivered to the audience include the surveillance reports, briefings, press release and slide sets. Different options will be used to disseminate results that include formal meetings, press conference and workshops.
It is believed that different audiences have different needs, expectation and knowledge related to understand of surveillance results. Therefore, it is important that products and channels of the dissemination needs to be tailored according to the expertise and needs of the audience. For instance, public health official who have technical expertise, they require in-depth analysis of data that can be used for the planning and evaluation. Therefore, full report of HIV surveillance will be delivered to them in a workshop.
Policy-makers and government officials have a limited technical expertise. Government officials are one of the major decision makers and needs personal involvement. Slide sets and briefings on important results related to HIV surveillance delivered in formal meetings can be appropriate for them.
PLHIV community and civil society organizations have moderate expertise and need limited data. However, they have significant expectations in relation to personal involvement. Slide sets, facts sheets and surveillance reports given in meetings can help this audience to understand trends and prevalence of HIV.
