RAPID, Restart & Retention Committee

The overall goal of the RAPID (Rapid ART Program Initiative for HIV Diagnoses) program is to create a set of “hubs” around the city where persons newly diagnosed with HIV (or out of care) can rapidly access antiretroviral therapy (ART) and have a smooth transition to their medical home. In order to accomplish this goal, a RAPID steering committee established hub locations, standard operating procedure (SOP) for ART start, and SOP for transition to a primary medical home. The committee works with SF Department of Public Health surveillance (now “ARCHES”) to track the uptake and outcomes of persons participating in the program. We build on the existing LINCS programs at SFDPH to create and support hubs for rapid initiation of ART to individuals.

We start ART:

Within 48 hours –

  • If acute/early infection (recent negative Ab test, RNA+/Ab– or recent symptoms of acute retroviral syndrome) or
  • Evidence of advanced infection (opportunistic infection or a CD4 count of less than 200)

Within 5 days –

  • All other newly HIV-diagnosed persons

The program aims to provide ART for up to 5 days for these individuals until they are transitioned into their medical home.

RAPID Resources

RAPID News & Updates

March 24, 2016 GTZ Consortium Meeting

Project Inform’s Alan McCord presents a CROI report-back. The Getting to Zero SF Consortium gathered March 24 for its quarterly meeting of members. In addition to updates from each of the four GTZ committees, we enjoyed a thorough CROI (Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections) report-back from Project Inform’s Alan McCord and a dynamic panel…

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Getting to Zero Presentation at Fenway Health, Boston

Hyman Scott recently was invited to make a presentation on our Getting to Zero experience at a planning meeting of the Massachusetts Getting to Zero effort. Link to the slides below. The meeting was held at Fenway Health in Boston on February 25, following the 2016 CROI (Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections). On the…

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World AIDS Day 2015

National HIV/AIDS Prevention Conference: Frameworks for Getting to Zero

During the CDC’s National HIV/AIDS Prevention Conference in December 2015, Shannon Weber moderated a session titled “Frameworks for Getting to Zero” with panelists representing San Francisco, Washington State and New York State. Nearly 100 people attended the session—the room was packed. See below for the overview slides as well as the abstract presented by Dana Van Gorder behalf of…

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