The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of the Sialon II network which made this study possible, and of all study participants who dedicated their time to fill in the questionnaire and gave a biological specimen for laboratory testing.
The Sialon II Network (extended list).
Massimo Mirandola, Lorenzo Gios, Stefano Benvenuti, Ruth Joanna Davis, Silvana Menichelli, Michele Breveglieri, (Coordinamento Regionale per il Management e la Progettazione Europea, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Integrata, Verona, Italy); Wim Vanden Berghe, Peter de Groot, Christiana Nöstlinger, Veronica van Wijk, Katrien Fransen, Tine Vermoesen, Michiel Vanackere (Institute of Tropical Medicine, ITG, Antwerp, Belgium); Fourat Benchikha, Sandra Van den Eynde, Boris Cruyssaert, Mark Sergeant, Karel Blondeel, Pieter Damen (Sensoa, Antwerp, Belgium); François Massoz, Erwin Carlier (Rainbowhouse Brussels, Belgium); Michael François, Stephen Karon (Ex Aequo, Belgium); Safia Soltani, Thierry Martin (Belgium); Alan De Bruyne (The Belgian Pride, Belgium); Francoise Bocken (Alias, Belgium); Myriam Dieleman (Observatoire du sida et des sexualités, Belgium); Ivailo Alexiev, Reneta Dimitrova, Anna Gancheva, Dobromira Bogeva, Maria Nikolova, Mariya Muhtarova, Todor Kantarjiev, (National Center of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Sofia, Bulgaria); Viara Georgieva (National Center of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Sofia, Bulgaria; Ministry of Health, Sofia, Bulgaria); Emilia Naseva, Petar Tsintsarski, Hristo Taskov, Tonka Varleva (Program “Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS”, Ministry of Health, Sofia, Bulgaria); Elena Birindjieva, Aneliya Angelova, Manol Antonov (Association “Health without borders”, Bulgaria); Ulrich Marcus, Susanne Barbara Schink, Sandra Dudareva-Vizule, Matthias an der Heiden, Sami Marzougui, Viviane Bremer, Andrea Kühne, Kerstin Schönerstedt-Zastrau, Ruth Zimmermann (Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany); Andreas Wille (Institut für Hygiene und Umwelt, Hamburg, Germany); Kai Eckstein, Norman Buch, Philipp Moskophidis, Marc Grenz, Danilo Schmogro, (Hein & Fiete, Hamburg, Germany); Giuseppe Cornaglia, Antonella Zorzi, Elisabetta Tonolli, Giuliana Lo Cascio, Teresa Todeschini, Manuela Recchia, Lorella Pattini, Maria Rocca, Alessandra Bighignoli, Anita Galardi, Loredana Martini, Francesco Cobello, Chiara Bovo (Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Integrata, Verona, Italy); Giulia Bisoffi, Oscar Bortolami, Laura Crestani (Unità Supporto alla Ricerca e Biostatistica, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Integrata, Verona, Italy); Fabiano Comperini (Italy); Ercole Concia, Emanuela Lattuada, Massimiliano Lanzafame, Paola Del Bravo (Infectious Diseases Section, Department of Pathology-Verona University Hospital - Veneto Region, Verona, Italy); Maddalena Cordioli, Fabio Rigo, Emanuele Guardalben, Ivan Marchesoni (Università degli studi di Verona, Verona, Italy); Barbara Suligoi, Vincenza Regine, Lucia Pugliese (Centro Operativo AIDS, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy); Saulius Caplinskas, Irma Caplinskiene, Rima Krupenkaite (Centre for Communicable Diseases and AIDS, Vilnius, Lithuania); Gediminas Sargelis, Arturas Rudomanskis, (“Tolerant Youth Association”, Vilnius, Lithuania); Sónia Dias, Ana Gama, Oriana Brás (Global Health and Tropical Medicine, GHTM, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, IHMT, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal); João Piedade (Medical Microbiology Unit, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Lisbon, Portugal); Ricardo Fuertes, Nuno Pinto, João Brito, Júlio Esteves, Jesus Rojas, Fernando Ferreira, Miguel Rocha, Hugo Machado, Maria José Campos, (CheckpointLX, Portugal); Luís Mendão (GAT, Grupo Português de Ativistas sobre Tratamentos de VIH/SIDA – Pedro Santos, Portugal); Magdalena Rosińska, Bożena Kucharczyk, Marta Niedźwiedzka-Stadnik, Łukasz Henszel, Andrzej Zieliński, Michał Czerwiński, (NIZP-PZH, Warsaw, Poland); Michał Pawlęga, Ewelina Burdon, Małgorzata Gajdemska, Agnieszka Guściora, Nikodem Klasik, Katarzyna Rżanek, Michał Sawicki, Michał Tęcza, Ewelina Burdon, Małgorzata Gajdemska, Agnieszka Guściora, Nikodem Klasik, Katarzyna Rżanek, (Lambda Warszawa, Warsaw, Poland); Mateusz Dębski, Anna Maciejewska, Izabela Pazdan (SKA Warsaw, Poland); Izabela Pazdan (SKA, VCT side, Warsaw, Poland); Alexandru Rafila, Daniela Pitigoi, Adrian Abagiu (National Institute for infectious Diseases Prof. Dr. Matei Bals, Bucharest, Romania); Carolina Marin, Ioana Panzariu, Alexandru Miroiu, (ACCEPT Association, Bucharest, Romania); Madalina Popa, Monica Likker (National Institute for infectious Diseases Prof. Dr. Matei Bals, Bucharest, Romania); Maria Georgescu, Galina Musat, Dan Cojocaru, Mihai Lixandru, Raluca Teodorescu (Romanian Anti-AIDS Association – ARAS, Bucharest, Romania); Danica Staneková, Monika Hábeková, Tatiana Drobková, Zuzana Chabadová, Soňa Wimmerova, Maria Mojzesová (Slovak Medical University, NRC for HIV/AIDS prevention, Bratislava, Slovakia); Filip Kunč, Michal Skurák, Peter Bodnar, Katarína Horniaková, Mária Krahulcová, Jarmila Präsensová (Slovakia); Martin Smoleň, Peter Záhradník, Pavol Tibaj (NGO Dúhové srdce, Bratislava, Slovakia); Irena Klavs, Tanja Kustec, Claudia Adamič (National Institute of Public health, Ljubljana, Slovenia); Mario Poljak, Robert Krošelj, Jana Mlakar (Institute of Microbiology and Imunology, Medical faculty, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia); Miran Šolinc (Association SKUC, Ljubljana, Slovenia); Cinta Folch, Laia Ferrer, Alexandra Montoliu,Jordi Casabona, Anna Esteve, Montserrat Galdon (Centre for Epidemiological Studies on HIV/STI in Catalonia CEEISCAT, Agència de Salut Pública de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain); Victoria Gonzalez (Microbiology Service, Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol, Barcelona, Spain); Rafael Muñoz (StopSida, Barcelona, Spain); Maria Axelsson, Torsten Berglund, Sharon Kuhlmann-Berenzon, Achilleas Tsoumanis, Inga Velicko, Christer Janson, Bartek Lindh, Kajsa Aperia (Public Health Agency of Sweden, Stockholm, Sweden); Buddha Babulanam, Hans Carlberg, Malte Davidsson, Nedo Entenza Gutierrez, Viktor Hildingsson, Henrik Klasson, Moises Peña Ramos, Cristian Quintero Rojas, Sven-Olof Sandberg, Andreas Samuelson,Eric Sjöberg, Tommy Sjölund,Simon Svensson, Iván Valencia (Sweden); Filip Garcia, Olov Lindblad (RFSL Stockholm, Sweden); Jon Voss (Stockholm Gay Life, Sweden); Ronnie Ask, Anders Blaxhult, Maarit Maliniemi, (Venhälsan, Stockholm South General Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden); Monica Ideström, Nils Blom (Public Health Agency of Sweden, Stockholm, Sweden); Nigel Sherriff, Christina Panton, Glynis Flood (School of Health Sciences, University of Brighton, Brighton, UK); Katrien Fransen, Tine Vermoesen (Aids reference laboratory, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium); Ross Boseley, Marc Tweed (Terrence Higgins Trust, South, UK); Jonathon Roberts (Claude Nicol Centre, Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, UK); Cinthia Menel Lemos (Executive Agency for Health and Consumers); Paolo Guglielmetti, Wolfgang Philipp, Matthias Schuppe (DG SANTE); Andrew Amato, Irina Dinca, Karin Haar, Anastasia Pharris, Teymur Noori (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control ECDC); Igor Toskin, Armando Seuc, Natalie Maurer (Department of Reproductive Health & Research of the World Health Organization WHO); Lev Zohrabyan, Alexandrina Iovita, Maddalena Campioni, Patrick Noack (Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS UNAIDS); Rosanna Peeling (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine); Lisa Johnston (USA).
Availability of data and materials
The self-administered questionnaire filled-in by the study participants is available as Additional file 1. The dataset used for the analysis presented in this manuscript is available as Additional file 2. The Stata syntax of the analysis is available as Additional file 3.
Funding
This document/paper is based on data from the SialonII “Capacity building in combining targeted prevention with meaningful HIV surveillance amongst MSM” project, funded under the European Commission’s (EC) Public Health Programme 2008–2013 (Work Plan 2010), reference number 100880. The sole responsibility lies with the authors of this document/paper and the Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. The funder had no role in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript.