Temanteman.org, an integrated public-private sector communication strategy to scale up early and routine HIV testing among most-at-risk populations (MARPs) in Indonesia

Temanteman.org, an integrated public-private sector communication strategy to scale up early and routine HIV testing among most-at-risk populations (MARPs) in Indonesia
 
T. Anand, C. Nitpolprasert, A.H. Sohn, T. Parwati Merati, S. Djauzi, E. Yunihastuti, D. Imran, P. Phanuphak, J. Ananworanich, N. Phanuphak

Background: Indonesia has the fourth largest number of global Facebook users, and Jakarta is the world''s most Twitter-active city. It is an Islamic-majority country where talking about HIV remains difficult. In 2012, the HIV rate among men who have sex with men was 8.5% and 36% among injection drug users. A primary challenge is to engage at-risk populations to enter the cascade of HIV prevention. Following the success of Adam''s Love (www.adamslove.org) in Thailand, we launched TemanTeman.org, to be Indonesia''s one-stop online source for reliable information on HIV/sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and to increase HIV testing.
 
Methods: TemanTeman.org utilizes an integrated communication and marketing strategy by partnering with healthcare providers and the private sector, including public relations firms, fashion industry representatives, print media, and photographers to create an outreach platform. TemanTeman.org offers 70% HIV/STI education and 30% edu-tainment in Bahasa Indonesia and English. While high-profile Indonesian celebrities serve as brand ambassadors and attract interest, the site offers fashion photography designed to increase HIV awareness and testing, over 100 expert advice videos, integrated social media and web message boards for health advice, and a membership club program linked with six healthcare centers in Jakarta and Bali, where those getting an HIV test receive free TemanTeman.org t-shirt.
 
Results: At TemanTeman.org''s official launch press conference, Indonesian celebrity Dian Sastrowardoyo received an HIV test, encouraging 40 others to get HIV tested at the venue. A total of 190 people (71% male) enrolled in TemanTeman.org''s membership club program within three months. Between January to December 2013, TemanTeman.org gained media coverage worth 245,800 US Dollars, over a million fans were reached through celebrities tweets on HIV awareness, the website received over 5 million hits, engaged 155,848 unique visitors worldwide with 365,787 page views with an average visit duration of 3.8 minutes per visitor, Facebook channels gained 12,700 fans, and YouTube videos gained 53,600 views. The three top-rated videos included symptoms of HIV, syphilis and gonorrhea, and HIV transmission modes.
 
Conclusions: Temanteman.org has demonstrated its feasibility in engaging Indonesians in HIV awareness and is a step forward in reducing stigma associated with HIV testing in a culturally sensitive and diverse setting.