A Brief Guide To Establishing a Do-It-Yourself HIV Prophylaxis Program

IDSE
Giffin W. Daughtridge, S. Caitlin Coyningham, Caroline E. Sloan,Helen C. Koenig MD, MPH
Original Article:  bit.ly/1HW8gG2

For 6 young males, it was too late; they tested HIV positive at baseline screening for the I Am Men’s Health program at the University of Pennsylvania.

Their results underscore a sobering reality in the United States: The incidence of HIV continues to rise among young men who have sex with men of color (yMSMc). Fortunately, we finally have the tools to reverse this trend, thanks to the FDA’s approval of daily emtricitabine/tenofovir (Truvada, Gilead) for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in July 2012.

PrEP has been shown to be 92% effective at reducing HIV infection when taken daily. But how can we help a population of young, high-risk men with significant barriers to health care take a daily medication? For the past 2 years, the I Am Men’s Health program has run a PrEP distribution program that focuses on ensuring high adherence rates, thereby reducing the HIV burden in the community. Here, we present guidelines for building a similar program in a step-by-step format, which we hope will inspire you to help increase PrEP’s availability to the population that needs it most.

Full text of article available at link below:  bit.ly/1HW8gG2