SSHA CONFERENCE 2013
Summary
In July 2012, the US Food and Drugs Administration approved the use of a daily regimen of oral Truvada (tenofovir co-formulated with emtricitabine) as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to reduce the sexual acquisition of HIV infection. Based on the existing evidence, the British Association of Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) and British HIV Association (BHIVA) issued a statement recommending the use of Truvada as PrEP in the UK only in the context of a clinical trial.
The trials to date have been placebo-controlled and several questions remain: what is the effectiveness of PrEP in a “real life” context? Will use of PrEP result in risk compensation with increase in number of partners and decrease in condom use in real life. Is PrEP a cost-effective intervention for the UK epidemic? To fill this evidence gap, an open-label pilot study that mimics how PrEP would be delivered in the UK to MSM is being conducted in 12 sites. In this study, called PROUD, MSM are randomised to receive a combination prevention package that includes daily Truvada immediately in the active group and after one year in the control group.
In this presentation, we will provide a brief summary of the relevant PrEP studies to date, an overview of the PROUD trial, its design and questions it hopes to tackle, as well as an update on progress to date.
Richard Stack (Senior Health Adviser – 56 Dean Street)
Richard has worked in sexual health for 19 years and as a Health Advisor for 13 years. Like most of us he is a “jack of all trades” with a background in psychology, health promotion, venue outreach, and horticulture! His counselling training was person-centred but over the years he has learnt to use anything and everything that might help him in this challenging field. He is imminently departing the NHS and the world of Health Advising to work with students, although one wonders if you can ever truly leave sexual health behind you. No other job is quite like this one and he can only regard the openness with which clients’ have shared their sexual worlds as a great privilege.
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