Australasian HIV&AIDS Conference PrEP

A report on the proffered papers session on day 3 of the Conference.

In this session I was particularly interested in the studies from NSW and Victoria looking at the impact of PrEP on STI trends in high risk gay and bisexual men following the introduction of PrEP after the rapid scaling up of access to PrEP.

PrEP of course targets those already at high STI risk, including recent STI in eligibility criteria. STI incidence was increasing in the years prior to ramping up of PrEP. Condomless sex in Australian gay and bisexual men had also increased from 27% in 2000 to 39% in 2015 prior to easier access of PrEP.

A report on the symposium session “Engaging primary health in testing and PrEP Provision and HIV treatment as a strategy for reaching diverse communities”.

The 2018 HIV AIDS Conference in Sydney has started as promised; full of challenges, opportunities and hope.

The options of proffered papers as always made it hard to choose which to attend. This year I chose not to race between individual presentations, but to immerse myself in the theme of a full session. As a Nurse Consultant working in Community Health, the theme of Engaging Primary health in Testing and PrEP Provision and HIV treatment as a strategy for reaching diverse communities appealed to me.