Investigating Attitudes towards HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating attitudes towards HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis. A questionnaire study in men who have sex with men attending sexual health clinics
IRAS ID
178779
Contact name
Lauren Bull
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 3 months, 1 days
Research summary
The use of taking HIV drugs to prevent HIV acquisition has been shown to be effective biologically and very recent results published from clinical studies have shown it to be very effective in real life settings.The use of PrEP outside of research studies is an unknown quantity,however, we do have anecdotal evidence of persons taking HIV drugs preventatively sourcing them either from abroad/ from friend's HIV medicines or from post exposure prophylaxis which is given to people after a possible risk. We recently undertook a brief anonymmous questionnaire among our service users and found 6% of HIV negative men who have sex with men sourcing HIV medication to use as PrEP. Now that PrEP has been proven to be effective clinically the question of who should be recieving PrEP and how this should be resourced is of great importance.Establishing who is already taking PrEP, what risk behviours they demonstrate and from where they are sourcing it may help to inform policy decisions. Additionally it may be able to demonstrate a demand for PrEP. We intend to use several clinics including busy urban centres that see many people who are at high risk of HIV acquisition which are ideally placed to examine whether people are self selecting to take PrEP.
REC name
East of England - Cambridge South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/EE/0364
Date of REC Opinion
28 Sep 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion