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Awareness and Willingness to Use Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Among Men Who Have Sex with Men and Transgender Women in Brazil

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Abstract

Antiretroviral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is recommended to prevent HIV infection among high-risk men who have sex with men (MSM) though not available in Brazil where the HIV epidemic persists unabated in this group. This cross-sectional study describes PrEP awareness and willingness and associated factors among MSM and transvestite/transgender women (trans women) pre-screened for the PrEP Brasil study. Awareness was reported by 61.3 % of the participants and was associated with age, education, site, study period and prior HIV testing. Most participants (82.1 %) were willing to use PrEP, which was associated with site, study period, number of male condomless anal sexual partners and anal sex with HIV positive/unknown partners. PrEP information is need among young and less educated individuals. Willingness to use PrEP was high and future studies should be conducted to confirm PrEP acceptability and the characteristics of the population who chose to adopt this intervention.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the study participants and the following individuals: Tania Krstic, Vinícius Pacheco, Mônica Derrico, Flávia Esper, Desirée Vieira, Marcus Vinícius M. da Costa, Gelson Perim. PrEP Brasil Study Team includes Lucilene A. de Freitas, Iuri Leite, Tiago Porto, Luana Marins, Sandro Nazer, Cristiane Castro, Daniel Waite, José Roberto Granjeiro, Albert Y. Liu, Larissa Villela, Toni Araújo, Josias Freitas, Laylla Monteiro (FIOCRUZ); Ricardo Vasconcelos, Daniel Bertevello (USP); Roberta Schiavon Nogueira, Priscilla de Lima e Menezes, Valvina Madeira Adão, Gustavo Mizuno (CRT-SP).

Funding

This study was funded by CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico—Grant PROEP 402004/2012-4; Grant Universal 45931/2014-0), FAPERJ (Fundação Carlos Chagas de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro—Grant E-26/110.261/2017; Grant 2012/51743), SVS-MS (Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde do Ministério da Saúde—Grant 281/2013) and Departamento de HIV/AIDS e Hepatites Virais-Ministério da Saúde (Grant 01/2013 projeto BRA/K27). The funders had no hole in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Nacional de Infectologia Evandro Chagas, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (INI/FIOCRUZ), Avenida Brasil 4365, Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, 21040-360, Brazil

    Brenda Hoagland, Raquel B. De Boni, Ronaldo I. Moreira, Thiago S. Torres, Paula M. Luz, Nilo Martinez Fernandes, Beatriz Grinsztejn & Valdilea G. Veloso

  2. Centro de Referência e Treinamento em DST/AIDS, São Paulo, Brazil

    José Valdez Madruga & Silvia Pereira Goulart

  3. Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Esper G. Kallas & Natalia Cerqueira

  4. Bridge HIV, San Francisco Department of Public Health, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Albert Y. Liu

Authors
  1. Brenda Hoagland
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  2. Raquel B. De Boni
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  3. Ronaldo I. Moreira
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  4. José Valdez Madruga
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  5. Esper G. Kallas
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  6. Silvia Pereira Goulart
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  7. Natalia Cerqueira
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  9. Paula M. Luz
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  10. Nilo Martinez Fernandes
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  11. Albert Y. Liu
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  12. Beatriz Grinsztejn
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  13. Valdilea G. Veloso
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Consortia

For the PrEP Brasil Study Team

  • Cristiane Castro
  • , Daniel Bertevello
  • , Daniel Waite
  • , Gustavo Mizuno
  • , Iuri Leite
  • , José Roberto Granjeiro
  • , Josias Freitas
  • , Larissa Villela
  • , Laylla Monteiro
  • , Luana Marins
  • , Lucilene A. de Freitas
  • , Priscilla de Lima e Menezes
  • , Ricardo Vasconcelos
  • , Roberta Schiavon Nogueira
  • , Sandro Nazer
  • , Tiago Porto
  • , Toni Araújo
  •  & Valvina Madeira Adão

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Brenda Hoagland.

Ethics declarations

Compliance with Ethical Standards

INI Evandro Chagas-FIOCRUZ institutional review board has approved this study (#CAAE08405912.9.1001.5262 at “Plataforma Brasil”) and all study participants have signed an informed consent form. Institutional Review Boards at CRT-AIDS and USP also approved the study after first approval has been granted at Fiocruz.

Conflict of interest

Albert Liu has participated in trials in which study drug and support for drug level testing were provided by Gilead Sciences.

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Hoagland, B., De Boni, R.B., Moreira, R.I. et al. Awareness and Willingness to Use Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Among Men Who Have Sex with Men and Transgender Women in Brazil. AIDS Behav 21, 1278–1287 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-016-1516-5

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