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Impact of the Early COVID-19 Pandemic on the Number of HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Uses and the Proportion of PrEP users receiving STI Testing Services
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5 2023
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Source: Sex Transm Dis. 50(5):304-309
[PDF-590.96 KB]
Details:
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Alternative Title:Sex Transm Dis
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Personal Author:
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Description:Background:
With potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on HIV PrEP care management, we assessed the number of PrEP users and STI-testing-eligible PrEP users, STI testing rates and prevalence between pre-pandemic (01/01/2018–03/31/2020) and early-pandemic (04/01/2020–09/30/2020) periods.
Methods:
In this retrospective cohort study, a PrEP user for a given quarter is defined as either a previous PrEP user or a PrEP initiator who has at least one day coverage of TDF/FTC in the given quarter. The STI-testing-eligible PrEP users for a given quarter were defined as those persons whose runout date (previous dispense date + days of TDF/FTC supply) was in the given quarter.
Results:
The quarterly number of PrEP users increased from the 1st quarter of 2018 to the 1st quarter of 2020 and then decreased in the 2nd and 3rd quarter of 2020. Among STI-testing-eligible PrEP users who had ≤14 days between runout and next refill date, gonorrhea and chlamydia screening testing rates were 95.1% for pre-pandemic and 93.4% for early-pandemic (p=0.1011). Among all STI-testing-eligible PrEP users who were tested for gonorrhea and chlamydia, gonorrhea prevalence was 6.7% for pre-pandemic and 5.7% for early-pandemic (p=0.3096) and chlamydia prevalence was 7.0% for pre-pandemic and 5.8% for early-pandemic (p=0.2158).
Conclusions:
Although the early COVID-19 pandemic resulted in lower numbers of PrEP users and PrEP initiators, individuals who remained continuous users of PrEP maintained extremely high rates of bacterial STI screening. With high STI prevalence among PrEP users, assessments of PrEP care management are continuously needed.
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Pubmed ID:36730891
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Pubmed Central ID:PMC10097470
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