Long-Term PrEP Continuum of Care Patterns

In an interview with Contagion during International AIDS Society (IAS) AIDS 2020 Virtual Sessions this week, Jonathan Volk, MD, MPH, infectious disease clinician, Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Medical Center spoke about his study, the PrEP Continuum of Care and New HIV infections: Long-Term Follow-Up in a Large Clinical Cohort.

Volk spoke of the study’s findings including the fact many patients do not complete key steps in PrEP continuum of care, resulting in preventable HIV infections.

There were several other discoveries from the observational data. For one, patients had the greatest drop off from taking their PrEP regimen in the first year of care. He said there was a 27% drop off. After that first year, a large majority of patients stayed on their regimen.

They have tools in place to survey their patients to see if PrEP is something they want to continue.

In looking at the African American population, this patient group was less likely to get a prescription, less likely to initiate PrEP, and more likely to discontinue PrEP.

In addition, he talked about looking at identifying patient populations earlier in their care who might be able to benefit from PrEP care.

Volk also spoke of the influence of COVID-19 including how they are working with patients remotely.