Blogs

Community-based organizations and PrEP implementers now have two more resources to help HIV prevention ambassadors promote the meaningful engagement of communities and potential and current PrEP users in the rollout of oral PrEP for HIV prevention: the HIV Prevention Ambassador Training Package and Toolkit, developed by the OPTIONS Consortium and the CHOICE activity of the EpiC and RISE projects.

This installment wraps up the ACCESS PrEP blog series and talks about combination prevention, particularly the effects of oral PrEP use on condom use.

The third blog in this ACCESS PrEP blog series addresses health providers’ experiences with oral PrEP services. It explores their knowledge of oral PrEP and concerns about increased risky behaviour. Health providers also expressed concern about the challenges clients faced when accessing oral PrEP and the barriers to uptake, adherence and continuation.

This narrative, the second in the ACCESS PrEP blog series, focuses on PrEP-related side effects. It highlights the determination of some clients to continue using oral PrEP despite the side effects they were experiencing.

This blog is the first in the ACCESS blog series and it gives an overview of the study findings. It explores the motivations that made clients decide to start, continue or stop using oral PrEP, as well as what made certain clients decide not to start taking oral PrEP at all.

The LINKAGES project first started working in Burundi in August 2016 to reduce HIV transmission among key populations and improve their enrollment and retention in care and treatment. Within the past three years, LINKAGES Burundi has consistently experienced high rates of linking newly diagnosed HIV-positive female sex workers, men who have sex with men, and transgender people to care and treatment. Between the first quarter of FY18 and the second quarter of FY19, the average rates for linkage to antiretroviral treatment were 98 percent among FSWs, 96 percent among MSM, and 100 percent among transgender people. This blog outlines the five “secrets” LINKAGES Burundi credits for their success.

The biennial South African AIDS Conference (SA AIDS 2019), which took place earlier this month in Durban, South Africa, was an opportunity to meet a diverse range of players in the field of HIV and AIDS -- and one of the most innovative and inspiring of these is definitely Grassroot Soccer (GRS), so the SHARE team was really excited to get the chance to chat with some of the organization’s coaches, or young adult mentors, and master trainers about the work they are doing and what brought them to the conference.