Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), is a means of a preventing possible infection with HIV after potential exposure through the use of 28 days of antiviral medications. Standard PEP care also includes testing for sexually transmitted infections, and blood tests over three months to monitor safety and check for HIV infection. However, there are several components of PEP care that warrant being more closely studied to optimize results. First, many people fail to come back to the PEP clinic for follow-up testing according to the recommended schedule. This step is critical as it confirms a successful outcome through an HIV-negative test result. This study will therefore test whether providing text messaging support helps PEP patients complete their scheduled follow-up. Second, although PEP is usually given by infectious disease specialist doctors in hospitals, it could also be given by nurses working in the community, potentially improving accessibility to PEP. This study will test whether the outcomes from nurse-led PEP in sexual health clinics are the same as those from specialist-led PEP in hospitals. Finally, some of the newer medications used for treating HIV have characteristics that make them a good choice for use in PEP, but they have not been studied for this purpose. This study will look at the safety and tolerability of tenofovir alafenamide/emtricitabine/elvitegravir/cobicistat (TAF/FTC/ELV/cobi) 10/200/150/150 mg as a single tablet, Genvoya®, by mouth daily to complete 28 days of PEP.
Read more on clinicaltrials.gov.
This study was made possible through a grant from CIHR and a study drugs provided by Gilead Sciences.