Pre-exposure prophylaxis uptake concerns in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Key population and healthcare workers perspectives.

Key populations (KP) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), including female sex workers (SW), are disproportionally affected by HIV. Quantitative feedback surveys were conducted at seven health facilities in DRC with 70 KP clients enrolled in pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) services to meas...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yanhan Shen, Julie Franks, William Reidy, Halli Olsen, Chunhui Wang, Nadine Mushimbele, Richted Tenda Mazala, Tania Tchissambou, Faustin Malele, Apolinaire Kilundu, Trista Bingham, Gaston Djomand, Elie Mukinda, Raimi Ewetola, Elaine J Abrams, Chloe A Teasdale
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2023-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0280977&type=printable
Description
Summary:Key populations (KP) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), including female sex workers (SW), are disproportionally affected by HIV. Quantitative feedback surveys were conducted at seven health facilities in DRC with 70 KP clients enrolled in pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) services to measure benefits and concerns. The surveys also assessed satisfaction with PrEP services and experiences of stigma at the health facilities. Thirty healthcare workers (HCW) were surveyed to measure attitudes, beliefs, and acceptability of providing services to KP. KP client survey participants were primarily female SW. KP clients reported that the primary concern about taking PrEP was fear of side effects (67%) although few KP reported having experienced side effect (14%). HCW concurred with clients that experienced and anticipated side effects were a primary PrEP uptake concern, along with costs of clinic visits.
ISSN:1932-6203