Best practices for identifying men who have sex with men for corrections-based pre-exposure prophylaxis provision

Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein; Meghan Peterson; Nickolas D Zaller; David A Wohl

doi:10.1186/s40352-019-0088-7

Best practices for identifying men who have sex with men for corrections-based pre-exposure prophylaxis provision

Health Justice. 2019 Apr 13;7(1):7. doi: 10.1186/s40352-019-0088-7.

Authors

Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein^{1

2}, Meghan Peterson³, Nickolas D Zaller⁴, David A Wohl⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Social Medicine, Center for Health Equity, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 333 S. Columbia St., 341B MacNider Hall, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA. [email protected].
² Center for Health Equity Research, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. [email protected].
³ School of Public Health, Brown University, Providence, USA.
⁴ College of Public Health, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, USA.
⁵ Division of Infectious Diseases, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.

Abstract

Purpose: Men who have sex with men (MSM) who are incarcerated are at increased risk for HIV acquisition, yet there are challenges associated with disclosing sexual identity/orientation among people who are incarcerated.

Methods: The current study used semi-structured, qualitative interviews to explore attitudes and awareness of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among 26 MSM who were incarcerated at the Rhode Island Department of Corrections.

Results: Participants noted variable levels of willingness to disclose sexual identity/orientation.

Conclusions: CJ institutions should consider involving medical staff and outside agencies when using the CDC PrEP guidelines or consider a WHO-based, rather than behavior-based, approach to determining candidacy for PrEP.

Keywords: HIV; Incarceration; Pre-exposure prophylaxis; Qualitative research.

Abstract

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