September 28, 2017
Successful staff training for PrIYA and PrIMA, HIV-prevention projects
We love receiving updates from our research partners in Kenya! Last week, two HIV-focused projects, led by the Kenyatta National Hospital, Global WACh, and International Clinical Research Center (ICRC), held successful staff trainings in Kisumu, Kenya. Both projects emphasize the use of oral pre-exposure antiretroviral prophylaxis, or PrEP, among adolescent girls and women who are at the greatest risk of HIV infection. PrEP is a daily anti-HIV medication that a person who does not have HIV takes to prevent infection. If taken daily as prescribed, PrEP is highly effective in stopping the HIV virus from taking hold and spreading throughout the body.
PrEP Implementation for Young Women and Adolescents (PrIYA) seeks to programmatically evaluate PrEP implementation, and determine best practices for providing PrEP to young women and adolescent girls in Maternal and Child Health (MCH) and Family Planning Clinics. At the training, PrIYA study staff discussed their successes and challenges after four months of providing PrEP clinical services, such as prescribing and counseling for the drug, follow-up care, and blood spot testing to measure drug levels to over 3,000 women. They also discussed their experiences to establish data tracking systems and improve ways to procure PrEP for their patients. More information on PrIYA is available here.
PrEP Implementation for Mothers in Antenatal Care (PrIMA) is a cluster-randomized trial in 20 MCH clinics that follows women during their pregnancies through nine months postpartum to assess HIV incidence and other outcomes among those who use PrEP and those who do not. Offering PrEP to women at the greatest risk of HIV may maximize effectiveness, safety, and cost-effectiveness. In anticipation of the study’s launch in October, forty new PrIMA staff members received training on the study procedures.
We look forward to sharing more updates as both studies progress. Stay tuned for future posts!