Alfred Health launches PrEPX
More than 1300 Victorians have enrolled in an Alfred Health study that will provide unprecedented access to life-changing HIV prevention medication across the state.
Alfred Health, in conjunction with the Victorian AIDS Council and the Department of Health and Human Services, has officially launched PrEPX - a study of how increased access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medication could reduce new HIV transmissions by 30% in Victoria.
The study will provide PrEP medication to 2600 Victorians at risk of HIV, to measure whether this reduces the number of new HIV cases diagnosed. When taken every day, PrEP is 94 per cent effective at preventing HIV infection. So far, around 1300 people have enrolled in the study.
Currently 6000 people in Victoria are living with an HIV diagnosis and approximately 300 new cases are diagnosed every year.
Dr Edwina Wright, lead researcher and Infectious Disease Physician at The Alfred, said this was the only PrEP study in Australia where PrEP is being dispensed through community pharmacies. Participants are able to currently able to enrol at one of six sites across Melbourne, while plans are in place to expand the study to regional sites.
“This approach is highly novel and is breaking new ground," Dr Wright said.
"The community pharmacy approach and the fact we are the first study in the world to use only generic PrEP, as well as the unique study design, have generated interest from a number of leading international public health institutions.
“The study design is working very well and we were able to enrol 1000 study participants within the first three weeks of the study opening. Alfred Health is a leader in disease prevention and the influx of enrolments we have seen in this study is testament to that. Thanks to key partnerships within the community, government, GP practices, community pharmacies and our research partners, Alfred Health will be able to determine just how effective PrEP is at slowing the spread of HIV.”
As a research partner in the study, Burnet Institute will manage all data collection around PrEPX to evaluate outcomes and assess its impact on HIV prevention.
“The rapid uptake of clinically supervised PrEP among gay men in Victoria through the PrEPX project is unprecedented internationally. The demand speaks to the need to support a suite of evidence-based HIV prevention choices in Australia,” said Head of the Centre for Population Health at the Burnet Institute, Professor Margaret Hellard.
“With the innovative HIV surveillance system maintained at the Burnet Institute with support from the Victorian Government, we are also in a unique position to determine the population-level impact of PrEP. Our experiences with the scale-up of PrEP will therefore have global influence on the future of HIV prevention.”
Media launch
The Hon. Jill Hennessy MP, Minister for Health and Minister for Ambulance Services, will officially launch PrEPX at 10am on Monday 29 August 2016. Study participants, GPs and pharmacists will be in attendance.
What: PrEPX Media Launch
When: 10-10.45am, Monday 29 August 2016
Where: AMREP Seminar Room, The Alfred, 55 Commercial Road Melbourne
