Prescribe to Prevent HIV (P2PH): Enhancing Clinic-based Prescribing of Harm Reduction: A Clinical Trial to Prevent HIV and Severe Injection-related Infections Among PWID
University of Pittsburgh
Summary
In the U.S., an estimated 3.6 million people who inject drugs (PWID) face a growing yet preventable health crisis, with rising cases of serious injection-related infections (SIRI), including HIV, due to limited access to two high-priority interventions: sterile injection equipment and daily oral HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Outpatient clinics represent an opportune venue to implement these interventions. Yet most clinical providers in these settings do not currently provide them, contributing to a wide gap between evidence and routine practice. The Prescribe to Prevent HIV (P2PH) trial is a participatory study designed to co-develop and pilot test a set of implementation strategies to support outpatients clinics in offering sterile injection equipment and PrEP with the goal of reducing the risk of HIV and SIRI among PWID. This study is supported by the HEAL Initiative (https://heal.nih.gov/).
Description
In the U.S., 3.6 million people who inject drugs (PWID) face a syndemic of overdose and severe injection related infections (SIRI). Current efforts addressing this crisis remain inadequate as evidence-informed interventions (EIIs) to prevent or reduce SIRI from injection opioid use are not widely implemented and typically limited to syringe service programs. SIRI, which includes bacterial infections (e.g., cellulitis, osteomyelitis, endocarditis), hepatitis C virus, and HIV, significantly increase morbidity, mortality, and costs. HIV, in particular, can be prevented through access to two EIIs:…