Awareness and willingness to recommend HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis among private practitioners of Central Karnataka, India

ABSTRACT

Background: HIV continues to be a major public health problem. Single daily oral dose in formulation containing tenofovir and emtricitabine is approved for HIV-negative people who are at high risk of acquiring HIV. Since pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) does not prevent other sexually transmitted infections and is not a contraceptive, it should not replace with other well-established HIV prevention interventions. Objective: The objective of this study was as follows (i) Awareness toward HIV PrEP among private practitioners and (ii) willingness to recommend HIV PrEP to the people at risk of HIV. Materials and Methods: It is a cross-sectional study. This study was conducted among 100 private practitioners of Davangere city. Results: In the present study, 63% of private practitioners were correctly knowing the drugs used in HIV PrEP. About 3% and 13% of practitioners knew the contraindications and side effects of HIV PrEP, respectively. About 17% of practitioners correctly knew efficacy of HIV PrEP. About 83% of practitioners opine PrEP would not have impact on ART drug resistance. All study participants felt that HIV PrEP should be made available to target group at risk of HIV. The knowledge score was poor among 27% of private practitioners. Knowledge score was good among 23% of practitioners. The attitude score was poor among 13% of practitioners and it was good among 64% of practitioners. All the study participants were willing to recommend PrEP to at least one of the at-risk populations. Private practitioners were most willing to recommend PrEP to men who have sex with men (76%) and serodiscordant couples (60%). Conclusions: In the present study, although over two-third of health-care providers scored average to good in knowledge related to HIV PrEP, they were less aware of eligibility criteria, contraindications, side effects, and efficacy of PrEP. Most of the respondents had favorable attitude about HIV PrEP. Almost all participants were willing to prescribe PrEP to at least one of the risk populations and were more willing prescribe to serodiscordant couples and men who have sex men.