This
study demonstrates that Australian gay men have had little experience with PREP use and rectal microbicides. About half would be willing to consider participation in trials using ARVs to prevent HIV infection. Extensive community education and consultation would be required before PREP or rectal microbicides could be trialled in populations selleck kinase inhibitor of gay Australian men. The HIV epidemic in Australia is concentrated among homosexual men [1]. As in almost all developed countries, HIV notifications have been increasing in Australia among these men [2], who are primarily at risk of HIV infection from unprotected anal intercourse (UAI). Other than male circumcision (for heterosexual male acquisition) [3,4] and condoms, there is currently no proven biomedical intervention to prevent HIV transmission by sexual exposure [5]. There are a number of new technologies being developed that may prevent HIV transmission via UAI, including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PREP) [6–8] and rectal microbicides
[9]. There is also the potential to use ‘treatment as prevention’, where antiretroviral (ARV) therapy use by an HIV-infected person prevents transmission to their sexual partners [7,10,11]. This is being explored in a Phase III two-arm, multi-site, randomized trial, assessing the effectiveness of two treatment strategies in preventing the sexual transmission of HIV in HIV-serodiscordant couples [12]. The first randomized AZD5363 ic50 trials of PREP among men who have sex with men (MSM) will be completed in 2009 [6], and rectal microbicide safety studies are currently under way [9]. Thus, these products may be available in the near future and in the case of PREP, potentially within the next few years. Prior to any widespread promotion of biomedical prevention technologies, it is important to explore individual and community awareness of and attitudes towards them [13–15]. Australia is a potential site to trial such products
and we investigated knowledge about and attitudes Lonafarnib datasheet towards these technologies among a cohort of Australian HIV-negative gay men. For rectal microbicides, we performed a cross-sectional analysis of awareness of these products. For both rectal microbicides and PREP, we explored willingness to participate in efficacy trials in a cohort of HIV-negative gay men. Though PREP is not currently prescribed in Australia, ARVs can potentially be sourced for use as PREP from people on ARV therapy. Thus, we performed a prospective analysis of use of PREP. The Health in Men (HIM) study was a community-based prospective cohort study of HIV-negative homosexually active men in Sydney, Australia. The methodology for the HIM study has been published previously [16,17]. The study recruited participants from 2001 to 2004 and interviews were conducted from 2001 to June 2007.