Abstract
Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is rapidly increasing in use worldwide, with many countries now publicly funding use for high risk populations. Pharmacists, as front-line care providers, must have the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes to effectively provide care to PrEP patients. The aim of this review was to identify priority areas and key gaps for continuing professional development (CPD) needs relating to PrEP for practicing pharmacists. An electronic search of PubMed, EMBASE, International Pharmaceutical s and CPD-related journals was supplemented with a manual search of references to identify articles describing pharmacists’ knowledge, perceptions and experience with PrEP. A total of eight articles were identified across four countries. Pharmacists were consistently found to lack knowledge and awareness of PrEP, express low confidence/comfort with patient care practices, report a lack of experience and/or intentions to provide patient care, but overall had positive perceptions of PrEP therapy. Older pharmacists with more experience commonly reported greater knowledge gaps than recently trained pharmacists. CPD should therefore aim to increase pharmacists’ baseline knowledge and awareness of PrEP and treatment guidelines, as well as be directed towards older pharmacists with more experience.
Highlights
Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has become a central component of sexual health care in many countries
The combination of tenofovir and emtricitabine was first approved in the United States (US) by the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2012 [1]
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests PrEP should be considered for HIV-negative people who have had anal or vaginal sex in the past 6 months and have an HIV-positive partner, have not consistency used a condom, or have been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the previous
Summary
Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has become a central component of sexual health care in many countries. Numerous countries have approved the use of PrEP for HIV prevention and in 2018, New Zealand was one of the first countries to publicly fund its use [2]. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests PrEP should be considered for HIV-negative people who have had anal or vaginal sex in the past 6 months and have an HIV-positive partner, have not consistency used a condom, or have been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the previous. PrEP may be considered for people who inject drugs or other high-risk populations. As of April 2020, 75 countries had some form of PrEP registered for use, and 44 of these countries offered funding for high risk populations [6].
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