How can awareness of the efficacy of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) be raised among gay men, who remain most vulnerable to HIV infection in the United States? What impact is mass incarceration in the U.S. having on the incidences of HIV? How does HIV look in the U.S. Southern and Northeast regions?
Fenway-affiliated researchers and scientists have been studying these questions and four will travel to Paris for the International AIDS Conference being held July 23-26 to share what they are learning. They will be led by Kenneth H. Mayer, M.D., Medical Research Director and Co-Chair of The Fenway Institute, who will be leading or co-authoring 16 presentations at the conference ranging from the socio-demographic correlates of PrEP side effects among men who have sex with men to a presentation for young investigators on how to write a research paper. He will give the research paper workshop in his capacity as a newly named Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the International AIDS Society.
Mayer will also deliver two talks at pre-conference symposia. The first is for the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care on how implementation of PrEP can eliminate transmission of HIV. The second is for the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition on the next wave of HIV prevention options from the perspective of an HIV prevention researcher.
Bisola Ojikutu, MD, MPH, will present on how mass incarceration and prison release are affecting the NIV epidemic in the U.S. South. She will also present on results from the National Survey on HIV in the Black Community that assess the willingness of U.S. African Americans to use PrEP.
Katie Biello, PhD, MPH and Matthew J. Mimiaga, ScD, MPH, will present on the low levels of awareness and use of PrEP among male sex workers in the Northeastern United States.