Human Immunodeficiency Virus Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Program in General Practice

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) epidemic persists in France, with approximately 6000 new cases per year. Various prevention tools against HIV exist, including condoms, regular testing, Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP), HIV treatment for seropositive partners, single-use disposable injection equipment for drug use and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Continuous or on-demand PrEP with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate/emtricitabine has proven effective in reducing the risk of HIV infection. France was the first European country to authorize PrEP, leading to an unprecedented impact on seropositivity discovery rates in 2018, with a 7% decrease in new infections compared to 2017. However, the effectiveness of PrEP can be hindered by challenges in retaining users within the healthcare system. According to the EPIPHARE report, which has been monitoring Truvada® or generic PrEP use since 2017, a substantial proportion of new users do not receive PrEP renewal in the first 6 months after initiation. Such early interruptions, increasing in frequency, affected around a quarter of individuals who initiated PrEP in the second half of 2021. A recent study reported that these early interruptions have a significant detrimental impact on PrEP effectiveness in real life, especially among those under 30 years old and in socio-economic precarious situations. The main barriers to PrEP adherence are multifactorial, including social precarity, limited PrEP access, and a low perception of HIV risk. To address this, in France, general practitioners have been authorized to issue initial PrEP prescriptions since June 1, 2021. The future challenge is to increase PrEP use and optimize retention to combat the HIV epidemic, relying significantly on general medicine. The goal of our study is to broaden PrEP access by optimizing its initial prescription in general medicine and to assess user retention in PrEP care through the established partnership between general practitioners and patients.