This communique is for clinicians involved in HIV, who may be consulted about HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP). It assumes an understanding of HIV prophylaxis.
The Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) announced on 9 February 2018, to recommend the listing of HIV Pre Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) for HIV prevention. HIV PrEP drugs – tenofovir with emtricitabine – will be PBS listed from 1 April 2018, thereby providing broader access for any doctor or general practitioner to be able prescribe PrEP to an Australian resident who holds a current Medicare card. Read more here
ASHM coordinated a meeting of State and Territory Health departments to outline our discussion framework for the rollout of PrEP in the Primary Health Care sector of Australia.
Please review the draft discussion document by clicking on the graphic (right).
The Powerpoint presentation from this meeting is available HERE
Download our HIV Program Education Special Bulletin with links to new resources and training (published in April 2018)
ASHM hosted a Facebook Live Q+A: PREPPING the Health Workforce on 12 April 2018 with an expert clinical and community panel. Selected responses have been posted up on the PrEP: Frequently Asked Questions webpage.
New Zealand’s PHARMAC (the New Zealand government agency that decides which pharmaceuticals to publicly fund in New Zealand) announced on 6 February, 2018 that Gilead Sciences’ Truvada® will be available to eligible patients as PrEP in pharmacies throughout New Zealand from 1 March, 2018 at the cost of a normal prescription.
For more information, see the New Zealand AIDS Foundation website here.
The ASHM PrEP online learning module for NZ GPs is available now and will be updated to reflect the changes to PHARMAC.
ASHM supported the educational needs of GP prescribers and other clinicians in New Zealand who are involved in HIV care in the upcoming 2018 NZ HIV Clinical Update meeting held in Auckland City Hospital on Friday 6 April 2018. For more information: Visit the website
A PrEP Clinical Update was presented by Dr Vincent Cornelisse (Specialist in sexual health medicine, Prahan Market Clinic, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) and Dr Massimo Giola (Specialist in Infectious Diseases and Sexual Health, Bay of Plenty DHB, New Zealand). They presented on the science of PrEP and how to prescribe PrEP in New Zealand.
ASHM continues to support the workforce to ensure access to PrEP and best practice in guidelines, training and resources:
Currently in development to be made available in 2018 are new at-a-glance ASHM HIV PrEP resources for clinicians and patients:
ASHM Australian HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Clinical Guidelines have been published in the Journal of Virus Eradication (Journal of Virus Eradication 2017; 3: pp168–184) representing an adaptation and a revision of the 2014 United States Centers for Disease Control's PrEP guidelines. The 2017 Australian PrEP Guidelines have the benefits of having been being written and edited by clinicians, epidemiologists and representatives of peak Australian HIV community organisations who have significant experience of PrEP in the clinical, research and real-world settings. These guidelines are written for clinicians who will be initiating PrEP and monitoring people taking PrEP and are designed to reflect Australia’s unique epidemiology.
The recommendations included in the Guidelines are designed to:
This new 2-page Decision Making in PrEP tool provides a prescribing pathway which summarises the key eligibility and recommended assessment for primary care providers in Australia who wish to prescribe PrEP and the ongoing patient education and monitoring requirements. For expanded details, see the ASHM PrEP Clinical Guidelines
AFAO and ASHM have produced a PrEP Fact Sheet to assist PrEP users and people with an interest in using PrEP to understand what subsidised access to PrEP through the Australian PBS means.
The Australian Implementation of PrEP trials have recruited participants in all states and territories apart from Northern Territory (numbers at December 2017):
Find links to further information:
Find links to further information:
