Increasing access to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in Toronto

What we’re doing:  The use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) can help to reduce the transmission of HIV. We are making PrEP more widely available in Toronto to men who have sex with men (MSM) and who are considered to be at high risk of contracting HIV by:

• Disseminating information about PrEP to MSM.
• Providing training to family physicians and sexual health clinic nurses.
• Making PrEP available through family physicians and sexual health clinics run by Toronto Public Health.

Why we’re doing it: PrEP is generally prescribed by HIV specialists, but there are not enough of them to meet growing demand. To sustainably and efficiently deliver PrEP at the scale needed to achieve public health impact, PrEP delivery should be decentralized by harnessing the skills of family physicians and sexual health clinic nurses. Our study will serve to:

• Increase knowledge of and access to PrEP in Toronto.
• Explore and document the process of increasing PrEP availability through community-based health providers from the perspectives of patients and health care providers.
• Demonstrate the impacts of decentralizing access to PrEP in a large urban centre.
• Generate evidence to inform the scale-up of PrEP distribution in Canada.

Our partners: Toronto Public Health, AIDS Committee of Toronto, Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange, Gay Men’s Sexual Health Alliance, Maple Leaf Medical Clinic