This November, undergraduate YRG member Casey Benzaken presented a scientific poster at the 2018 Third Coast CFAR Symposium. The symposium was held at The University of Chicago in early November with the theme “Ending the HIV Epidemic: Think Globally, Act Locally”. In addition to poster presentations, speakers from across the country presented their findings on a range of HIV topics, such as prevention, testing, and implementation science.
Afterspending a summer in Kisumu, Kenya working with Pamoja Community Based Organization, Casey presented her research about Pamoja’s efforts to recruit high-risk adolescent women in Kisumu to take pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).Consistent use of PrEP is able to drastically lower the chances of HIV infection. Results indicated that 96% of those willing and medically eligible to be on PrEP were initiated. The most common reasons that clinicians reported initiating women on PrEP were: 1) unknown partner HIV status, 2) inconsistent condom use, and 3) more than one sexual partner. These were just preliminary analyses for the study—more qualitative and quantitative analyses are to come.
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