Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 26 April 2018 to question 136402 on HIV Infection: Drugs, if he will he make an assessment of the potential barriers to joining the PrEP Impact trial for women who are victims of domestic violence.
The HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) Impact Trial Team works together with the Trial Community Advisory Board to address issues regarding barriers to recruitment. A number of workstreams are ongoing or planned to specifically address access to the trial by women. These include a review of risk factors and associated vulnerabilities among women recruited to the trial; interviews with women to explore the facilitators and barriers to accessing PrEP; and mapping of activities across the country relating to PrEP awareness-raising among key populations including women.
Through Public Health England’s HIV Prevention Innovation Fund, three PrEP initiatives have been funded that aim to raise awareness in underserved communities, including women.