Ann Infect Dis Epidemiol | Volume 3, Issue 1 | Research Article | Open Access
Goulda A Downer* and Denise Bailey
Department of Infectious Disease, Howard University College of Medicine, USA
*Correspondance to: Goulda A Downer
Fulltext PDFHoward University College of Medicine, with funding from Gilead Sciences, launched the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HBCU-HIV) Prevention Project (H2P) to address HIV prevention on the campuses of HBCUs. CDC reports indicate that Sexually Transmitted Illness (STI) cases in the United States have reached record Levels. And while chlamydia, syphilis, and gonorrhea can be cured with antibiotics, if left undiagnosed or untreated, these diseases have the potential to severely impact public health. Studies have also found that HBCU students are knowledgeable about HIV transmission. However, despite this knowledge, they engage in high risk behaviors that belie those findings. Furthermore, given that campus health providers tend to be generalists and not HIV specialists, they constitute a population that should benefit from an intervention designed to inform them about the risks and benefits of HIV prevention, counseling, management. The specific aims of the project were to increase awareness among students and student health services providers about the importance of HIV prevention, testing and counseling as well as the use of the biomedical HIV prevention tool Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP ) as a preventive strategy in the fight to protect individuals who are HIV negative. H2P targeted a total of 237 health care providers over the one year course of the project from academic institutions, health departments, hospitals and Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) participated. The majority of clinicians who participated in the HIV-focused one hour Continuing medical Education (CME)-approved trainings via webinar were African American/ Black (90%) followed by Caucasian/White (7%); Hispanic/Latino (2%) and Asian Pacific Islander (1%) participated in the trainings. Across the board (100%) participants exhibited a better understanding of the webinar subject matter after the training than they did prior to the training. And, 80% surveyed stated that they strongly agreed that they could use the information and skills they gained from the webinar in their professional practice. A total of 868 students from three universities gave consent to participate in this study. However, only 134 completed the follow-up survey. As expected, the majority of survey respondents were African American/Black (65%). The data show that the student intervention had the greatest effect on condom use; the use of drugs or alcohol prior to sexual intercourse; beliefs about the efficacy of HIV drugs when used consistently; awareness of PrEP; and willingness to take PrEP. The baseline data reveal that at least half (50%) of the students surveyed at each institution doubted the efficacy of consistent use of HIV medications. However, at follow-up there was a statistically significant change with roughly two thirds (66%) agreeing that consistent use of the medications could yield positive outcomes. With respect to risk behavior, the most significant change from baseline to follow-up was the change in condom use. For all the institutions at follow-up, there was a statistically significant increase in the proportion of students reporting that they had used a condom during the last sexual intercourse. Two of the institutions also reported a statistically significant decline in the proportion of students using drugs or alcohol prior to last sexually intercourse. At follow up there was also a statistically significant increase in the proportion of students who were tested for HIV.
Downer GA, Bailey D. HIV Prevention on HBCU Campuses. Ann Infect Dis Epidemiol. 2018;3(1):1029.