Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) is highly efficacious and recommended in the WHO guidelines; yet, PEP remains underutilized despite being the only prevention option currently available that covers risk after exposure. Past restrictive policies may have limited the use of PEP to those with occupational exposure or sexual assault (including rape) with little use among other high-risk sexual exposures that would be responsible for a substantial burden of new HIV acquisitions. Our previous work conducted in rural Uganda and Kenya showed that it was feasible to deliver PEP for sexual exposures and highly acceptable in these settings. PEP was well tolerated, and we observed high PEP completion rates with no seroconversion reported among participants in the study.
In this analysis, we move further to evaluate uptake and patterns of PEP use within the context of a dynamic choice HIV prevention (DCP) model as well as the current standard-of-care (SoC). Our analysis focuses on PEP use among men and women recruited from diverse settings in rural Uganda and Kenya.