Queensland Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Demonstration Project (QPrEPd)

Aim

Offer Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for Queenslanders at high risk of HIV.

Outcomes

• allows someone who is HIV negative to take HIV medication, which prevents the virus becoming established.
• reduces rates of HIV transmission in Queensland.

Background

Clinical trials have shown that taking Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) everyday along with using other HIV prevention measures like condoms and regular HIV and STI screening is the best way to reduce a person’s chance of acquiring HIV.

The original QPrEPd study began in September 2015 and made PrEP available to 50 people across Queensland. In April 2016, the Queensland Government announced $6 million dollars in funding over four years to expand the study to 2,000 participants. In November 2017, the Queensland Government announced a further expansion of the project adding 1000 additional participants.

Discussion

The project was a finalist at the 2017 Queensland Health Awards for Excellence.

• Queensland is decentralised with 50 per cent of the population living outside the state capital and 25 per cent outside of the south eastern region. This population distribution is reflected in HIV diagnoses with 24 per cent of new diagnoses in 2015 coming from health service areas outside of the south east.
• Rapid customisation of a web-based database to support data collection for participants, medication supply management and strong quality assurance processes.
• Site assessments and staff training took more than a month to complete.
• The project expansion went live as scheduled in November 2016, and has expanded to 23 sites.

Lessons learnt

Managing the supply chain logistics to support provision of a free drug at study sites for a ’one stop shop’ experience for participants required a tailored approach for each site.

Further Reading

QPrepd project website