Adolescent Trials Network (ATN) – Research of acceptability and feasibility of PrEP

Institution:

City University of New York School of Medicine

Researchers:

Dr. Victoria Frye
Associate Medical Professor
Department of Community Health and Social Medicine

Dr. Tashuna Albritton
Assistant Medical Professor
Department of Community Health and Social Medicine

Impact:

The HIV care cascade represents the proportion of people living with HIV who know their status, the proportion of those individuals who are in medical care and sustained on antiretroviral therapy (ART), and the proportion on ART who are virally suppressed. Advances in HIV testing and prevention tools have emerged to make the steps along the care cascade less steep and to diminish the racial/ethnic disparities that characterize each step in the United States. First, HIV self-testing, which was approved in the United States in 2012, has been supported by a growing body of research on the acceptability and feasibility as an accurate self-screening method. Dr. Victoria Frye, an Associate Medical Professor in the Community Health and Social Medicine department at the CUNY School of Medicine (CSOM), has been involved in the development and review of a supplement to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Consolidated Guidelines on HIV Testing Services, recommending HIV self-testing as part of standard of care in HIV testing and partner notification (http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/251655/1/9789241549868-eng.pdf?ua=1). The WHO now recommends that HIV self-testing should be offered as an additional approach to HIV testing services. Dr. Frye’s research has examined the acceptability and use of self-testing among young, gay Black men in the US, and she is currently leading a randomized, clinical trial of a brief, behavioral intervention to increase HIV self-testing in this population. Second, is staying HIV uninfected, once an individual knows that they are negative. Initiating antiretroviral medications to prevent HIV acquisition among HIV-uninfected individuals has been a game-changer for HIV prevention. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a combination of emtricitabine and tenofovir (brand name Truvada), was approved in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – also in 2012 – for use by adults. However, PrEP was not FDA approved for adolescents in the US until recently. Researching the acceptability and feasibility of PrEP and advocating for the expansion of PrEP use among adolescents is part of the research and practice program of Dr. Tashuna Albritton, an Assistant Medical Professor in the Community Health and Social Medicine department at the CSOM. Dr. Albritton recently published an essay, with CSOM students, urging the FDA to approve PrEP for use with adolescents. In May of this year, the FDA did in fact approve this, based on results of an Adolescent Trials Network (ATN) study, where Dr. Albritton is a Diversity Scholar.

Timeline:

2012-2018