Assessment of awareness of pre-exposure prophylaxis methods against HIV infection among healthcare specialists, medical students, and charitable foundation volunteers

Objective. To assess awareness of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) against HIV infection among healthcare specialists, medical students, and charitable foundation volunteers. Subjects and methods. The investigation involved respondents of 3 groups. Group 1 consisted of 73 healthcare workers; Group 2 included 75 five- and six-year medical students of faculties of pediatrics, general medicine, and medicine; Group 3 comprised of 26 volunteers of the «Shagi» (Steps) Regional Charitable Public AIDS Control Foundation. All the groups underwent a survey using the continuous sampling on the days of both face-to-face and Internet surveys. Results. The mean HIV PrEP awareness self-assessment score was 5.36 in Group 1, 4.88 in Group 2, and 5.69 in Group 3. Group 1 respondents mainly received information about the method from scientific literature, in the learning process, and from the Internet (25.9, 22.2, and 12.9, respectively). Group 2 respondents did this in the process of learning, from the Internet, from scientific literature (42.4, 32.2, and 15.3%, respectively). The charitable foundation employees did this in the process of learning, from the Internet, from scientific literature (46,2, 36,6, and 15,4%, respectively). Respondents in this group mentioned PrEP more often when answering an indicator question about the HIV transmission prevention methods known to them (p < 0.05). Conclusion. Poor self-awareness among the surveyed medical professionals, medical students, and non-profit organization employees is one of the main barriers to PrEP method use.

HIV infection, pre-exposure prophylaxis, awareness