Speaker
Description
The use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), where approved antivirals are administered to uninfected high-risk individuals, is universally regarded as a promising strategy to prevent susceptible high-risk individuals from acquiring HIV infection from their infected partners. A number of antiviral drugs (and their combinations) have been developed and are being used as prophylaxis against the HIV epidemic here in the U.S. and globally. We will first present a risk-structured mathematical model for assessing the population-level impact of PrEP in an MSM (men who have sex with men) population. An extended model, which considers several high-risk populations, will also be presented and used to assess the potential spillover effect, where the administration of PrEP to individuals in one risk group induces a reduction of disease burden in other risk group(s). The central aim is to determine whether the use of the aforementioned strategies can aid the End the HIV Epidemic initiative, aimed at eliminating the disease in the U.S. by 2030.
