Background: The use of oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention is expanding in Sub-Saharan Africa. Countries are scaling-up PrEP nationally in line with the 2015 World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation. Kenya incorporated oral PrEP into the national guidelines for antiretroviral therapy in 2016. In 2017, PrEP was scaled-up nationally and is currently available in health facilities across the country for all persons at high risk of HIV. To date, more than 80,000 people have initiated PrEP in Kenya.
Jilinde at ICRHK: Jilinde (Bridge to Scale) is a four-year project in Kenya from August 2016. It is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, working closely with the Ministry of Health. Jilinde aims to scale-up oral PrEP for key populations, adolescent girls and young women through integration with public and private health facilities and specialized sex worker clinics (drop-in centers) in 10 of the 47 counties in Kenya. For FSW and MSM, oral PrEP is provided as part of combination prevention package, as outlined in the Kenya National AIDS and STI Control Program (NASCOP) guidelines. ICRHK is the lead partner in the coast region, providing PrEP to FSW, MSM and transgender through drop-in centers.
ICRHK interventions in 2019
- 8 specialized sex worker and MSM clinics in four counties – Mombasa, Kilifi, Kwale and Taita Taveta provided oral PrEP for female sex workers and men who have sex with men.
- 414 integrated clinical outreaches were conducted to support PrEP service delivery
- To support continuation, a number of strategies were put in place – Monthly support group PrEP club meetings, clinician phone call reminders, bulk SMS reminders, physical tracing by peer educators, innovative prep carrier bags (goodie bags), pill carriers, and PrEP delivery to the door step.
- 220 peer educators were engaged and trained in health education, community engagement and PrEP distribution. 20 prep champions were trained in oral PrEP follow-up
Key achievements
- 11,244 female sex workers and 3,288 men having sex with men received health education, information materials condoms and lubricants.
- 66% of 11,244 sex workers and 83% of 3,288 MSM were tested for HIV and received their results.
- All FSW and MSM were who were tested for HIV were screened for oral PrEP. Those who screened positive or request for oral PrEP were initiated on PrEP
- In 2019, 750 female sex workers and 138 men having sex with men initiated on oral PrEP. Overall, 3,000 FSW and 800 MSM have initiated PrEP between 2017 and 2019.
Conference Presentations
A key objective of the key population project is to provide program learnings that can inform policy and implementation at county, national and international levels.
4 abstracts were developed and 3 presented in local and international conferences. Three presentations from ICRHK work in PrEP were made at the 20th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA) in Kigali, 2019.
