Raising awareness of availability of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) through direct pharmacy access: “ipepcare” video

An educational video was developed as part of a pilot intervention study, “iPEPcare” (PEP Community Access Reaching Everyone), to educate high risk Black/Latino communities on the use of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) to help prevent HIV in the event of an unplanned exposure to HIV. In addition, information explaining a novel pharmacy-based PEP access program allowing a PEP “starter dose” to be obtained directly from participating pharmacies was included in the video.

PEP is recommended by the US Department of Health and Human Services in cases of a high risk exposure to HIV. Using pharmacies as venues to provide PEP to high risk groups such as injection drug users is feasible given the success of the New York State Expanded Syringe Access Program (ESAP), which allows pharmacies to sell syringes without a prescription to help reduce the spread of HIV among IDUs. Thus, ESAP pharmacies are well-positioned to expand their services to include other HIV prevention strategies such as PEP.

The iPEPcare video focuses on HIV risk reduction, PEP information, direct pharmacy access, and the importance of HIV testing as a normative comprehensive screening service that everyone should undergo routinely. The video showcases high risk HIV exposure scenarios (i.e., unsafe syringe sharing, unprotected sex) in which individuals return to the study pharmacy to request PEP medications. The video script and final cut were reviewed by community partners, and professional and academic stakeholders including researchers, pharmacists, community-based organization representatives, NYS Department of Health professionals, and physicians who had substantial experience working with IDUs and/or HIV positive populations.

Efforts were taken to ensure the message was translatable to low literacy populations and filmed in both English and Spanish. It was also pilot tested in both English and Spanish in focus groups composed of members from our target population.