Awareness, Availability and Accessibility of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PREP) and Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) in Health Institutions in Ekiti State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine the level of awareness, availability and accessibility of both pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) in health institutions in Ekiti State. Five major health facilities providing Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) cutting across the three senatorial districts of the state were purposefully selected based on number of patients accessing the facilities for different reasons and been a functional ART centre in the state. Key informant interview (KII) was employed to collect information from the respondents. The result shows that PrEP is not available with the state as none of the Centres visited had provided PrEP services in the last one year. Though PEP is available in all the facilities visited but accessibility is low. Mostly PEP is provided to Health Workers who got exposed in the course of their duty and victims of sexual violence (mostly rape). There is no comprehensive programing for discordant couples who could have benefited from PrEP programing. Awareness of PEP services where available is low thereby leading to low service uptake. Only one centre reported external access (an individual with accidental condom bust) to PEP over two years ago. Disclose is still a big issue within the state, most PLHIV have partners that are not aware of their status (Probably because of stigma) therefore creating a barrier for effective programing. Recommendations focused on the ways to address the issues raised in the result above.