Holguin is the fourth province in Cuba where the PrEP Follow Your Rhythm Communication Campaign is being launched, to promote the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis, a high-impact method in HIV prevention that has proven effective since its introduction in the country in 2019, first as a pilot project of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization, together with the contribution of UNDP and the Global Fund.
Regarding its particularities in this eastern territory, Dr. Osmani Ricardo Puig, head of the provincial section STD/AIDS and Hepatitis, commented that the launch of this campaign is carried out to raise awareness of what PrEP is, as an additional preventive treatment in the response to HIV in Cuba and as part of the government’s will to eliminate this disease by 2030.
“As a biomedical intervention, it consists of administering an antiretroviral tablet to people, before exposing themselves to the risk of HIV infection. It has as added components the use of condoms and lubricants,” he added.
In this sense, he said that in the province there are three PrEP services, the first began in September 2022 at the Mario Gutiérrez Arraya University Polyclinic, then in January 2024 in the municipality of Moa and a month later in the municipality of Banes, which operate at the level of polyclinics led by specialists in Comprehensive General Medicine, accompanied by a multidisciplinary team and representatives of the Key Populations Network.
Regarding the effectiveness of this method, Dr. Ricardo Puig pointed out that it has been proven by international clinical trials that it is called Truvada, commercial name, shows a high impact between 90 and 99 percent efficacy in those who use it, with examples in the province of people with more than a year linked to the service with treatment and who are negative for the infection.
Precisely, Carlos Fernández, living with an HIV-positive partner, sought counseling and accessed the PrEP service. Currently, after a year and five months of treatment, he remains negative.He says that “in October 2023, when I had a serodiscordant partner, I approached my health area to access a safe way to have sex.
There they offer me this PrEP option completely free of charge and they follow me up every three months with complementary tests. There are several treatment options, on-demand or daily. I chose the latter and I don’t have any side effects from the treatment, I have a normal life and I don’t just go out. I see it as another security option.” The slogan of this Follow Your Rhythm Campaign invites the use of PrEP, capable of adjusting to the diversity of dynamics and individual needs of each person.
Regarding the claims of the same, Dennis Pérez Chacón, a member of the National Coordination team, clarified that “it is an effort in which we seek to influence and increase the number of people who make use of the service. Although it has been developed in the country for several years, it is now a nationwide attempt to extend this service. We thought about the face-to-face campaign in this province, after Havana, Santiago de Cuba and Granma.
The rest of the provinces will launch on networks.”
“It is designed for social networks where the idea is to disseminate the communicative products and they are posed, with the use of technology and the messages are replicated, so that it is a single voice, speaking in the same terms, an effort of a national nature to which we can all contribute from our spaces of action.”
In cumulative incidence of HIV, the province of Holguin is currently the fifth in the country, with a prevalence of 0.20, however in 14 health areas this prevalence is above the provincial average.
As of April 2024, the expansion of the coverage of prevention services including PrEP begins, as part of the efforts promoted through interventions to support the HIV response.
So this campaign is essentially aimed at the most vulnerable populations and includes the dissemination of useful information about PrEP and its benefits.
It is developed from the alliances between the Ministry of Public Health, the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Unit (PROSALUD), the Network of Trans People, Couples and Families (Transcuba), the Cuban Network of People Living with HIV (Red Cub+), the Network of Men Who Have Sex with Other Men (MSM) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Global Fund.
It even seeks to raise awareness among the rest of the population to eliminate stigmas, discrimination or stereotypes that may prevent or limit these people’s access to the PrEP services available in Cuba. The more protected key populations are who are most at risk of becoming infected with HIV, the more controlled this epidemic will be, which claims countless lives every year.
By:Maylín Betancourt Verdecia / Translated by Radio Angulo
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