To support local health departments as they decide what they can or should be doing to implement Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention in their communities, NACCHO created the PrEP Story Bank to share examples of what local health departments are doing. NACCHO spoke to Candi Crause, Director of Infectious Disease Prevention and Management, and Jeffrey Kemp Rinderle, HIV Prevention Program Coordinator, at the Champaign-Urbana Health District (IL) about how the idea of what they should be doing to support PrEP implementation evolved over the course of the year and their story has been added to the story bank.
When the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District first began discussing PrEP, it expected that it would conduct education and outreach with community members, increase provider capacity to deliver PrEP, and link interested individuals to providers. However, a number of barriers to accessing PrEP from providers in the community quickly emerged. After assessing the clinical practice guidelines for PrEP and internal capacity, the health department determined that it would be feasible to deliver PrEP from the STI clinic. Since starting to prescribe PrEP, it has become apparent that it is not only a tool for HIV prevention, but also serves as an access point for health insurance and the delivery of other preventive services. Listen to the recorded presentation to learn how the health department is implementing PrEP from its STI clinic.
If you are interested in adding your story to NACCHO’s PrEP Story Bank, please contact Gretchen Weiss at [email protected].
