Original content from our Mapping Pathways blog team
"This project is an attempt to be representative of the HIV epidemic around the world, including Africa, which carries the bulk of the burden but is often forgotten when it comes to opinion."
In the first of this five-part series,
Linda-Gail Bekker of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre, a Mapping Pathways partner organisation,
speaks about the evolution of the project and the recently-released South
Africa guidelines for PrEP in MSM.
MP: Please give
us some of your thoughts on the Mapping
Pathways project as it has evolved over time.
LGB: A key
component of the Mapping Pathways project is its concept of being
multi-continent, which imparts depth and relevance. The world is a big place
and this project is an attempt to be representative of the HIV epidemic around
the world, including Africa, which carries the bulk of the burden but is often
forgotten when it comes to opinion!.
The project is a wonderful attempt to gather and document important
views from opinion leaders as well as from people in the street around the
world on important topics in prevention. This is enhanced by the fact that we
are at a very exciting time in HIV prevention, which is quite a volatile,
polarised and changing field. Things move at such a rapid pace in this field
that sometimes, things done a month ago can quickly be out of date.
We have shared some of our Mapping Pathways data and
findings informally at conferences like the Microbicides 2012 (M2012) conference
in Sydney and the AIDS 2012 conference
in Washington D.C. We are now looking forward to all the data collected being
put together in a more formal, structured way. RAND Europe, one of the project
partners, is working to create a book that will cover results and analyses of
the four methods of data collection used in this project; the Literature
Review, online survey, the ExpertLens
and stakeholder interviews. It is great that all the sites and partners are
contributing to this.
On a personal note, I feel Jim
Pickett, Director of Prevention
Advocacy and Gay Men's Health at the AIDS
Foundation of Chicago and Mapping Pathways project member, is one of
the most charismatic and compelling people I have worked with. His “can-do”
attitude, enthusiasm for prevention and vision has been essential for the
success of this project, considering its scope and scale spanning three
continents.
MP: Please tell
us about the South Africa guidelines that recently came out based on a
consensus group that you chaired.
LGB: The Southern African HIV Clinicians Society writes
consensus guidelines for clinicians in the country on a variety of topics. I
chaired one such consensus group to come up with guidelines for PrEP in MSM in
South Africa. These guidelines were written and published earlier this year and
are available online.
The rationale is that Truvada is currently available in country
and we imagine that some men may wish to use it and clinicians would need
guidance as to how to do that safely. The guidelines provide practitioners with
a go-to document to enable them to use the drug in a safe and effective way
should they have a client who wishes to and can afford to do so.
Stay tuned to the blog as we bring you part two of our
conversation with Linda-Gail, where she speaks about vulnerable populations in
Africa and the burden of HIV there.
Stay
tuned for the Mapping Pathways monograph, coming in early 2013
[Content that is linked from other sources is for informational purposes and should not construe a Mapping Pathways position. Please look for us on Facebook here www.facebook.com/MappingPathways and you can follow us on Twitter @mappingpathways as well.]
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