In Brazil, men who have sex with men (MSM) account for approximately 3.5% of the population, but about 60% of reported human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections can be assigned to male-to-male sexual contact.

Though data is sparser for transgender women, most estimates suggest that a disproportionately large number (more than 30% according to 1 study) are also living with HIV. Researchers believe that aggressive interventions to prevent HIV infection among these 2 high-risk groups could significantly reduce the impact of HIV in Brazil.

The Brazilian Ministry of Health, in collaboration with several other agencies, funded a study to evaluate the impact of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention among MSM and transgender women. The study, titled PrEP Brasil, was led by Beatriz Grinsztejn, MD, PhD, the Principal Investigator of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Trials Unit at Instituto de Pesquisa Clinica Evandro Chagas-Fiocruz.

PrEP Brasil was an open-label, demonstration study that assessed PrEP with emtricitabine/tenofovir (Truvada) for HIV prevention among MSM and transgender women in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil from April 2014 to July 2016.

Patients included in the study were adults who were HIV-negative and met at least 1 sexual risk criterion, including condomless anal sex with 2 or more partners, 2 or more episodes of anal sex with an HIV-infected partner, or history of STI diagnosis, according to the study authors. Read more via MD