Location:
Berg Family Foundation Seminar Room, Level 6, Wallace Wurth Building, Kensington Campus, UNSW Sydney
Contact for enquiries
Rata Joseph, +61 (2) 9385 0900 or recpt@kirby.unsw.edu.au
Kirby Institute Seminar Series presents
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Senior Research Manager, HIV Epidemiology and Prevention Program, Kirby Institute Mo Hammoud is a Senior Research Manager at the Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney where he currently runs the Flux Study, Australia’s largest cohort study of licit and illicit drug use among gay and bisexual men. He is also responsible for the automated designing and implementation of two Australian PrEP trials; EPIC-NSW and PrEPIT-WA. Mo is also in his final year of his PhD at the Kirby Institute where he is looking at how HIV biomedical prevention has been adopted as a harm reduction strategy among GBM who are at highest risk of infection. |
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Statistician/Epidemiologist and PhD Student, HIV Epidemiology and Prevention Program, Kirby Institute Stefanie is a statistician/epidemiologist working on the EPIC-NSW study, one of the world’s largest HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) implementation studies. She is also completing her PhD at the Kirby Institute, which focuses on adherence to PrEP. |
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Research Officer and PhD Student, HIV Epidemiology and Prevention Program, Kirby Institute Steve is a qualitative social researcher working on a variety of studies about HIV prevention and experiences of HIV among gay men. He is completing his PhD at the Kirby Institute, focussing on gay men’s relationships and HIV prevention. |
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Coordinator, NSW HIV Prevention Partnership Project and PhD Student, HIV Epidemiology and Prevention Program, Kirby Institute Phillip Keen is the coordinator of the NSW HIV Prevention Partnership Project, which is a 5-year project undertaking monitoring and evaluation of the NSW HIV Strategy 2016-2020. Prior to his current position Phillip coordinated a study of rapid HIV testing, and had a background working at community-based HIV organisations in health promotion and policy roles. Phillip is a doctoral candidate at the Kirby Institute investigating late HIV diagnoses and barriers to HIV testing among gay and bisexual men. |
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Associate Professor, HIV Epidemiology and Prevention Program, Kirby Institute Garrett Prestage is an Associate Professor at the Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney, where he has worked since 1992. He has been active in gay community life in Australia since the mid-1970s, pioneered Australia’s behavioural surveillance work and led many of Australia’s major cohort studies among gay and bisexual men, including the Health in Men (HIM) and Following Lives Undergoing Change (Flux) studies. |
Abstract
The rapid implementation of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is changing the sexual practices of Australian gay and bisexual men (GBM), and has impacted on how GBM conceive of sex and risk. PrEP use among GBM is also impacting on general anxiety and HIV anxiety. HIV risk and prevention must be reconsidered within this context of change. This seminar will focus on how PrEP is changing GBM’s HIV risk behaviours, particularly among chemsex networks, and provide insight into how GBM are making sense of PrEP, with reference to the role PrEP can play beyond HIV prevention.
Using data from Australia’s largest online prospective observational study of licit and illicit drug use among GBM, the Flux Study, we explore how PrEP has impacted the lives of GBM, remaining barriers to PrEP access, and the broader benefits of PrEP implementation, including reduced anxiety of HIV infection.