Background and Importance Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection aims to prevent HIV transmission in people at risk of acquiring the infection, consisting of daily tenofovir disoproxil fumarate with emtricitabine (TDF/FTC).

Aim and Objectives The aim of the study is to describe PrEP coverage and patients’ baseline characteristics taking PrEP.

Material and Methods Retrospective, descriptive study. Patients that started with PrEP from October 2020 to April 2022 were included. Patients who took PrEP less than 6 months were excluded. Demographic variables (age and sex), indication criteria, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) (before and during), creatinine values, seroconversion to HIV and withdrawal reasons were collected. For the statistical analysis, the mean, standard deviation (SD) and t-student test were used.

Results 52 patients received PrEP during the study period. 10 patients were excluded. Of the patients included (n=42), 97.4% (n=41) were men with a mean age ± SD of 35.8 ± 8.4 years.

The indications for treatment were: 97.6% had more than 10 different sexual partners in the last year; 90.2% had anal sex without a condom in the last year; 29.3% had drug use related to having sex without a condom in the last year; 14.6% had received post-exposure prophylaxis on several occasions in the last year and 36.6% had at least one bacterial STI in the last year.

66.7% (n=28) of the patients had one or more previous STIs. The most frequent STI was Treponema pallidum (n=21) followed by Neisseria gonorrhoeae (n=12). While patients were taking PrEP, 40.5% (n=17) of them presented STIs: 19.0% (n=8) had chlamydia trachomatis; 14.3% (n=6) had Neisseria gonorrhoeae and 9.5% (n=4) had Mycoplasma genitalium. Baseline mean ± SD creatinine was 0.86 ± 0.11 mg/dl and at the end of the study was 0.90 ± 0.11 mg/dl (p=0.024). 26.8% (n=11) of the patients discontinued PrEP (n=5 due to stable couple; n=2 by their own decision; n=2 due to lack of follow-up; n=1 due to change of centre and n= 1 due to proteinuria). There was no seroconversion to HIV in any patients.

Conclusion and Relevance The majority of PrEP patients are young men with risky sexual practices. During the use of PrEP, STIs were frequent. There was no seroconversion to HIV during the study period.

Conflict of Interest No conflict of interest