Awareness and Willingness to Use Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Among Men Who Have Sex with Men and Transgender Women in Brazil

Antiretroviral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is recommended to prevent HIV infection among high-risk men who have sex with men (MSM) though not available in Brazil where the HIV epidemic persists unabated in this group. This cross-sectional study describes PrEP awareness and willingness and associated factors among MSM and transvestite/transgender women (trans women) pre-screened for the PrEP Brasil study. Awareness was reported by 61.3 % of the participants and was associated with age, education, site, study period and prior HIV testing. Most participants (82.1 %) were willing to use PrEP, which was associated with site, study period, number of male condomless anal sexual partners and anal sex with HIV positive/unknown partners. PrEP information is need among young and less educated individuals. Willingness to use PrEP was high and future studies should be conducted to confirm PrEP acceptability and the characteristics of the population who chose to adopt this intervention.