Awareness & Low Uptake of Post Exposure Prophylaxis for HIV among Clinical Medical Students in a High Endemicity Setting - Cameroon

Adequate knowledge and practices on post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for HIV among health care providers are crucial for HIV prevention. However there is limited data on PEP knowledge and practice from developing countries where the burden of HIV infection continues to increase. We assessed the knowledge of clinical medical students on PEP, their practices in response to occupational exposure to HIV, as well as the determinants of good knowledge on PEP.

A cross-sectional study was conducted in November 2014 involving 154 consecutively recruited clinical medical students (4 ^th -6 ^th year undergraduates). Data were acquired using a structured questionnaire. Knowledge on PEP was assessed using a questionnaire comprising 25 questions and categorized as: good (20 or more correct answers), moderate (13–19 correct answers) and poor (12 or fewer correct answers).

For the 154 students included (57.8 % being male), the mean age was 23.2 ± 2.4 years, and 89 % had heard about PEP for HIV. The majority of students had moderate (61.7 %) and poor (32.5 %) knowledge on PEP. Overall knowledge score increased with increasing level of studies (p < 0.05). Only 10 (6.5 %) had had previous training on PEP, most of whom were senior level students (p = 0.01). Fifty-four students (35.1 %) knew the appropriate duration of PEP and this awareness increased with level of studies (p = 0.001). Of the 81 (52.6 %) who reported occupational exposure to HIV in the past, only 4 (4.9 %) received PEP.

Overall, knowledge on PEP among clinical medical students in this setting was non-optimal with very low uptake PEP. Intensification of HIV curricula to involve PEP as well as continuous medical education programs and workshops are potential avenues to improve awareness in this vulnerable population.

Below:  Circumstances of exposure to HIV among clinical medical students at the University of Buea, Cameroon, 2014

Full article at: http://goo.gl/qJbxst

By: Leopold Ndemnge Aminde^12*, Noah F. Takah¹³, Jean Jacques N. Noubiap⁴⁵, Maxime Tindong⁶, Calypse Ngwasiri⁶, Ahmadou M. Jingi⁷, Andre Pascal Kengne¹¹⁰⁸ and Anastase Dzudie¹¹⁰⁶⁹

¹Clinical Research Education, Networking & Consultancy, Douala B.P. 3480, Cameroon

²Internal Medicine Unit & HIV Treatment Centre, District Hospital Nanga-Eboko, Nanga-Eboko, Cameroon

³Global Health Systems Solutions, Limbe, Cameroon

⁴Department of Medicine, Groote Schuur Hospital and University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

⁵Medical Diagnostic Center, Yaounde, Cameroon

⁶Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea, Buea, Cameroon

⁷Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaounde I, Yaounde, Cameroon

⁸Non-Communicable Disease Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa

⁹Department of Medicine, General Hospital Douala, Douala, Cameroon

¹⁰Department of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

   

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