Business Wire - Thursday October 15, 1998
The new campaign highlights the availability of the Post-Exposure Prevention (PEP) Project in two provocative ads. Targeted at gay men and gay men of color who may have been exposed to HIV infection either through high-risk sexual activity or by sharing a contaminated needle, the campaign focuses on these two population groups because of their high rates of HIV infection. The ads will appear in both English and Spanish throughout San Francisco during the next three months.
The one-year-old PEP Project -- operated jointly by the UCSF AIDS Research Institute (ARI) and the City of San Francisco Department of Public Health (DPH) -- is an effort to prevent HIV infection by offering free, comprehensive treatment to people exposed to HIV.
The treatment, which must begin within 72 hours of the possible exposure to the virus, includes intensive drug intervention and counseling over a 28-day period. The PEP Project is organized as a research study to look at the effectiveness of this type of early intervention in high-risk communities.
Since it began in October 1997, the PEP Project has enrolled 215 subjects, and the goal is to enroll a total of 500 persons over the next three years. Initial findings have shown very few serious instances of toxicity from the medication, which consists of antiretroviral drug treatment. To date, no one participating in the project has become infected with HIV.
Many public health departments, including San Francisco's, offer HIV prevention treatment for survivors of sexual assault or for medical workers who experience accidental needlesticks. Through the PEP Project, however, San Francisco is the only public health department in the country to make anti-HIV medication and risk-reduction counseling available free of charge to all people exposed to the AIDS virus.
This ad will appear for the next month on the interior and exterior of MUNI buses, on billboards, on bus shelters, and in newspaper ads. Over the next three months, a second ad will be placed in bars, dance clubs, and sex clubs that cater to gay men and gay men of color.
Participants in the PEP Project must be at least 14 years old. For information about how to enroll, call 415/514-4PEP or 415/502-5PEP.
Contact: UCSF/SFGHMC News Office Corinna Kaarlela, 415/476-3804 or SFDPH Public Information Office Eileen Shields, 415/554-2507
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