HIV Prevention Project

HIV stop

Preventing HIV with a proactive approach

HIV continues to be a major global public health issue and the need for its prevention cannot be emphasized enough.

SumVikas Trust is contributing in this field by introducing the latest concept, which is approved and promoted by the World Health Organisation (WHO). To this end, we have designed an HIV prevention project in collaboration with our technical partner Ask Techsoft Care Pvt. Ltd. operating under registered trademark DrSafeHands (DSH). DrSafeHands is a digital health platform for sexual and reproductive health and mental health.

This project is financially supported by a grant from NATCO PHARMA.

OBJECTIVE

This project aims to provide access to pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV to the eligible individuals. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is the use of medications to prevent the spread of disease in people who have not yet been exposed to a disease-causing virus (but are susceptible to such exposure).

To achieve this objective, we intend to open and operate PrEP clinics at suitable locations across India along with online services. The clinics will provide consultation, counselling as well as dispense medicines.

OPERATIONAL DETAILS

SumVikas Trust along with DSH has established and runs PrEP clinics for offline and online access. Three clinics are operational now – in Bengaluru (since June 2021), Mumbai (since September 2021) and Delhi (since June 2022)

At the clinics we provide consultation by a trained Medical Practitioner and counselling by psychologists/trained counsellors/ HIV peer counsellors/ healthcare professionals on OPD basis. The OPD services are provided by qualified healthcare professionals, as per the standard healthcare practices and norms.

The clinics provide consultation and counselling services and dispense medicines. These services are provided at subsidized rates for ensuring sustenance of the project and without the aim of generating any profits.

We make efforts to reach to maximum number of beneficiaries by generating awareness for HIV prevention and popularizing the PrEP services. This is done primarily through social media platforms.

PrEP clinic

OUTCOMES

Through our multi-pronged strategy,

1) We have generated awareness regarding HIV prevention and benefits of PrEP to approximately 6 lakh eligible persons/ persons at risk through our online campaigns and telemedicine as well as offline clinics in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Delhi.

2) We have counselled and assessed the need for preventive treatment for 12,000 people in 10 months since the beginning of the project.

3) Total of 450 people have been started on preventive treatment for HIV and the medicine was provided at a 65% discount on MRP.

WHERE THERE'S A WILL, THERE'S A WAY