Exploring the barriers to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis for men who have sex with men and transgender women in Harare metropolitan province, Zimbabwe

Abstract

Zimbabwe has made great strides in lowering overall HIV incidence and prevalence rates. However, regardless of the type of epidemic or the local context, some defined groups referred to as key populations are at an increased risk of HIV acquisition because of various economic, social, political, and social factors. Oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is an effective strategy to reduce the risk of HIV transmission in high-risk individuals. The effectiveness of oral pre-exposure prophylaxis is highly dependent on user adherence and there has been a struggle to optimise this with key populations in low- and middle-income settingslike Zimbabwe.