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Source: Corinna Kaarlela
415-476-2557
13 October 1998
POST-EXPOSURE PROGRAM UNVEILS INNOVATIVE ADS; NEW MESSAGES TARGET GAY MEN
An innovative advertising campaign designed to inform gay men about a successful HIV prevention program that counsels and treats people immediately after possible exposure to the AIDS virus was launched today in San Francisco. 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, according to Thomas Coates, PhD, director of the UCSF ARI and principal investigator of the PEP Project. 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. "This program involves testing, counseling, education and treatment for optimum reduction of the risk of any single exposure to HIV, and it focuses directly on increasing long-term safe activity, " said James O. Kahn, MD, medical director of the PEP Project and associate professor of medicine in the UCSF AIDS Program at San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center. "We are very pleased with the preliminary results we have seen so far with the PEP Project," Coates said. "With this outreach program, we are hoping to broaden our communication within population groups that are at high-risk for being exposed to HIV and to inform all San Franciscans, regardless of their financial means, that there is access to this important treatment." 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. One of the new ads shows two gay men, one African American and the other Latino, in bed. The headline reads: We Know What to Do. The text reads: "We try to have safe sex, but we've had accidents. We didn't panic. There's a free treatment that might prevent HIV infection, but you've only got 72 hours to start. We called right away." "We wanted to deliver a message that is empowering to gay men," Coates said. "We wanted to inform them that there is something they can do right away if they feel they've been exposed to HIV infection." 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. Designed to attract the attention of high-risk audiences, the text was the first choice of focus groups who reviewed several possible messages. It uses the headline "Oh Sh--!" next to a picture of a broken condom. The new advertising campaign was developed by Polaris Inc. in San Francisco. "We remain very optimistic about the PEP Project, especially as an opportunity to link treatment and counseling among high-risk populations," said Mitchell Katz, MD, San Francisco DPH director. 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. The PEP Project is supported by a grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Diagnostic testing is being donated by Chiron, Inc., and medications are being provided free of charge by Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Glaxo Wellcome.
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