Low knowledge of antiretroviral treatments for the prevention of HIV among precarious immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa living in the greater Paris area: Results from the Makasi project

• Published in: PloS one 2023-06, Vol.18 (6), p.e0287288-e0287288
• Main Authors: Coulibaly, Karna, Gosselin, Anne, Carillon, Severine, Taéron, Corinne, Mbiribindi, Romain, Desgrées Du Loû, Annabel
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Africa, Western; AIDS treatment; Analysis; Anti-Retroviral Agents; Antiretroviral agents; Antiretroviral drugs; Antiviral agents; Biology and Life Sciences; Condoms; Dosage and administration; Drug therapy; Emigrants and Immigrants; Exposure; Female; France; Health aspects; Health insurance; Health risks; HIV; HIV (Viruses); HIV Infections - drug therapy; HIV Infections - epidemiology; HIV Infections - prevention & control; HIV testing; Human immunodeficiency virus; Humans; Immigrants; Insurance coverage; Life Sciences; Living conditions; Male; Medically uninsured persons; Medicine and health sciences; Paris - epidemiology; People and places; Prevention; Prophylaxis; Santé publique et épidémiologie; Sexual behavior; Sexually transmitted diseases; Social aspects; Social networks; Social organization; STD
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0287288

In France, combination prevention tools, particularly antiretroviral treatment for HIV prevention has been available for several years. We described the knowledge of these antiretroviral treatments among immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa, who are particularly affected by HIV, and the factors associated with this knowledge. The data come from the Makasi study, which was conducted between 2019 and 2020 among precarious immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa recruited through a community-based outreach approach in the greater Paris area (n = 601). We described levels of knowledge of HIV treatment effectiveness (HTE), treatment as prevention (TasP), post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), by sex with chi2 test. We investigated factors associated with their knowledge with logistic regressions adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics, living conditions and sexual behaviors (p≤0.2). Respondents were mostly men (76%), from West Africa (61%), in precarious situation: 69% were unemployed, 74% were undocumented and 46% had no health coverage. Among this population, knowledge of HIV preventive treatments was heterogeneous. While HTE was well known (84%); TasP was known by only half of the respondents (46%), and PEP and PrEP were hardly known: 6% and 5%, respectively. Multivariate regressions models showed that these antiretroviral treatments for the prevention of HIV was better known by people with a higher level of education (PEP: aOR = 3.33 [1.09-10.20], p = 0.03; HTE: aOR = 4.33 [1.87-10.04], p