Derbyshire Community Health Services releases bold new sex-positive campaign to promote uptake of HIV prevention drug

Backed and informed by healthcare professionals, Derbyshire Community Health Services’ (DCHS) new campaign, Stay PrEPared, aims to increase awareness and utilisation of HIV prevention drug, PrEP. 

DCHS) has released a new campaign to encourage people in the county to contact their local sexual health team and find out if they’re eligible for PrEP. This sex-positive campaign highlights that safe sex is great sex, and that integrating PrEP into a daily routine can allow for people to enjoy sex without fear of contracting HIV. 

The Stay PrEPared campaign uses an inclusive, friendly tone of voice, which is fun, playful and conversational to help destigmatise the discussion around safe sex, HIV, and the use of PrEP. Stay PrEPared aims to provide information to anyone who is deemed as ‘at risk’ of contracting HIV, which can extend to men who have sex with men (MSM), people who have unprotected sex with multiple partners, sex workers, those with a HIV-positive partner, and other minority groups. 

Vicki Sellors, Senior Sexual Health Adviser at Derbyshire Community Health Services said: “PrEP – or pre-exposure prophylaxis – is a drug which should be taken prior to engaging in sexual activity. PrEP works by setting up fortified walls around healthy cells, preventing HIV from entering into the body and replicating. 

“PrEP has 2 different regimes – the drug can either be taken daily, or on an event-based basis. However, it is important to note that the on-demand regime is only applicable to MSM (men who have sex with men) – all other eligible people should take PrEP daily.” 

This new campaign aims to challenge taboos and misconceptions around PrEP and HIV, such as the idea that MSM are the only group at risk.  

Vicki continued: “PrEP is in fact available to a number of groups, such as those who are with a HIV positive partner, sex workers, and those who engage in sex with multiple partners where condoms are not readily available. We encourage anybody who is unsure about their eligibility for PrEP to reach out to their local sexual health team and book an appointment to discuss their options.”  

PrEP became available on the NHS in the UK in April 2021 as part of the government’s aim to end HIV transmission by 2030 – with a total of £ 39 million in funding being distributed among local authorities to deliver PrEP via local sexual health services. To support the government’s reduced HIV transmission goal, DCHS sought to gain an understanding of public awareness and perceptions of the HIV prevention drug to help inform a marketing campaign which would increase PrEP uptake in Derbyshire. 

Previous research highlighted that current knowledge about PrEP is limited, with many people experiencing feelings of shame or stigma around accessing and taking the drug. Whilst there is a higher awareness of PrEP among certain groups, such as men who have sex with men and those who are over the age of 44, wider understanding of the drug is limited. This is likely to be due to these two groups being the focus of campaign pilots to date. 

Rebecca Spencer, General Manager, Derbyshire Integrated Sexual Health Services said: “HIV can affect anybody, and we want to make people aware that the illness is both treatable, and preventable. When taken as prescribed, PrEP is almost 100% effective at protecting people against HIV* and we hope that by increasing awareness of this fact, more people will reach out to access a free PrEP prescription. 

“Many of those who currently take PrEP have reported feeling less anxiety in relation to contracting HIV, which in turn has allowed for their sexual encounters to feel more intimate. Through highlighting the benefits of taking PrEP and cultivating sex-positive discussions, we hope to tackle the stigma surrounding taking PrEP, having sex with multiple partners or engaging in sexual relations with those who are HIV positive.” 

To learn more about the Stay PrEPared campaign, please visit this link.

* Statistics have been taken from Centres for Disease Control and Prevention – to find out more, click here.