“Our mission is to generate scientific knowledge, but our core value and direction mean that this knowledge will be expressed as well-being and public policies that ensure the population’s access to prophylaxis.” With these words, Nísia Trindade Lima, president of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ), celebrated the launch of the project for implementation of HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (ImPreP) in Latin America last Wednesday, July 12, at the Rare Works Library in the FIOCRUZ Moorish Castle. The initiative aims to offer antiretroviral drugs to some 7,500 persons uninfected with HIV in order to reduce the risk of acquiring the disease by sexual contact, especially among men who have sex with men, transsexual women, and transvestites.

Nísia Trindade Lima was joined by Valdiléa Veloso, director of the Evandro Chagas National Institute of Infectious Diseases (INI/FIOCRUZ); Adele Benzaken, head of the Ministry of Health’s Department of Surveillance, Prevention, and Control of STIs, HIV, and Viral Hepatitides; Heather Ingold, representative of  Unitaid, the institution financing the project; PAHO representative Giovanni Ravasi; Carlos F. Cáceres, director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Sexuality, AIDS, and Society (CIISSS) of Peru; and Edgardo Ramírez, researcher from the Condesa Specialized Clinic of Mexico.

Adele Benzaken of the Brazilian Ministry of Health highlighted the successful partnership that made implementation of PreP possible. “To make prophylaxis possible, we needed strong institutions in the countries, like FIOCRUZ in Brazil and those involved in the study in Peru and México.” ImPrep, with a three-year timeframe, is financed by Unitaid and supported by FIOTEC. The project is part of a consortium involving the three countries with the support of the respective Ministries of Health. Here in Brazil the initiative is coordinated by INI/FIOCRUZ.

Valdiléa Veloso spoke next about how the proposal was created from the beginning through collaboration. The researcher, who coordinates the project, defended the initiative’s role as part of the mission of FIOCRUZ, to guarantee access by more vulnerable populations to quality services in public health, thereby contributing to a reduction in inequalities. “Our basic premise is that science in not endowed on society by researchers. Rather, researchers and society build the scientific research and knowledge together,” she stated.

Recognition of protagonist role

FIOTEC, which is responsible for the project’s financial and administrative management, was represented by Special Projects manager Mabel Melo, accompanied by Flávia Estill and Leila Spelta, project advisor and analyst, respectively. The institution plays an even more important role in this initiative, since the financial contract of approximately R$80 million (22 million Euros) was signed directly between Unitaid and FIOTEC.

The work by FIOTEC was acknowledged and praised by all the representatives speaking at the head table. Representing the Ministry of Health, Adele Benzaken stated that the “the work by FIOTEC, as in numerous other cases, allowed the successful implementation of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis in the Unified Health System (SUS).”

*With information from the INI/FIOCRUZ portal.