On April 10th and 11th, Fiotec took representatives to Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) for a monitoring visit, related to project ImPrEP. The study aims to implement pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in public health units throughout the whole world.

On the first day, the professionals were welcomed by the ministry of Health of Peru (MINSA) in the Max Arias Schreiber Health Center, a public health unit which offers the medication. Renan Capossi, project analyst, said that the visit was extremely important to meet the outcomes of the project in the Peruvian public health  in loco .

Still on April 10th, the team participated in a visit to the Central Campus of a partner university, guided by the main researcher of the study, Carlos Cáceres and Juan Carlos, head of the UPCH Projects Workshop. Thus, it was possible to observe the advances achieved throughout the years up close.

The second day had a meeting with the financial management team for a technical, financial and administrative overview for the execution of last year’s budget, discussing the main challenges found and the expectations for 2024. According to also project analyst Thaiany Medeiros, so far it was noticed that the project execution in 2023 was compatible with the expectations.

The incorporation of PrEP in the public health system in Peru was boosted by the success of the project in the country. According to researcher Kelika Konda, without ImPrEP, this advance would have taken much longer, as the project is responsible for opening precedents for the dissemination in other places in the country.

Now Peru has 156 health units offering PrEP in national level, from which over 1,500 people were accessing the prophylaxis. A few challenges were identified and are in process of being solved. In spite of that, the partnership between Fiotec and UPCH is successful in the Foundation’s good practices.