CATALYZING THE ADOPTION OF PrEP AMONG KEY POPULATIONS

In Côte d'Ivoire, the HIV epidemic remains a major public health challenge, with nearly 406,961 people living with HIV in 2024-the majority of whom are women-and more than 8,000 new infections still being reported, keeping the country far from its reduction targets by 2030. This epidemic is heavily concentrated among key populations-sex workers, men who have sex with men, and transgender people-who bear a disproportionate burden of the infection. It is against this backdrop that the HIV FREE CI project-supported by the CDC/PEPFAR and implemented by the NGO ESPACE CONFIANCE in several districts of Abidjan-has made it its mission to scale up prevention efforts, particularly through PrEP. However, despite generally satisfactory results, the low PrEP uptake rate-which has stagnated at around 25%-revealed a structural barrier requiring an innovative approach.Adopting an action-research approach, the project first conducted an in-depth exploration of the factors driving this low uptake of PrEP through focus groups involving beneficiaries who had refused or discontinued treatment.