Under the Multi-country Global Fund (GF) Grant Project for the Caribbean, three (3) additional countries, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize and Guyana, have advanced with the implementation of Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP).  Technical support for the advancement of these countries to implement this high impact prevention service was provided by the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and PANCAP.  Barbados, a recipient under the grant, has provided support to the three (3) countries by transferring knowledge and experience over the years.  Approximately seven (7) countries in the Caribbean are currently implementing PrEP as opposed to two (Barbados and Bahamas) in 2019, all at different levels of implementation.

Under the current Global Fund project, with the technical guidance and support of PAHO, a comprehensive PrEP guidance package was developed to support countries in initiating PrEP services.  The purpose of the package is to facilitate the standardization of the services, data collection, and monitoring across the Region.  In addition, the package includes generic clinical guidelines (based on recommendations from World Health Organisation – WHO guidelines) for PrEP and nPeP for key populations, clinical intake forms, social media products, brochures, PrEP registration, monitoring and training tools.

To further strengthen PrEP implementation in the Region and with the technical support of PAHO, PANCAP is collaborating with Callen-Lorde, a Global leader in Key Population health care in the United States.  The partnership will support in-country capacity building to generate demand for PrEP and skills critical to providing quality PrEP services to key populations.

Due to the pandemic, onsite, in-person capacity building in New York was not possible.  However, the collaboration will move forward with country visits by experts from Callen -Lorde to strengthen the national services based on the specific needs and concerns of the Member States mentioned above.

In May, a virtual planning session was held with the team from Callen-Lorde, PAHO, PANCAP and national teams from the individual countries to determine the level of implementation and technical expertise critical to strengthening PrEP services.

Mr Collin Kirton, Officer-in-Charge, PANCAP, lauded the collaboration, “This initiative with Callen-Lorde is building on ongoing work which commenced with the support of PAHO in 2018.  Callen-Lorde brings many years of programme implementation and clinical experience to this initiative and our Region.  I am pleased that Callen-Lorde will support your technical assistance needs and urge you to clearly define these so that the technical assistance is intentional, targeted and will be most useful in advancing PrEP programmes in our Region”.