PrEP monitoring and HIV incidence after PrEP initiation in France: 2016–18 nationwide cohort study

International audienceAbstract Background Clinical trials have demonstrated that oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has high efficacy in preventing HIV transmission. In many countries, HIV testing is recommended prior to PrEP initiation, 1 month after and quarterly thereafter. We assessed the uptake of HIV testing and estimated the incidence of HIV infections after oral PrEP initiation, by using the French national health database (SNDS). Methods A historic cohort study included every adult person who started oral PrEP between 1 January 2016 and 30 June 2018 in France. HIV infection was tracked in the follow-up, from first PrEP dispensation up to 31 December 2018. Factors associated with adherence to HIV testing in PrEP follow-up were analysed using a generalized linear mixed model. Results PrEP users (9893) were followed for a median duration of 551 days (IQR 350–769). The first HIV test, 1 month after PrEP initiation, was performed by 64% of users. For subsequent tests, this rate exceeded 81% and remained stable over time. HIV testing was lower among PrEP users without prescription refill (OR 0.15; 99% CI 0.12–0.20), but higher if the last prescription was made by a hospital practitioner (OR 2.03; 99% CI 1.69–2.45). Twenty-nine HIV infections were identified, leading to an incidence of 0.19 cases per 100 person-years (99% CI 0.12–0.30). Conclusions We confirmed good adherence to HIV testing and efficacy of PrEP in users, which should help in decreasing HIV incidence in France. This study also revealed that SNDS could be a powerful automated tool for the epidemiological monitoring of PrEP users