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Nina

Hey Regan, Your blog definitely encourages me to keep going on my thesis, which is on post-exposure prophylaxis for people recovering from sexual assault, or persons in serodiscordant relationships (because hey condoms can break or slip), or people who might be exposed to community needlesticks (sanitation workers), etc. (i.e. the non-health care worker exposures) In particular, I have been interested in assessing health care professionals' knowledge - because hey while PEP is available in places like NYC, this assumes that whoever does the intake knows about PEP's existence and purpose! I'm glad to see someone else note all the shortcomings regarding provision of this very important intervention. I had a friend that I went through the PEP experience with last year, and so while my thesis advisors counsel me not to do my study because it's too much work... I can't shake the feelings I had of driving in upstate NY with my friend, calling ERs to see who had PEP, and getting nonresponse on the other end of the call. Even when we got into care, we were greeted with "I'll give you the pills if it will make you feel better." or "You had 36 hours to get here." It's an experience I'll never forget.

October 26, 2008