HIV symposium showcases PA students' work in creating public health awareness campaigns
Fear, apprehension, and stigma are all still part of the HIV conversation, but PA
Amanda Brosnan, an assistant professor in UNT Health Fort Worth's Texas College of
Osteopathic Medicine’s Physician Assistant Studies program, is leading the way in
challenging those narratives. For the third straight year, Brosnan organized an HIV
Symposium where first-year PA students had to integrate the National HIV Curriculum
and create public health awareness campaigns centered on key topics that pertain to
ending the HIV epidemic.
The symposium was also an opportunity to prepare future health care providers to treat
patients with HIV with greater empathy and understanding.
“There is still a significant lack of knowledge about HIV and how it is transmitted,”
Brosnan said. “We now have medicines that are so good that they can bring the viral
load down so low that individuals can’t transmit the virus anymore. The stigma is
still there, but when you talk about the facts, HIV is just a chronic disease now,
like diabetes, because the treatments have come so far. That’s a lightbulb moment
for people still considering HIV to be a death sentence.”
The entire class was divided into 10 groups and challenged to make the national HIV
curriculum engaging by creating videos, websites, and infographics for their campaigns.
Each group presented its work at the symposium, and the project created by Nasreen
Baclay, Kait Devargas, Shayma Ellahi, Grace Kim, Savannah Long, Alyfiya Shaikh, and
Kimberly Smartt received the highest score from a panel of HIV experts.
Their campaign was “HIV PrEP for Women,” which the team saw as a patient population
that was lacking awareness and education, especially among pregnant women. Currently,
there is only one drug available that can be taken during pregnancy.
“We wanted a more unique angle and a population that was being overlooked,” Long said.
“We wanted to shine a light on the fact that there is not enough research being done
on the effects of HIV on women. There could potentially be other medications that
could be taken, but right now, the research isn’t there.”
In the United States, the National Institutes of Health has an annual HIV research
budget of approximately $3.3 billion, with an overwhelming majority of the federal
HIV research budget, typically 80% or more, shifted toward adult care, general population
prevention and cure research. The NIH does not fund maternal and pediatric research
as a competitor to adult care; instead, it segments funding across distinct clinical
networks, creating the disparity because adults bear the primary epidemiological burden.
The one treatment that is available for pregnant women right now is Truvada, which
is safe before, during and after pregnancy. But that’s it, nothing else is currently
available.
“It’s sad that there is only one drug out there, and that’s why we need more research,”
Shaikh said. “We want to make more people aware that this is safe to take during pregnancy
as well. Pregnant women at risk of HIV have limited treatment options, and medical
providers need to know what options are available to them.”
The team put together a comprehensive website that features facts about how effective
PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis in Pregnancy) is at blocking HIV before it starts,
the cost of the medication under most insurance plans, and even a mock video of a
patient encounter with a student playing the role of a provider and explaining the
facts about the treatment.
The website also featured general guidelines for PrEP for women trying to conceive,
while pregnant, and for the postpartum period. The team also uncovered that women
are an underserved PrEP population, with those at risk for HIV and would benefit from
PrEP, only 12% of women were prescribed it compared to 34% of men.
Something else the students want amplified is that this isn’t the 1980s anymore. The
symposium emphasized how HIV is no longer a death sentence, but now, because of the
advances in medicine, it should be looked at no differently than diabetes, hypertension,
or any other chronic illness.
“We had people living with HIV and learning their story about how they have been on
antiretroviral therapy for 20-30 years, and their quality of life was really impressive
to me,” Shaikh said. “This is something that is manageable, and our medicine has developed
so much from the 80s and 90s that HIV is something you can have, but still live with
and have a quality life.”
The stigma remains prevalent despite the advances made. At the epidemic’s height in
the 1980s and 90s, there were approximately 150,000 new cases per year in the United
States, with mortality rates peaking in 2004. In 2022, there were only 31,800 new
cases of HIV in the U.S., and because of the antiretroviral therapies now available,
HIV-related deaths have declined by over 70% since the peak in 2004. Despite the progress,
the students know that HIV is still a problem.
“If you look at the statistics, you will see where we are still falling short and
how few women are prescribed PrEP,” Brosnan said.
“This is something that has been hammered into us by PA Brosnan, that just because
HIV isn’t in the news anymore, it’s not a problem,” Long said. “But it’s still a prevalent
issue, especially in Texas. I found it fascinating to learn about how prevalent it
really is and all of the things that could be done to make those numbers go down.
It’s almost like the stigma isn’t as much of an issue, but we as providers need to
know how to manage HIV patients.”
The symposium featured an HIV expert from the JPS Healing Wings/HIV Aids Center, along
with community members who shared their stories about living with HIV. All of the
presentations by the students showed the progress that’s been made and treatment options
that are out there for living with HIV.
“I’m an optimist, I think it’s exciting times,” Brosnan said. “For example, Yeztugo is a new injection that you can take every six months, and the studies that came from it showed phenomenal results, with near-complete prevention observed in clinical trials. These are the future of HIV treatments, so as long as providers stay up to date with the latest in evidence-based medicine and treatment options, we can help people live long and healthy lives.”