PrEP Awareness in the Context of HIV/AIDS Conspiracy Beliefs Among Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino MSM in Three Urban US Cities

Barriers to the Wider Use of Pre-exposure Prophylaxis in the United States: A Narrative Review

“…These beliefs included ''The CDC cannot be trusted to tell gay communities the truth about PrEP'' and ''When it comes to PrEP, drug companies are lying and taking advantage of us'' [68]. Other studies support high prevalence of HIV conspiracy beliefs among Black MSM in the USA, one of which reported a lower intention to adopt PrEP among those with a conspiracy belief [69,70].…”

“…Education may also instill trust in healthcare providers/systems among individuals at risk. For example, improved accessibility and credibility of HIV prevention messaging in minority subpopulations has been proposed as a strategy to negate the impact of PrEP-related conspiracy beliefs [70]. Social media-based, peer-led interventions could also confer a significant population-level impact on PrEP uptake among young Black and Latinx individuals by addressing issues such as knowledge/awareness, Participants described substantial levels of stigma, including HIV-related stigma and discrimination from family, church, and community [185] cis cisgender, HIV human immunodeficiency virus, MSM men who have sex with men, PrEP pre-exposure prophylaxis, PWID people who inject drugs, TGM transgender men, TGW transgender women a Please see study of current and potential PrEP users in Alabama ' 'Sexual orientation' ' category, also applicable here [76] attitudes, stigma, and treatment access [118]; similar interventions could successfully reach transgender women and MSM.…”

Efficacy, Adherence and Side Effects of PrEP for HIV-1 Prevention

“…Some of them believe that AIDS was developed by the government as a dark plan to wipe out their people. Others believe that their ethnic group have been unfairly used as experimental subjects by pharmaceutical corporations (Olansky et al, 2019). These conspiracy theories may contribute to subpar adherence to PrEP among these groups.…”

Development of a Black Caucus within the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN): Representing the Perspectives of Black Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM)

“…Research has indicated that Black MSM are less likely to engage in HIV clinical trials, as compared to their White counterparts, due to pervasive cultural mistrust of health care providers and the medical-industrial complex or medical research establishment [25,[33][34][35]. Provider bias, past negative experiences with the healthcare system, perceived racist ideologies, and HIV-related conspiracy theories serve as other factors that may impede Black MSM from participating in clinical research studies [12,18,25,28,[36][37][38]. Research has also documented the inadequate incorporation of Black researchers in conducting prevention and clinical studies focused on Black communities [39][40][41].…”

“…Research has also documented the inadequate incorporation of Black researchers in conducting prevention and clinical studies focused on Black communities [39][40][41]. Moreover, for Black MSM who are willing to participate in clinical research studies, barriers to optimal recruitment and retention are common (e.g., inadequate transportation services, insufficient participant incentives, interferences with work commitments, and insufficient capacity to provide culturally-responsive services on the part of study staff can impede recruitment and retention efforts) [37,42,43]. Further, research has indicated that the development of culturally congruent partnerships from the formative phases of the research process often serve as one of the most important factors for the successful recruitment of participants [40].…”