Are you aware of the recent shigella outbreak?

In case you missed it, we're currently experiencing an extensively-drug-resistant (XDR) shigella outbreak among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men in Aotearoa. Find out more

Prep Information For Gps NZAF

Workforce Development

One of the major barriers to achieving great sexual health among Rainbow and Takatāpui communities is missed opportunities in primary healthcare settings. This works both ways:

  • Members of Rainbow and Takatāpui communities often have reservations about openly discussing their sexual health with clinicians, and;
  • Clinicians often have reservations broaching the subject with their patients.

While much of our mahi involves empowering our communities to have the right conversations with partners, friends and clinicians, we also have a role to play in ensuring that clinicians have the information that they need to best serve their patients that exist within our communities.

On this page, you’ll find everything you need to know to get and stay updated with the right information on how to best respond to the needs of the communities we serve, including online learning modules, links to useful external sources, and a collection of resources that you can download and print for your clinic.

NB: Many of the external resources on this page are being constantly updated as new research emerges. We will update resources when specific updates have been made public.

 

 

Text And Tongues

2024 Shigella outbreak

We're currently experiencing an extensively-drug-resistant (XDR) shigella outbreak among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men in Aotearoa.

Symptoms include bloody diarrhoea, fever, or stomach pain. Antibiotic treatment is often required for severe cases of shigellosis. Drug resistance limits the treatment options available.

Shigella is very infectious and can be spread through faecal-oral contact (i.e. from faeces or unclean fingers of one person to the mouth of another person). This can happen through sexual activity, especially anal sex, rimming, fingering, oral sex etc.

Click below to read more about Shigella, what's changed, and what advice you can provide to our communities. 

Person holding a PrEP pill

DoxyPEP

Doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis (or DoxyPEP) is a new innovation to help prevent syphilis and chlamydia among cisgender men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender and non-binary people assigned male at birth who are having sex with MSM.

Please see the following resources below that can help provide information about DoxyPEP, how to prescribe it, and what the considerations and recommendations are.

You can also find more info here:

Bottle of PrEP pills

Online Learning Modules for Primary Care

We have partnered with Redseed to develop a series of educational modules for GPs, NPs, and other primary healthcare providers that give you the information and knowledge about how to appropriately prescribe PrEP, how to effectively manage STIs, and underlying factors to consider when engaging with MSM (men who have sex with men) clients.

Our modules have been endorsed by The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners and have been approved for up to 1 CME credit per module for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) purposes.

Each module will take around 1 hour to complete.


 

 

Additional resources

 

New Zealand Sexual Health Society - Best Practise Guidelines

This two-page PrEP tool provides key information for primary care providers: PrEP eligibility, access options, recommended assessment, patient education and monitoring requirements.

This two-page PEP tool also provides key information for primary care providers. 

The full New Zealand PrEP guidelines provide comprehensive information to primary care providers for prescribing PrEP.

You can also download our resource about taking PrEP 2-1-1 (also known as event-driven or on-demand) which can be given to patients.

Our PrEP booklet for patients has information on accessing and taking PrEP. 

 

BPAC's HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP): A How-to Guide

This resource by bpac.org.nz provides a complete overview of prescribing PrEP in New Zealand - published in May 2024, this is one of the most recent guides for clinicians.

You can find the online version of this resource here.

ASHM HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Clinical Guidelines

The Australasian Society for HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Sexual Health Medicine‘s (ASHM) PrEP Guidelines were updated in 2019. They are designed to support the prescribing of PrEP, and to assist clinicians in their evaluation and HIV risk assessment of patients, as well of their monitoring of patients on PrEP. They were initially adapted from the 2014 US Centers for Disease Control‘s PrEP guidelines. Download the guidelines here.

Online Podcasts and Videos

PHARMAC HIV Update

This seminar covers epidemiology of HIV in NZ; screening, diagnosis, and treatment of STIs among the general population and men who have sex with men (MSM); prescribing PrEP in primary care; broader health issues among MSM; and how to have conversations with your patients about sexual health. View the videos here.

Goodfellow Unit Podcast on PrEP and Sexual Health Issues in Gay and Bisexual Men

Dr Massimo Giola talks about sexual health issues in gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men. Massimo is a sexual health and general infectious disease physician for the Bay of Plenty DHB. He holds a PHD in HIV drugs pharmacokinetics and has served on the board of trustees for Burnett Foundation Aotearoa. Listen to the podcast here.

PrEP and PEP training webinar 

  • The difference between PrEP and PEP
  • Identifying patients who would benefit from PrEP
  • Special authority criteria
  • Medical eligibility
  • Conducting clinical and laboratory assessments during follow up visits
  • Assisting patients to cease PrEP safely.
  • Filmed June 2024

Watch the webinar

 

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