Initiation of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis in adolescents and young adults: Barriers and opportunities.

Background: Adolescents and young adults (AYA) ages 13 to 24 years comprise a quarter of the new HIV diagnoses in the United States. Lack of access to HIV-preventive biomedical tools such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) reduces opportunities to prevent HIV infection in this population. Initiating PrEP in AYA significantly reduces the negative health outcomes of HIV, but many providers are still reluctant to initiate PrEP in their AYA patients based on perceived threats and barriers.

Promoting treatment for hepatitis C in people who inject drugs: A review of the barriers and opportunities.

Background: People who inject drugs (PWIDs) comprise a significant amount of the population who are also positive for hepatitis C virus (HCV) around the world. Even though there is evidence that patients who currently inject drugs do not display altered treatment adherence or medication effectiveness, health care providers are still hesitant to treat this patient population based on perceived threats and barriers.

Objectives: This literature review informs of the perceived barriers associated with PWID in receiving HCV treatment and supports recommendations to address these barriers.