GP take home messages from Day 2

Day 2 of the conference was informative, fun and interactive. Opportunities to use smartphone technology to interact using live polls added to the experience. Here are my key GP take home messages from day 2.

1. Hepatitis C is curable and can be eradicated! At present only 1% of people with Hepatitis C are offered treatment. There is an urgent need for more community prescribers. The new DAA should be PBS listed by the end of this year. These drugs offer 8 week treatment times, are well tolerated, and have minimal drug interactions. Regimens will be interferon free. These drugs are highly effective (over 90-95% cure rates, even in advanced cirrhotics and HIV/Hep C coinfected populations).

GPs will play a major role in the eradication of Hep C. Treatment needs to be accessible and affordable globally.

2. Integrase inhibitors should now be first line agents of choice for ARV naive patients. They have outperformed EFV, DRV, ATV and just about everything else. They are well tolerated, suppress viral load rapidly, have few drug interactions and have a good metabolic profile. They are also increasingly available in 'one pill daily' regimens.

3. We need to include the transgender community in our sexual health campaigns and research (see my blog "PASH" 17/9/15)

4. We should be open to HIV self testing, in the US HIV self testing kits were well received by patients, and available by voucher, post, sex on premises venues, and even from vending machines in car parks! Patients who tested positive did link in with care, and these tests offered a convenient, out of hours testing opportunity, potentially reducing barriers to HIV testing.

Looking forward to day 3!