The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has launched a new online course titled Combined HIV Prevention with Emphasis on Oral and Long-Acting Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), hosted on the PAHO Virtual Campus for Public Health. The course is designed to strengthen the technical capacities of health personnel engaged in HIV response across the Americas, providing evidence-based guidance for effective prevention strategies.
The course is free, self-paced, and open to all participants, with no enrollment limits or deadlines. It requires creating an account on the platform and takes approximately 11 hours to complete. Upon finishing the modules, exercises, and passing the final exam, participants receive a PAHO certificate reflecting the training hours completed.
The program targets a wide range of health workers, including physicians, nurses, community outreach workers, students, and national HIV program teams, particularly those serving populations at higher risk of infection. It covers the foundations of combined HIV prevention, with detailed guidance on both oral and long-acting injectable PrEP, such as lenacapavir administered every six months, to improve adherence and expand prevention options.
Dr. Hortencia Peralta, PAHO Regional Advisor on HIV and STI Prevention, highlighted that PrEP is a highly effective tool for reducing new HIV infections and essential for advancing toward the elimination of HIV/AIDS as a public health problem. The course translates the latest scientific evidence into practical tools for health and community teams, covering early diagnosis, timely linkage to antiretroviral treatment, and prevention of advanced HIV disease.
In the Americas, HIV remains a serious public health challenge, with 38,000 AIDS-related deaths annually and approximately 4.2 million people living with HIV in 2024. PAHO projects that expanding the combined use of oral and long-acting PrEP could reduce new infections by over 70% in the next four years, and, when combined with broader antiretroviral treatment, potentially cut new infections by more than 90% by 2030.
The course addresses persistent gaps in timely diagnosis and rapid treatment linkage, which contribute to advanced HIV disease and related mortality. It is structured into nine thematic modules plus a final wrap-up module, integrating technical content, audiovisual materials, practical case studies, and self-assessment exercises.
Participants will gain skills in understanding combination prevention approaches, expanding testing, identifying PrEP or PEP candidates, safely administering and monitoring oral and injectable PrEP, tracking programmatic indicators, and promoting early diagnosis and prevention of advanced HIV disease. This training aligns with PAHO’s Disease Elimination Initiative, which targets HIV/AIDS among more than 30 communicable diseases and related conditions for elimination by 2030.
