Professor Jason Ong

Professor Jason Ong AIPS 2024 VIC Young Tall Poppy

Book as a Speaker

Australia can be the first country in the world to eliminate HIV transmission. This is possible because of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a tablet that prevents HIV infection. However, one major roadblock is unequal access to PrEP. Specifically, whilst new HIV infections are dropping among Australian-born men who have sex with men (MSM), there are groups left behind, e.g., overseas-born MSM who have poorer access to PrEP and hence higher rates of HIV compared to Australian-born.
 
Prof Ong’s research focuses on evidence-based decision-making, particularly to ensure the community voice is central to the HIV response. Since 2019, his research has found: 1) international migrants, globally, have a higher HIV risk compared to native-born (systematic review); 2) overseas-born MSM in Australia rank PrEP as their preferred method of HIV prevention (discrete choice experiment); 3) but they face additional cultural and healthcare system barriers to access HIV prevention services (qualitative interviews); 4) currently, there are limited interventions (particularly those co-created by the community) are available that target overseas born GBM (scoping review); 5) new innovative ways to co-creation of solutions for improving PrEP is possible; and 6) potentially effecting (Two randomised controlled trials to evaluate the effectiveness of co-created solutions from the community).
2024
Medicine, HIV, Treatment Accessibility, Informed Policy