World AIDS Day (WAD) is an annual occurrence that offers its participants the opportunity to appreciate the progress within HIV care delivery and to reflect upon lives impacted and loss at the hands of HIV and AIDS. In acknowledgment of WAD, South University School of Pharmacy (SUSOP) collaborated with Union Mission and the Georgia Department of Public Health in Savannah, GA, to raise awareness about HIV prevention strategies and to assist people in learning their HIV statuses.
Through this partnership, SUSOP arranged for its students to participate in learning about an HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) Risk Assessment tool and to become familiar with a process of facilitating home-based HIV testing to interested participants. South students also viewed a pictorial chronology of HIV advancements throughout the years created by Union Mission’s staff.
This involvement afforded South’s pharmacy students a chance to understand the evolving HIV landscape and to have a glimpse into the future at HIV prevention therapies that will be further discussed in subsequent didactic quarters. Experiences such as this one will hopefully invigorate the students to endeavor for greater contributions to community outreach events after transitioning to pharmacists and throughout their personal and professional pursuits.
For more information on South University’s Pharmacy Program, click here for the details.
