The latest from our sexual health Magnet clinic

Early in the year, we’re catching up with the clinical lead at Magnet, who fills us in on the goings-on at our busy sexual health clinic at Strut. Is Doxy PEP fulfilling its promise to reduce syphilis and chlamydia in San Francisco? And what’s going on in the world of injectable PrEP? 

Jorge Roman, RN, MSN, FNP-BC, AAHIVS, gives us insight. 

When you think about the year ahead, what’s something new that the community should know about?

Jorge: The first thing that comes to mind is our new pharmacy, which recently opened on the first floor of Strut. This is a value-add for clients–and expansion of the experience that people have when they come in and seek services at SFAF. The clinical team is able to work in close collaboration with our pharmacy team to make sure that people have a seamless experience when it comes to their medications. We hope all of our clients use the pharmacy! 

The second thing I’ll mention is the expansion of our injectable PrEP program. We want to promote the idea of injectables as a new option for people when it comes to PrEP. It is exciting to know that there are new options for HIV prevention. And although lenacapavir (Yeztugo) is getting a lot more publicity and attention at the moment, there are many people who are interested in starting cabotegravir (Apretude) for PrEP. It’s all about offering people choices. 

When I started here at SFAF, we didn’t have many options for PrEP. Descovy was brand new. And we were still studying PrEP 2-1-1. Now here we are with different PrEP options, and new ones working their way through clinical trials–like a PrEP pill that is only taken once per month. In the world of HIV prevention, it’s all very exciting. 

For a client who hasn’t been to the clinic in awhile, is there anything you’d like to highlight about services that have changed?

We’ve been doing a lot of work recently on our processes to improve the way the clinic functions. So not necessarily changing the services we provide, but how we provide them. 

We’ve focused on client satisfaction feedback. To address things like wait times and clinic capacity. We recently opened up our ability to do online scheduling, which has been hugely successful. 

Overall, we’ve done a lot of work to improve the experience for everyone visiting our clinic. 

We have a really strong team in general right now. Collectively, there’s good energy. I think that comes across in the services that people receive from us–at least I hope our clients feel the good vibes externally as much as we feel it internally. 

Magnet was at the forefront of offering Doxy PEP for the prevention of STIs. What impact is it making?

We have started many people on Doxy PEP for STI prevention in the last three years–around 3,700 people total. And we collect a lot of data on how people take it, their adherence, and how it affects STI acquisition. 

We have seen a sustained impact from Doxy PEP on chlamydia and syphilis. The rates of these STIs are going down in San Francisco. There is definitely still a lot of gonorrhea out there, which is expected.

There’s a big conference coming up, CROI, and I expect that we’ll hear more about the impact that Doxy PEP is having at that conference. There are researchers around the U.S., and around the world, that are now studying the impact on STI rates, in addition to antibiotic resistance and the microbiome. 

Are there any programs or services at Magnet that people may not know much about, but that you want people to be aware of?

I am always interested in sharing more information about hepatitis C. This is something that many people never think about. We do routine hep C testing through our PrEP program, and we see about one person per month who tests positive and we start treatment for.

The good news is that hepatitis C treatment is much easier than it used to be. The medications are so well tolerated compared to what they were in the past–you can be cured in 8 weeks. 

We’re not only offering testing and treatment through Magnet, but also through our 6th Street Center (which provides services and care for people who use substances). This isn’t new work, but we now have a nurse full-time operating at 6th Street to provide specialized low-barrier care for clients coming to that location. We provide hepatitis C care in addition to wound care, substance use treatment, testing, and PrEP.

All great info! Anything else we should know?

Everyone is welcome at Magnet! Come and see us. You can now book appointments online. sfaf.org/magnet